PHP.Brobot

Posted: January 11, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	9/10
Infected PCs:	61

First Seen:	January 11, 2013
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Brobot is a backdoor Trojan that uses any compromised PC to launch DDoS attacks – attacks that flood various websites with artificial traffic in an effort to crash them. Unlike most backdoor Trojans, Brobot hasn't shown any other major capabilities, but its campaign does appear to be receiving ongoing development for enhanced evasion of typical security features, including those that could be used to block its website-crashing attacks. Since Brobot does not display blatant evidence of its presence on the infected PC, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers encourage you to use anti-malware products to detect or remove Brobot in all cases. The latest cyber-terrorist campaign that distributes Brobot is not 'officially' set to launch until May 7th, but at this time Brobot is, nonetheless, being distributed in the wild as part of other campaigns, and currently is engaged in DDoSing American financial websites.

When Politics Comes to Your Hard Drive in a Trojan Package

Currently, Brobot is reported primarily for its upcoming part in OpUSA, an attack campaign supported by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters. Similar operations, such as Operation Ababil, also have used the Brobot's botnet to conduct attacks against United States websites, typically with the aim of making a critical political statement (such as demanding that the 'Innocence of Muslims' movie be removed from Youtube). Brobot, as a specialized backdoor Trojan, is designed to infect unrelated computers and link them to its botnet, through which Brobot can launch Distributed-Denial-of-Service attacks against any websites Brobot pleases. So far, SpywareRemove.com malware experts only have confirmed DDoS attacks against various American financial institutions, such as prominent banks, but the Brobot infection that enables these attacks are a concern for even casual PC users with Internet access.

Even while both anti-malware companies and US banks have been racing to detect Brobot's attacks and minimize its potential for crashing websites, Brobot has, in turn, been continuously upgraded. New scripts in Brobot may allow Brobot to avoid being detected by standard security protocols, and Brobot has been confirmed to spoof such information as the website visitor's access cookie, referrer and user-agent string. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters have used Brobot to target over a dozen separate financial institutions, forcing their sites down for periods of time that add up to hundreds of hours.

Kicking this Bro Out of Your Hard Drive

Although Brobot is (as far as major US banks are concerned) a rather inconvenient and business-impeding PC threat, for a casual PC users, Brobot actually is less dangerous than a common backdoor Trojan. So far, SpywareRemove.com malware analysts haven't seen any evidence of Brobot being capable of performing major attacks besides its DDoS functions, whereas most backdoor Trojans also include functions for stealing private information, disabling security programs or installing other malware.

Nonetheless, a Brobot infection may be installed right along with other kinds of malicious software that are more dangerous than Brobot, by itself, would be. As a result, removing Brobot quickly always is recommended, and SpywareRemove.com malware researchers encourage using updated anti-malware software for this purpose – particularly since Brobot is being updated to avoid being detected with notable regularity.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

70683b631de374240a3bb95582ade6c7

File name: 70683b631de374240a3bb95582ade6c7
Size: 3.25 KB (3250 bytes)
MD5: 70683b631de374240a3bb95582ade6c7
Detection count: 77
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 15, 2013

5d9c51bc05c97d57f79d9365c68e8592

File name: 5d9c51bc05c97d57f79d9365c68e8592
Size: 4.7 KB (4704 bytes)
MD5: 5d9c51bc05c97d57f79d9365c68e8592
Detection count: 75
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 15, 2013

9f6451282111378b4d835f3f28e681df

File name: 9f6451282111378b4d835f3f28e681df
Size: 3.85 KB (3854 bytes)
MD5: 9f6451282111378b4d835f3f28e681df
Detection count: 66
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 15, 2013

run.pl

File name: run.pl
Mime Type: unknown/pl
Group: Malware file

f1.pl

File name: f1.pl
Mime Type: unknown/pl
Group: Malware file

start.php

File name: start.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

srcurl.php

File name: srcurl.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

stcp.php

File name: stcp.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

startphp.php

File name: startphp.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

stpf.php

File name: stpf.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

stmdu.php

File name: stmdu.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

stph.php

File name: stph.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file

stp.php

File name: stp.php
Mime Type: unknown/php
Group: Malware file