Fileless malware is incredibly hard to spot because unlike traditional malware, it does not necessitate the installation of any code on the victim's system. As a result, removing it will be a challenging task. It's common knowledge that antivirus programs can't keep modern enterprises safe from malicious software. The threats we face today have shocked the limits of what can be seen or identified by signatures, let alone stopped.
Recent high-profile Fileless Malware Attacks; Here are some widespread instances:
- In September 2017, a data breach at Equifax had exposed the private information of 143 million Americans. Data of more than 50% of all homes in the USA were breached.
- According to Virsec Systems' CTO Satya Gupta, who talked with CSO, the issue at hand was a fileless Malware that "used a command injection vulnerability in Apache Struts."
- Before the presidential elections; 2016, two threat actors broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) network. The threat actors were eventually identified as having ties to Russian intelligence. One of them uses several different tools and goes by many other names.
Techniques Commonly Used By Fileless Malware
To start a fileless malware attack, an attacker still needs access to the environment so they can modify the native tools to their liking.
Multiple methods exist for gaining entry and launching assaults, including exploit kits, hijacked native tools, malware that resides in the registry, malware that only resides in memory, fileless ransomware, and stolen credentials.
Exploit Kits
The term "exploit kit" refers to a collection of exploits, which can be files, scripts, or directories. Given that exploits can be injected into memory without first being copied to a disc, they provide a convenient means of launching fileless malware attacks.
These can be used by adversaries to perform first compromises automatically and at scale.
Registry Resident Malware
Malware that hides in the Windows registry is known as "registry resident malware," and it can remain undetected for an extended period of time.
Malicious files are typically dropped into Windows computers using a dropper application. Instead, the dropper application drops the malicious code in the Windows registry.
In addition to being able to be set to run automatically whenever the operating system boots up, the malicious code is also impossible to find because it is buried in native files that are immune to antivirus scanners.
Memory-Only Malware
Malware that lives just in memory does not have a persistent storage location. The Duqu worm is a piece of Malware that may hide in memory and go unnoticed.
Companies in the telecom industry and at least one major security software maker have fallen victim to hackers using Duqu 2.0.
Fileless Ransomware
In modern ransomware attacks, attackers forgo traditional file storage in favor of fileless malware methods, which might include either writing malicious code straight into memory via an exploit or embedding it within documents using a native scripting language like a macro.
After that, it uses native tools like PowerShell to encrypt the hostage files without ever writing to the disc.
Stolen Credentials
If an attacker obtains valid-looking credentials, they can impersonate that user and get access to the system without leaving any trace. Once a hacker gains access, they can launch attacks using built-in features like Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and PowerShell.
Hackers have a variety of methods at their disposal for establishing long-term persistence, whether it's via inserting malicious code into the system's registry or by making accounts that give them full administrative privileges on any computer they choose.
Methods Based On Scripts
Although script-based tactics aren't always undetectable, this doesn't mean they're fileless malware. SamSam malware and operation Cobalt Kitty are two good examples.
Recognition And Detection Of Fileless Malware
An efficient defense and detection strategy must combine time-tested methods of prevention with cutting-edge surveillance techniques.
Preventing malware from entering systems is the best defense against such attacks. Fileless malware, like many other forms of malware, makes use of unpatched flaws in software, hardware, and even operating systems.
It is crucial to install all available software patches and updates to limit the number of vulnerabilities that attackers might exploit as soon as they become available. Fileless attackers also employ phishing and social engineering to drop their payloads. In light of this, it is crucial to provide your staff with cybersecurity awareness training.
Security training that emphasis the importance of using caution when opening email attachments and encouraging users to stick to trusted websites can go a long way toward protecting against fileless malware. As an example of these measures, you can instruct your staff to use only trusted online resources.
But in a world where threats constantly evolve, complete immunity to attacks is impossible. The best technique to find fileless malware is to look for anomalies, as a signature-, rule-, and scan-based detection are all ineffective against it.
Instead of looking for malicious files, the behavioral analysis looks for anomalous patterns of behavior that could be dangerous. Fileless malware may have infiltrated a system if users suddenly log in at strange times or access databases they never used to.
Damage from Fileless attacks may be avoided or at least mitigated with the help of an endpoint protection platform that employs machine learning-driven behavioural analytics to determine what constitutes normal behaviour for users and applications in real-time and flags suspicious activity for further investigation.
How Guard Toro Can Prevent Fileless Attacks In Your Organization
As we have seen, it is extremely challenging to find fileless malware solutions if you rely on signature-based protection methods, sandboxing protection methods, whitelisting protection methods, or even machine learning protection methods.
GuardToro employs a proprietary blend of methods to deliver a holistic and effective strategy for providing unparalleled endpoint security. This is done so that we can be safe from attacks that don't leave any kind of trace. Using the GuardToro platform offers layered, cloud-native endpoint security.
For example, an application inventory can help you find all the programs that are actively running in your infrastructure, which can then be used to find security holes and fix or update them so that they can't be used by exploit kits.
By blocking exploits that make use of unpatched vulnerabilities, you can stop file-less assaults from happening.
Before an attack can fully carry out its objectives and cause harm, it can be detected and stopped using indicators of attack (IOAs). The emergence of ransomware strains that do not rely on file encryption to carry out their harmful objectives is another target of this protection measure.
Script Control provides better oversight and protection from script-based, fileless threats.
For example, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), ransomware, and dual-use programs like Cobalt Strike can all launch malware-free and fileless malware in memory, but you'll be protected with Advanced Memory Scanning.
Managed hunting, which performs proactive searches around the clock, actively hunts for malicious behaviors that are formed as a result of fileless approaches 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
When It Comes To GuardToro
Global in scope, GuardToro is an industry leader in protecting users' personal data and digital identities online. GuardToro is always innovating new security solutions and services to secure consumers, organizations, critical infrastructure, and governments throughout the world against sophisticated threats.
We provide comprehensive security services, including state-of-the-art firmware protection and a wide range of specialized security solutions and services to counter increasingly sophisticated and pervasive cyber threats. To learn more, check out guardtoro.com
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