ScatterBrain: Unmasking the Shadow of PoisonPlug's Obfuscator
Summary:
POISONPLUG.SHADOW, also known as Shadowpad, is a highly sophisticated malware that leverages a custom obfuscating compiler to evade detection and analysis. Its complex obfuscation techniques make it particularly challenging for security researchers to identify and mitigate. To address these challenges, GTIG, in collaboration with the FLARE team, conducted an in-depth investigation using reverse engineering and advanced threat intelligence techniques to analyze and counteract the evolving tactics of this threat actor.
A key component of PoisonPlug.Shadow’s stealth is the ScatterBrain obfuscator, a compiler designed to disrupt modern binary analysis frameworks and render traditional detection tools ineffective. ScatterBrain employs multiple protection techniques, including control flow graph obfuscation, which restructures the program’s execution flow to hinder analysis; instruction mutation, which alters instructions without changing functionality to obscure detection; and import protection, which encrypts and conceals API and DLL calls to make dependency analysis difficult.
Security Officer Comments:
ScatterBrain operates in three distinct protection modes: Selective, which obfuscates only specific functions while leaving the rest of the binary untouched; Complete, which applies obfuscation to the entire code section and all imports; and Complete Headerless, the most advanced mode, which removes the PE header and introduces additional encryption and data protections to further complicate analysis.
Suggested Corrections:
IOCs:
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topic...scatterbrain-unmasking-poisonplug-obfuscator/
To counter this threat, GTIG developed a stand-alone deobfuscation library independent of existing binary analysis frameworks. This library enables a systematic approach to recovering and analyzing ScatterBrain-protected binaries. The process involved several critical steps: CFG recovery, which focused on removing instruction dispatchers that scatter execution flow and reconstructing function boundaries; import recovery, which decrypted DLL and API names and restored the original import tables; and binary rewriting, which generated fully functional deobfuscated binaries while ensuring all code relocations and memory references were corrected.
Applying the deobfuscation library to real-world PoisonPlug.Shadow samples successfully restored original control flow, recovered all API calls, and produced fully operational binaries for further analysis
Link(s):
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topic...scatterbrain-unmasking-poisonplug-obfuscator/
POISONPLUG.SHADOW, also known as Shadowpad, is a highly sophisticated malware that leverages a custom obfuscating compiler to evade detection and analysis. Its complex obfuscation techniques make it particularly challenging for security researchers to identify and mitigate. To address these challenges, GTIG, in collaboration with the FLARE team, conducted an in-depth investigation using reverse engineering and advanced threat intelligence techniques to analyze and counteract the evolving tactics of this threat actor.
A key component of PoisonPlug.Shadow’s stealth is the ScatterBrain obfuscator, a compiler designed to disrupt modern binary analysis frameworks and render traditional detection tools ineffective. ScatterBrain employs multiple protection techniques, including control flow graph obfuscation, which restructures the program’s execution flow to hinder analysis; instruction mutation, which alters instructions without changing functionality to obscure detection; and import protection, which encrypts and conceals API and DLL calls to make dependency analysis difficult.
Security Officer Comments:
ScatterBrain operates in three distinct protection modes: Selective, which obfuscates only specific functions while leaving the rest of the binary untouched; Complete, which applies obfuscation to the entire code section and all imports; and Complete Headerless, the most advanced mode, which removes the PE header and introduces additional encryption and data protections to further complicate analysis.
Suggested Corrections:
IOCs:
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topic...scatterbrain-unmasking-poisonplug-obfuscator/
To counter this threat, GTIG developed a stand-alone deobfuscation library independent of existing binary analysis frameworks. This library enables a systematic approach to recovering and analyzing ScatterBrain-protected binaries. The process involved several critical steps: CFG recovery, which focused on removing instruction dispatchers that scatter execution flow and reconstructing function boundaries; import recovery, which decrypted DLL and API names and restored the original import tables; and binary rewriting, which generated fully functional deobfuscated binaries while ensuring all code relocations and memory references were corrected.
Applying the deobfuscation library to real-world PoisonPlug.Shadow samples successfully restored original control flow, recovered all API calls, and produced fully operational binaries for further analysis
Link(s):
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topic...scatterbrain-unmasking-poisonplug-obfuscator/