Shamoon Disk Wiping Malware Destructive attack via an Image of a Burning US Dollar

A disk wiping Shamoon malware performing destructive attack sample using an image of a burning US Dollar.

This malware was uploaded in virus total from France on December 23, 2018, and it signed with a digital certificate from Baidu.

Previous Attack destructive malware dubbed Shamoon V3 targeting European oil and gas company in the Middle East and Asia.

Shamoon destructive wiper using an image that burning American flag and the drowned Syrian refugee and child as part of targeted attacks.

It using powerful obfuscation technique utilizes the commercial packing tool Enigma version 4 .

“As observed in previous Shamoon samples the internal file name invokes a known PC tool, likely as a lure to allay initial user suspicion.”

Shamoon Malware Distribution

In order to Shamoon malware look like an legitimate software, its distributed with the malicious file name as “Baidu PC Faster” and uses the description “Baidu WiFi Hotspot Setup” .

Detailed research reveals that its contain some similarities with
Shamoon V2 malware especially a resource called “GRANT” which is an indication of the malware complied based on the codebase that used by the second version.

Also, some of the other discovered sample timestamps show that it was created, 2011.

According to Anomali Labs, they are not confirmed that this sample has been used to target victims in the wild. However, historic Shamoon 2 attacks occurred in November 2016 and late January 2017. The possibility for targeted attacks occurring during western holidays exists.

This possibility is highlighted by the use of US currency in the political image that accompanies the destructive malware.