Cyber risk and advisory programs that identify security gaps and build strategies to address them.
MDR that provides improved detection, 24/7 threat hunting, end-to-end coverage and most of all, complete Response.
Our team delivers the fastest response time in the industry. Threat suppression within just 4 hours of being engaged.
Visibility and response across your entire Microsoft security ecosystem.
XDR with Machine Learning that eliminates noise, enables real-time detection and response, and automatically blocks threats.
Be protected by the best from Day 1.
24/7 Threat Investigation and Response.
Expert threat hunting, original research, and proactive threat intelligence.
TRU is foundational to our MDR service. No add-ons or additional costs required.
Stop ransomware attacks before they disrupt your business.
Detect and respond to zero-day exploits.
Protect against third-party and supply chain risk.
Adopt a risk-based approach to cybersecurity.
Protect your most sensitive data.
Meet cybersecurity regulatory compliance mandates.
Eliminate misconfigurations and policy violations.
Prevent business disruption by outsourcing MDR.
Meet insurability requirements with MDR.
Defend brute force attacks, active intrusions and unauthorized scans.
Safeguard endpoints 24/7 by isolating and mediating threats to prevent lateral spread.
Enhance investigation and threat detection across multi-cloud or hybrid environments.
Remediate critical misconfigurations, security vulnerabilities and policy violations across cloud and containerized environments.
Detect malicious insider and identity-based behavior leveraging machine learning models.
Our Threat Response Unit (TRU) publishes security advisories, blogs, reports, industry publications and webinars based on its original research and the insights driven through proactive threat hunts.
eSentire is The Authority in Managed Detection and Response Services, protecting the critical data and applications of 2000+ organizations in 80+ countries from known and unknown cyber threats. Founded in 2001, the company's mission is to hunt, investigate and stop cyber threats before they become business disrupting events.
We provide sophisticated cybersecurity solutions for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and Value-Added Resellers (VARs). Find out why you should partner with eSentire, the Authority in Managed Detection and Response, today.
We believe a multi-signal approach is paramount to protecting your complete attack surface. See why eSentire MDR means multi-signal telemetry and complete response.
See how our 24/7 SOC Cyber Analysts and Elite Threat Hunters stop even the most advanced cyberattacks before they disrupt your business.
Choose the right mix of Managed Detection and Response, Exposure Management, and Incident Response services to strengthen your cyber resilience.
Try our interactive tools including the MITRE ATT&CK Tool, the SOC Pricing Calculator, the Cybersecurity Maturity Assessment, and our MDR ROI Calculator.
Read the latest security advisories, blogs, reports, industry publications and webinars published by eSentire's Threat Response Unit (TRU).
See why 2000+ organizations count on eSentire to build resilience and prevent business disruption.
eSentire has observed two campaigns (see Figure 1) involving Qakbot (Qbot) malware infections throughout 2022, the first in July and the second over the past 30 days.
Qakbot is an information-stealing malware. Qakbot is commonly delivered using phishing methods, including malicious emails from previously unseen email addresses or as replies to existing email conversations. As previously reported, the most considerable shift in this activity is that HTML smuggling (embedding JavaScript objects into HTML pages to later reconstruct the payload) was the main access, and now it's a URL leading to a malicious zip file.
In observed attacks, threat actors employ the use of mounting disk image formats such as ISO/IMG based-attachments containing .LNK/.VBS payloads. We also commonly see external URLs hosting password-protected ZIP archives to bypass email-based security detections. Regardless, user interaction is required for successful malware execution.
Observations of Qakbot are highly concerning as the malware has been observed, leading to the delivery of multiple ransomware variants. eSentire is sharing details on these attacks, including indicators of compromise (IOCs), to increase awareness of this threat across our customers.
Qakbot malware has been in active use since at least 2008. Initially, the malware was used to steal victim data, but in recent years it has functioned primarily for reconnaissance and ransomware delivery.
In recently observed attacks, threat actors sent emails containing external URLs or ISO attachments to potential victims. Email lures commonly relate to employee compensation. It should be noted that some recent incidents have involved email thread hijacking. This is a technique where threat actors respond to previously compromised email threads with malicious content. As the email was formerly part of a legitimate conversation, it is much less likely to arouse suspicion.
In recent cases, the delivered ISO archive contains a malicious Windows Shortcut (.LNK) file; if interacted with, the .LNK file executes a command to download and execute a Qakbot payload. The shift to an ISO format allows the attackers to bypass the Mark of The Web (MOTW) zone id. The MOTW prevents users from executing downloaded internet content without first being warned.
Successful execution of Qakbot leads to connections to attacker Command-and-Control (C2) servers, downloading additional files to the infected hosts, and performing reconnaissance tasks. eSentire has observed many Qakbot infections with initial access via phishing emails that use external URL hosting .Zip files, or ISO-based attachments. Most notably, one incident rapidly led to the deployment of Cobalt Strike, a red-team tool commonly used before ransomware is deployed.
Our previous assessments, that infections will continue through July 2022 onward, have been realized, and we assess with high confidence that this trend will continue into at least 2023. Moreover, with still a month left in Q4, Qakbot is on course to be the biggest “Qakbot Quarter” in the last three years--- observed by the eSentire Threat Intelligence Team.
It should be noted that on November 10th, 2022, the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity released an alert (AL22-013) about ongoing reports of Qakbot malware incidents targeting Canadian organizations.
Figure 1: Timeline of Qakbot observations
References:
[1] https://cyber.gc.ca/en/alerts-advisories/ongoing-reports-qakbot-malware-incidents
[2] https://www.esentire.com/security-advisories/ongoing-qakbot-campaign