Researchers from anti-virus firm Dr.Web have discovered new malware designed to infect point-of-sale (PoS) terminals and capable of intercepting GET and POST requests sent from Web browsers on infected machines.
Dubbed Trojan.MWZLesson, the Trojan can modify the registry branch in charge with autorun on the infected PoS terminals, while also being able to check the device’s RAM for credit card information, the security firm said.
All of the acquired bankcard data along with intercepted communication, including GET and POST requests, is sent to the command and control server. However, the malware is also capable of executing a series of commands, which makes it even more dangerous.
Dr.Web explains in a blog post that the commands supported by the Trojan include CMD (forward the command to the interpreter – cmd.exe), UPDATE, FIND (search for documents using a mask), DDoS (mount an HTTP Flood attack), and rate (set a time interval for communication with the command and control server).
Additionally, Trojan.MWZLesson supports a LOADER command, which allows it to download and run a file (dll—using the regsrv tool, vbs—using the wscript tool, exe—run directly), and communicates with the server over the HTTP protocol. Packages sent by the malware are not encrypted, but the server ignores any package that does not include a special cookie parameter.
According to Dr.Web researchers, the Trojan borrows code from previously discovered Dexter malware that targets PoS terminals, while its architecture looks similar to that of Neutrino, though it is rather a downsized version of the latter.
The Trojan can also steal data from the Microsoft Mail application, as well as FTP login credentials, the experts said.
POS terminals are often targeted by cybercriminals. Over the past year, many different malware types have been found targeting Point-of-Sale systems, including PoSeidon, Spark, Poslogr, and POSCLOUD, to name a few. MalumPOS, is another recently discovered PoS threat found targeting Oracle Micros PoS Systems, while NitlovePOS malware was discovered by FireEye spreading through an email spam campaign.
Other PoS malware familes include vSkimmer, Dexter, Backoff, LusyPOS and Dump Memory Grabber.
In its annual Global Threat Intel Report, security firm CrowdStrike noted that criminals have been increasingly turning to ready-to-use PoS malware kits in the cyber-underground. According to Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence at CrowdStrike, the price of these kits varied depending on their complexity, with some going for tens of dollars and others costing in the hundreds or thousands.