Sednit

Posted: October 29, 2014

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:	8/10
Infected PCs:	23

First Seen:	October 29, 2014
Last Seen:	March 26, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Sednit (also IDed as Sofacy) is a group of backdoor Trojans that include spyware-related features for stealing confidential information from an infected PC. Sednit sees new development and distribution campaigns on an ongoing basis, with many of the latest exploiting hacked websites maintained by various European governments. Web-browsing security features and products are critical to blocking these kinds of attacks, and malware experts urge any individual with a potentially compromised machine to run anti-malware scans to remove Sednit immediately.

The Trojan Pawns Worth Worrying About

For the past seven years, Sednit has undergone updates to both its code and to its distribution tactics, with the bulk of the latter focused on compromising specific targets, rather than the general public. This sequence of threatening campaigns, which some institutions are referring to as 'Operation Pawn Storm,' uses both websites and e-mail messages to distribute Sednit to additional PCs. In the case of the latter, such as with the BKDR_SEDNIT.SM variant, the seeded e-mail messages were disguised as news documents for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Malware experts also can verify that multiple, legitimate sites have been compromised and forced to redirect to a Sednit dropper. The last known Sednit website campaign hacked Polish domains, although websites of other nationalities also are targets. Although such a distribution method easily could be employed against the public at large, Sednit's admins appear to focus on specific individuals in relevant institutions. Vulnerable organizations include military branches, the news media, defense contractors and various organizations opposing the Russian government.

After infiltrating the targets of its choosing, Sednit may be capable of the following attacks, amongst others:

Keylogging attacks may record any typed information, thereafter transferring it to a remote C&C server.
Sednit may install additional threats automatically.
A backdoor connection allows Sednit's administrators to issue commands to your PC for other attacks, such as disabling important security features.

Beating Sednit's Layers of Redundancy

Although lazier criminals often opt for a single distribution method, Sednit's administrators have histories of using multiple, redundant distribution methods for single attacks. In the event of a single exploit, or a Trojan failing to install Sednit, others may pick up the slack, providing Sednit with maximum coverage for any intended targets. In addition, since Sednit aims its attacks at specific PCs, its campaigns can go unnoticed for significant periods of time by website administrators or other, inadvertent parties to Sednit's distribution.

Malware researchers find no reason to recommend any defenses against Sednit other than possessing good browser security protocols, up-to-date software and general anti-malware protection. Removing Sednit and, for that matter, any similar backdoor Trojan, always should be done with appropriate anti-malware products whenever they're accessible. Further actions may need to be taken to re-secure any confidential information leaked by Sednit in the meantime.

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:

%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%\system\splm.dll

File name: splm.dll
Size: 265.21 KB (265216 bytes)
MD5: ee64d3273f9b4d80020c24edcbbf961e
Detection count: 40
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%\system\splm.dll
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 26, 2020

file.exe

File name: file.exe
Size: 147.96 KB (147968 bytes)
MD5: df895e6479abf85c4c65d7d3a2451ddb
Detection count: 33
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: November 3, 2014

C:\ProgramData\sdbn.dll

File name: sdbn.dll
Size: 301.05 KB (301056 bytes)
MD5: 374896a75493a406eb427f35eec86fe5
Detection count: 32
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: C:\ProgramData
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 25, 2018

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

Regexp file mask%LOCALAPPDATA%\CtlOptimization.exe%LOCALAPPDATA%\NetIds.dll

BKDR_SEDNIT.SM