Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

August 31, 2017

Monitoring Malware Sinkhole Traffic

Filed under: Cybersecurity,Malware,Security — Patrick Durusau @ 5:01 pm

Consolidated Malware Sinkhole List by Lesley Carhart, Full Spectrum Cyber-Warrior Princess.

From the post:

A common practice of researchers studying a piece of malware is to seize control of its malicious command and control domains, then redirect traffic to them to benign research servers for analysis and victim notification. I always highly recommend monitoring for traffic to these sinkholes – it is frequently indicative of infection.

I’ve found no comprehensive public list of these sinkholes. There have been some previous efforts to compile a list, for instance by reverse engineering Emerging Threats Signatures (mikesxrs – I hope this answers your questions, a little late!). Some sinkholes are documented on the vendors’ sites, while others are clearly labeled in whois data, but undocumented. Still others are only detectable through behavior and hearsay.

Below, I share my personal list of publicly-noted sinkholes only. Please understand that with few exceptions I have not received any of this information from the vendors or organizations mentioned. It is possible there is some misattribution, and addresses in use do change over time. This is merely intended as a helpful aid for threat hunting, and there are no guarantees whatsoever.

An incomplete malware sinkhole list by her own admission but an interesting starting point for data collection/analysis.

When I read Carhart’s:

I always highly recommend monitoring for traffic to these sinkholes – it is frequently indicative of infection.

I had to wonder, at what level will you be monitoring traffic “…to these sinkholes?”

Sysadmins monitor their own networks, but traffic monitoring at higher levels is possible as well.

Above network level traffic monitoring for sinkhole would give a broader picture of possible “infections.”

Upon discovery, a system already infected by one type of malware, may be found to be vulnerable to other malware with a similar attack vector.

It certainly narrows the hunt for vulnerable systems.

If you don’t already, follow Lesley Carhart, @hacks4pancakes, or visit her blog, tisiphone.net.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress