A newly discovered Linux malware dubbed ‘DISGOMOJI’ uses the novel approach of utilizing emojis to execute commands on infected devices in attacks on government agencies in India.
So to get infected, you need to download and unpack a ZIP archive sent to you from an unknown address, then execute the file it contains? In that case, I’m not too worried.
It’s more about C&C, novel ways to get around firewall restrictions. Deploying a payload is the hard part, but having control over a large botnet without raising red flags is an art as well.
OP didn’t bother to write it, so I will. The infection vector is an executable distributed through mail, targeting computers of the Indian government.
According to Volexity, the malware was discovered after the researchers spotted a UPX-packed ELF executable in a ZIP archive, likely distributed through phishing emails. Volexity believes that the malware targets a custom Linux distribution named BOSS that Indian government agencies use as their desktop.
When executed, the malware will download and display a PDF lure that is a beneficiary form from India’s Defence Service Officer Provident Fund in case of an officer’s death.
However, additional payloads will be downloaded in the background, including the DISGOMOJI malware and a shell script named ‘uevent_seqnum.sh’ that is used to search for USB drives and steal data from them.
When DISGOMOJI is launched, the malware will exfiltrate system information from the machine, including IP address, username, hostname, operating system, and the current working directory, which is sent back to the attackers.
To control the malware, the threat actors utilize the open-source command and control project discord-c2, which uses Discord and emojis to communicate with infected devices and execute commands.
The malware will connect to an attacker-controlled Discord server and wait for the threat actors to type emojis into the channel.
Pretty clever to disguise the commands and replays as emojis. I bet it’s going to open yet another cat-and-mouse-game for pattern matching.
What happens if the victim dosen’t have discord installed on the PC? The virus have no way to get orders?
Didn’t sound like it uses the discord client but rather the malware connects directly to a server
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If you actually read it, the emojis are just a silly little C2 frontend, the actual attack vector has nothing to do with Discord
