I Reverse Engineered a Dangerous Virus and Found Something WEIRD (ESXiargs ransomware deep dive)

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.พ. 2023
  • ESXiArgs has been running a rampage on the internet, but we need to figure out what. In this video we'll do a deep dive on the ESXiArgs malware and see if there's anything fishy that we can take advantage of to decrypt the files.
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ความคิดเห็น • 980

  • @LowLevelLearning
    @LowLevelLearning  10 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    Sign up for my NEW weekly newsletter on software development and cybersecurity industry trends! bit.ly/3OaLCVb

    • @NollieFlipX
      @NollieFlipX 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I've never seen a reverse engineer video before. Man this is nuts!! Pretty cool!

    • @turduckengaming1594
      @turduckengaming1594 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thankyou triple L for the big font size!🎉

    • @scarletevans4474
      @scarletevans4474 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Where is the part about the visual binary analysis? I came here from the Short, to see the part about the entropy, but it's not in the video :-(
      Did you added wrong link to the short?

  • @anatolydyatlov963
    @anatolydyatlov963 ปีที่แล้ว +1128

    Maybe they left the debug symbols because they knew that even when you disassemble it, you won't be able to extract any information that could help the victim. I.e. it was a "flex".

    • @meeponinthbit3466
      @meeponinthbit3466 ปีที่แล้ว +493

      That and it makes it clear that if they pay and get the private key that the data is actually recoverable.

    • @kduma
      @kduma ปีที่แล้ว +234

      Or the binaries were simply „borrowed” from something else by script kiddie… ;)

    • @jordixboy
      @jordixboy ปีที่แล้ว +84

      Borrowing code doesn't necessarily mean you are a script kiddie.

    • @suncat530
      @suncat530 ปีที่แล้ว +139

      @@jordixboy the implication here is that they 'borrowed' the code, and didn't bother with removing the debug symbols, or didn't even know how one would do that

    • @malwaretestingfan
      @malwaretestingfan ปีที่แล้ว +106

      I'd rather think it's incompetence, ransomware authors typically "flex" by specially naming mutexes, threatening ransom notes, unobfuscated strings and so on instead of leaving the debug symbols.

  • @particlephysicssolut
    @particlephysicssolut ปีที่แล้ว +1180

    Honestly, the large font size is useful on larger screens as well! Much, much easier to read.

    • @_JohnHammond
      @_JohnHammond ปีที่แล้ว +100

      large font gang rise up

    • @johnjewell219
      @johnjewell219 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      My god i didn’t understand anything you said lol maybe it’s my age 76 😎

    • @Reth_Hard
      @Reth_Hard ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Yes, thank you!
      I was able to watch this video from my neighbor's laptop without needing binoculars!
      😄

    • @Archfile375
      @Archfile375 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I'm a little on the fence. It's dead easy to read, but it reduces the amount of context I get from the surrounding code because of the little that fits on a single screen

    • @BJCMXY
      @BJCMXY ปีที่แล้ว

      Agreed.
      Even if I can read small print, doesn't mean that I want to when it's available in a larger size just as easily.

  • @valshaped
    @valshaped ปีที่แล้ว +325

    Considering the part that causes actual harm is an unobfuscated *bash script,* it's pretty safe to say that leaving symbols in their generic encrypt/decrypt binaries wasn't a consideration.

    • @alphaforce6998
      @alphaforce6998 ปีที่แล้ว

      This kind of malware is effective thanks to women in the workplace. You can rest assured that Karen from HR will click the link to reveal how she can claim the $500 amazon gift card she just won....every...friggin...time.

    • @dingdong2103
      @dingdong2103 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      pretty funny to see it's a regular shell script

    • @douggodsoe
      @douggodsoe ปีที่แล้ว +19

      @@dingdong2103 Is it though? Funny, I mean. Demented and sad, maybe, but is it really funny? Like, two guys walk into a bar, which is weird because you would think that after the first guy walked into it, the second guy would have seen it. That's funny. Hey, want to hear a joke? This guy I don't know had all of his ERP files encrypted by some scammer using a regular shell script! He couldn't afford the ransom, so ended up losing his business! Ha ha ha ha! It was a shell script! Get it? That's not really funny, right? There's a set up, but not much of a pay off.
      I'm really sorry, I've gone off for far too long; I get like that sometimes. If by funny you mean, wow interesting, then yes, it is disturbingly interesting that the whole thing is based around PKI and a trivial shell script. Stupid simple, yet potentially devastating.

    • @dingdong2103
      @dingdong2103 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      @@douggodsoe It's funny because anyone can read the bash script before running it so the chances of this attack being successful is close to none. It's done in an extremely amateur way.

    • @douggodsoe
      @douggodsoe ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@dingdong2103 Oh, definitely, but people don't read, they just click and run. Good Times! Sorry for being a dick earlier. I get like that when I've been drinking, which is often. Still, good video, yeah?

  • @billigerfusel
    @billigerfusel ปีที่แล้ว +522

    Keep the cybersecurity stuff coming 😎

    • @odynnxd
      @odynnxd ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Yes please :)

  • @vbkfivn
    @vbkfivn ปีที่แล้ว +151

    Thank you triple L. Loving the cyber security content! Keep it coming.

  • @wictimovgovonca320
    @wictimovgovonca320 ปีที่แล้ว +100

    They made the binaries easy to use because they wanted you to know that there is no backdoor, you need to get (ie. pay for) the private key.

    • @meatgoat4084
      @meatgoat4084 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Plus not stripping also increases the odds that their genius will be talked about, maybe even on TH-cam.

    • @jfbeam
      @jfbeam 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Anyone qualified to make that determination would not need the debug symbols. (or trust them!)

    • @mqsv
      @mqsv 2 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      Yeah, this is a very straightforward encrypt/decrypt solution using libssl. It's very similar to how TLS streams work at a high level (pub key used to encrypt a symmetric session key.)
      One property of good encryption & decryption algorithms is you should be able to know everything about them and how they work, and not be able to decrypt ciphertext without the secret or private key. In theory at least, for example there are implementation errors, like using a weak random number generator

  • @eric-seastrand
    @eric-seastrand ปีที่แล้ว +187

    Thank you for the big fonts!! I wish the other TH-camrs would do this more: I only consume content from my phone and it’s always hard to read.

    • @tactileslut
      @tactileslut ปีที่แล้ว +5

      On made-for-mobile content the click here endings look silly. Everyone does them. I chuckle.

    • @Randrew
      @Randrew ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I'm approaching old fart status and I enjoy content on a 50 inch 4k TV as my monitor ;) Quite legible with small fonts no matter how many terminals or windows I choose to have open.

    • @chadmasta5
      @chadmasta5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      On mobile you can pinch to zoom in up to 8x.

    • @douggodsoe
      @douggodsoe ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Be honest; small fonts are not the reason you don't read. I get it. Words are hard.
      I'm just teasing you, man. Don't go getting all angry and start beating your kids when they refuse to learn Python because untyped languages are for kitty cats.
      I, too, dig the big readable fonts.

  • @OneEyedMaxi
    @OneEyedMaxi ปีที่แล้ว +133

    Thank you LLL

  • @ttamttam1522
    @ttamttam1522 ปีที่แล้ว +209

    Great video, this has been on my mind though: Why would a ransomware writer want to obfuscate their code? If their main goal was to collect ransom, and the program was cryptographically secure, wouldn't they want to lay out everything they did in an easy to understand way? Beeing able to see exactly how I was pwned would give me at least a little bit more confidence that I would get a key in exchange for money.

    • @slimeistdev
      @slimeistdev ปีที่แล้ว +56

      the point is presumably - they realize they could have bugs, so it makes sense to make it harder to find them

    • @malwaretestingfan
      @malwaretestingfan ปีที่แล้ว +79

      Ransomware authors may do so to evade AV heuristics and prevent other ransomware authors from copying features from their own product.

    • @Randrew
      @Randrew ปีที่แล้ว +28

      These two binaries are vanilla encrypt/decrypt apps with nothing to hide.

    • @douggodsoe
      @douggodsoe ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I don't think these people are that sophisticated to consider such things. It's like asking, why would a rock want to roll down a hill? Don't think too hard on it. The answer will not provide enlightenment.

    • @hb1338
      @hb1338 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@Randrew .. which makes them much less likely to be detected as malware than custom code which has been used in other malware and is known to the anti-malware community.

  • @ChrisBigBad
    @ChrisBigBad ปีที่แล้ว +18

    very nice code! I've seen corporate code that looked worse than this malware. Also: security lives from openness. The symbols were left in, so you could read it. And if you had found a bug, only then they could have improved your malware ^^

  • @MichaelPohoreski
    @MichaelPohoreski ปีที่แล้ว +8

    3:57 *Missing summary:* There are two types of encryption:
    * symmetric, and
    * asymmetric.
    *Symmetric* cryptography uses the *same key* for encryption and decryption.
    *Asymmetric* cryptography has the *key split in half:* a public key and a private key.

  • @MichaelPohoreski
    @MichaelPohoreski ปีที่แล้ว +62

    Great video!
    4:14 Large font is very much appreciated but 64 pt is maybe a tad TOO large. 48 pt or 56 pt might be a better compromise.
    5:32 Also, maybe make your camera be a slightly smaller circle and move it up to the right so it doesn’t obscure the code

  • @qacy
    @qacy ปีที่แล้ว +83

    common lowlevellearning W

  • @philippenachtergal6077
    @philippenachtergal6077 ปีที่แล้ว +28

    I think they can leave the debug on because anyone analyzing the binaires will just learn that he cannot actually decrypt the files without the private key.
    The sooner the victim realizes that he cannot decrypt the files without the private key, the better for the scammer.
    The scammer could truly send the source code that it wouldn't matter.
    As for obtaining the private key form the public key, that is possible in theory.
    However, you won't be able to find the private key in practice unless the key is way too small (which is unlikely) or has been made by a program that is way way too predictable in how it generates its keys (and you know or guess that that program has been used to create the key) . You could wait until quantum computers with as many quantum bits as the public keys are a real thing (and boy that will be a mess when they reach that stage...) but that might be a long wait... As for using modern supercomputers, you are very unlikely to find the private key with them unless it was generated using some weak algorithms.

    • @hb1338
      @hb1338 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      It is never impossible to decrypt a file, but if the expected decrypt time is too long, nobody will bother trying. Most professional cryptographers aim for a typical decryption time to sink to about 10 years before they improve their algorithms.

  • @torbendury4374
    @torbendury4374 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Thank you for the font size! - and also for the great content in general 🙂

  • @salim653
    @salim653 ปีที่แล้ว +32

    I just wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for your incredible TH-cam channel. Your dedication to teaching low-level programming concepts and techniques is truly inspiring,. I would love to hear your personal story about how you learned reverse engineering, and any tips or advice you have for people who are just starting to explore this topic, and thank you.

    • @hb1338
      @hb1338 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      There was a time when the only "easy" way to reverse engineer something was by examining hex code dumps. A very good way to learn reverse engineering is to do forward engineering - if I write this source code, what does it look like after it has been compiled etc

  • @frankrosa9482
    @frankrosa9482 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Thank you LLL!!! Seriously bro, that move is next level! That is how you take care of the peeps consuming your content. This is the first video I have seen of yours but I have subbed and liked this vid. Keep killing it!

  • @dexterman6361
    @dexterman6361 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    It seems like the authors took "security through obscurity isn't security". I mean, having it not obfuscated probably lets the victims know there is no other way than paying up, and prevents wasting everyone's time I guess.
    And it also makes it abundantly clear that the only way out is the private key, and could also be a way to tell "lmao it's so simple, babies could write this encrypt binary, get rekt lol", so maybe a flex there too, I guess? This shows that the actual "malware" isn't advanced, the way they got it in is. And honestly, bringing light to this is the good part. Because let's face it, most OSs these days have good protection. The only "vulnerability" is probably the organization and/or the humans in the gears.

    • @cj.wijtmans
      @cj.wijtmans 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      passwords are obscurity, encryption is obscurity, heck even a firewall is obscurity. Obscurity is big part of security. The way i fixed SSH brute force attempts is obscurity, not obscuring just by port but by ip address as well. You can block port scanning and use port knocking as well but ultimately what stopped it is getting a seperate IP adress for SSH(and not putting that IP address on your DNS records of your web service).

    • @dexterman6361
      @dexterman6361 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@@cj.wijtmansI guess what I was trying to say is that obscurity shouldn't be the only / the most 'powerful' of the protections that are there, You do make valid points, but in my head, it feelsl like the only thing obscurity does is slow someone down. There are pretty good analyzers these days that might get through it. Basically, defeating obscurity is a matter of when, not a matter of if, unlike more established security practices. But yeah obscurity perhaps does have its place, at least at stopping the script-kiddies that just think "haha script go brr"

  • @xfiles4792
    @xfiles4792 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The large fonts are great. This is the first malware video I've ever seen. I'm very glad that you're a white hat guy! Keep up the good work.

  • @jahwni
    @jahwni ปีที่แล้ว

    Yessss!! More security stuff! I'm trying to learn it, but it's tough, lots to learn!

  • @timguss
    @timguss ปีที่แล้ว +3

    They can run just string reversion, for example taking some strings from the end of file and putting it to the start of file, so you cant open it, and mention that it's strongly encrypted. ive got a ransom like that once. Its time saving, when you need to corrupt large amount of data, before ransom to be found

  • @askmiller
    @askmiller 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    This part of the malware is not the valuable part. This is just some basic encrypt / decrypt software that probably took them like half a day to make. Hell I'm surprised they didn't provide a readme / documentation for how it works. After all, their goal is to convince you that you'll get your stuff back if you pay the ransom. The real important part is how they got the files onto your server and ran them. That's the secret part that I'm sure they'd want to protect.

    • @heraldo623
      @heraldo623 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes, good point. It also makes it clear to the victim there is no trick they can do to recover the files.

  • @unixnerd8120
    @unixnerd8120 ปีที่แล้ว

    Nice! I look forward to seeing more security related content on your channel! Thank you for supporting our community! 🧠🏴‍☠

  • @pedallknife
    @pedallknife ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Great content man, nice work!

  • @teekay_1
    @teekay_1 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    They don't care if you have the encryption/decryption algorithm since it doesn't do much good without the private key. It seems unlikely they're "mad at you".
    Still, an interesting video.

  • @b3at1
    @b3at1 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Thank you triple L! Excited for more rev content! Also binary exploitation and other cyber subjects would be cool

  • @smileuprising7809
    @smileuprising7809 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thanks for putting up with the large font, certainly was appreciated. Cheers ~Smile oN

  • @LP-fy8wr
    @LP-fy8wr ปีที่แล้ว

    Very nice work on this. Subbed as well !!

  • @pewdthedark5269
    @pewdthedark5269 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    love this type of content !

  • @nonstandarduser_
    @nonstandarduser_ ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Love your LL system-related content, could you do one regarding how to use the core dump of a segfaulted C executable? I'd love your explanations on that.

    • @xblxckxpxny1005
      @xblxckxpxny1005 ปีที่แล้ว

      wdym "use the core dump"?

    • @MichaelPohoreski
      @MichaelPohoreski ปีที่แล้ว

      @@xblxckxpxny1005 A core dump contains the registers (such as IP), memory, and callstack; this can be used to help determine where add why the program crashed.

  • @jeffho1727
    @jeffho1727 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you LLL. Fascinating stuff, can barely follow it ( last time I "played" with code was Dos. LOL. Yeah, old). But its nice to see a pro work.

  • @wlockuz4467
    @wlockuz4467 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks LLL! Would love more cyber sec content!

  • @viskkisvsp3381
    @viskkisvsp3381 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    As someone who's recently been getting into the low-code/JS space due to work, this was very interesting, as you covered the main functions and described what they do, leading to better understanding! Got a subscribe from me.

  • @virkony
    @virkony ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I think, even stripped binary without debug info would have symbol table. Due to external linkage in C/C++ for main function, you'll see it there as it is required for possibility of late symbol resolution (e.g. substituting original main with something else during run-time).

    • @heraldo623
      @heraldo623 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes, it's also required for dynamic linking if I am not wrong.

  • @AR0ACE
    @AR0ACE ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you for the big fonts, makes it more accessible, I have difficulty reading small fonts!❤

  •  ปีที่แล้ว +47

    Was the "encrypt" command really malware though? It looks like a useful cli tool for legitimate purposes, and maybe it's open source software that they pulled off someone's github - in which case they wouldn't care if someone gets into the source code.

    • @davidlloyd1526
      @davidlloyd1526 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Probably was malware, given that they opened OpenSSL and dynamically loaded symbols. You usually wouldn't do that...

    • @rafaelrafaelrafael
      @rafaelrafaelrafael ปีที่แล้ว +4

      True, but if it's open source, maybe that's the only thing they actually changed.

    • @pragmax
      @pragmax ปีที่แล้ว +14

      You're mostly right. Like David mentions in this thread, the design is a tad aggressive about finding an openssl lib to load. Everyone else would stick to a major and/or minor openssl version and fail hard in other cases since incompatibilities open up support problems. But other than that, it's a very robust (would run on most any linux) pair of encrypt/decrypt openssl wrappers.

    • @user-gm4og2cu1r
      @user-gm4og2cu1r ปีที่แล้ว

      Forgetting to remove debugging symbols is just inefficient. No reason not to remove them in your final executable.

    • @soniablanche5672
      @soniablanche5672 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      if you think about it, ransomwares are just script that encrypt your files. The action of encrypting things isn't malicious because you might want to do it yourself for privacy.

  • @lincolnwallace17
    @lincolnwallace17 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    LLL Is the best! Thank you! Just a question, the name of disassembler software that you use is "Ghidra" ?

  • @RoboArc
    @RoboArc 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    As a cell phone user i love that you made the font larger 🙃 i appreciate your thoughtfulness

  • @Kristopher342
    @Kristopher342 ปีที่แล้ว

    I haven’t a clue what you just did or either do I understand what you said, but I still appreciate your knowledge, and respect the fact you’re always trying, and most instances succeeding, to be one better than the people who cause so much misery to so many people. Thank you 🙏

    • @eclatshwartzbaumcybertune2063
      @eclatshwartzbaumcybertune2063 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I feel the same 😂

    • @austin2994
      @austin2994 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Cool to see the walk through. How the script gets the argument ls to run the encrypt command. So we know what it ran. Even have how to use the decrypt binary. Still doesn’t save the day or what the decrypt rsa token would be.

  • @DreadFogFrance
    @DreadFogFrance ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Hey, cybersec engineer student here poking around with reverse engineering. Love the quality of the content!
    I'd love to try and apply my knowledge on some malware reversing. Is there any (softly) obfuscated malware that you would recommend to play with?

  • @thatguy7085
    @thatguy7085 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    They bought the code. They didn’t write it themselves and must pay a fee to the script writer.
    The signatures are to ID the program and who must be paid.

  • @user-ft4ee8gt7p
    @user-ft4ee8gt7p 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thank you triple L. Loving the cyber security content! Keep it coming.. Keep the cybersecurity stuff coming .

  • @danikahicks2210
    @danikahicks2210 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hay. Thank you for increasing the font size. I appreciate it.
    ~♡

  • @dascandy
    @dascandy ปีที่แล้ว +6

    They use rsa_encrypt directly on a blank symmetric key? Did you check the public key for having a low exponent e? If it's 3 or 7 you might just be able to take the 3rd or 7th root of the value to get the symmetric key out.

  • @rafaelrafaelrafael
    @rafaelrafaelrafael ปีที่แล้ว +13

    If they give you the private key, wouldn't that mean that you could just share it and everyone else will be able to decrypt their files? Also, I think the thing I was most curious about was how they encrypt the file in place. The cryptography stuff seems like they are just using standard stuff, seems unlikely they would mess up there.
    BTW, wouldn't they want for people to be able to inspect the code at some extent? If you are confident that the code will actually recover your files you're more likely to pay than if you suspect the files may just been overwritten entirely and are now impossible to recover. Leaving debug info may be intentional. There's nothing to hide there anyway, they are doing exactly what you'd expect and the only solution is paying them.

    • @I3i11W
      @I3i11W ปีที่แล้ว +9

      They would encrypt with a different public key per victim, so the corresponding private key wouldn't be helpful to anyone else

    • @DennisGentry
      @DennisGentry ปีที่แล้ว

      @@I3i11W So this is spear phished? It's not clear from this info where the RSA keypair comes from.

    • @aymanhawari2589
      @aymanhawari2589 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Sha-256 salted is what they use to do

  • @tedjohnson64
    @tedjohnson64 ปีที่แล้ว

    Nice analysis! Liked the large font too.

  • @nightwintertooth9502
    @nightwintertooth9502 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks LLL for the mobile code display. I just subscribed because I have low vision and it helps out a lot when creators go to that lengrh for us.

  • @alphaforce6998
    @alphaforce6998 ปีที่แล้ว +23

    Conclusion: Nothing weird or unexpected.
    On a side-note, if more linux programs were made this way, where they scan for the libs they need and then check each lib to ensure it has what they need, they'd save people a lot of headache with the perpetual fail of libs and their dependencies, and the various versions of them, which often make it difficult to produce an executable that "just works" regardless of the distro.

    • @Mirality
      @Mirality ปีที่แล้ว +3

      The reason that apps usually don't do this is that there can be other changes not captured by the symbol name alone that would cause crashes or other misbehavior if it loaded the "wrong" version. So most apps, especially open source apps that will just be recompiled with exactly the right version, just expect a single known version to avoid potential incompatibilities.

    • @alphaforce6998
      @alphaforce6998 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Mirality While what you say is true, how is that worse than the program not working at all because of some subversion increment on a lib?
      Linux is by nature a collection of individual programs that do stuff, so while larger apps may not work using this approach, single-executable programs would probably work best. For example, megacli (for viewing details about LSI Logic raid controllers and making changes as needed).

    • @Mirality
      @Mirality ปีที่แล้ว

      Because "other misbehavior" is not limited to crashing. It could include formatting your drive or sending your credit cards to scammers. While this particular case is malware anyway so those things are on the table even without misbehavior, leaving those kinds of holes can be openings for malware to trick regular programs into doing it, or if you're really unlucky, it happening by accident.
      Provided that library authors follow the rules, that particular version number is only incremented for "serious incompatible change", which does require programs to at least recompile, if not also change their code. There are different version numbers for more backwards-compatible changes which do allow upgrading a library without recompiling.

    • @alphaforce6998
      @alphaforce6998 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Mirality You could make a malicious program that follows the "rules". I don't really see that as a valid counterpoint. There are also plenty of programs that do things the "right way" and still end up with memory leaks and vulnerabilities. Perhaps linux has been somewhat resilient to malware due to the poor to non-existent compatibility among distros but it is also a hindrance. From the programmers' perspectives you either compile for all distros you want to support or release source and let them do it...but maybe you just want to distribute a 'universally compatible' executable. There is nothing wrong with that, and rules are really just suggestions.

    • @alphaforce6998
      @alphaforce6998 ปีที่แล้ว

      @LunacyStudy That's the theory, but you miss the point that the linker will only link what is on the particular distro you are building on. You can't compile an exe on fedora that depends on certain libs of certain versions, then expect it to run without issue on gentoo or even older versions of centos. Loading what you need at runtime works, and there really is no good argument against it, especially if you are dealing with basic stuff like openssl.

  • @ExpertOfNil
    @ExpertOfNil ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Good stuff. Still eagerly awaiting part 2 of the baby monitor pen testing too 😉

  • @rrl4245
    @rrl4245 ปีที่แล้ว

    Great VLOG. Nicely done. I missed what they did with the private key. Stored it somewhere, or transmitted it back to themselves.? Thanks (I used to work at RSA on their cryptography architecture team.) I wound up in data security consulting.

  • @markscheutzow3446
    @markscheutzow3446 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you L. L. L.
    The visible size text was quite helpful.

  • @Bobbias
    @Bobbias ปีที่แล้ว +21

    As someone who often watches on his phone, I appreciate the effort, but you don't need the font THAT big. If you're watching a programming video in portrait mode on your phone you're doing something wrong.
    Also, "with debug_info, not stripped" LOL. I'm no infosec/reverse engineering guy, but seeing that in malware is hilarious.

    • @elvingearmasterirma7241
      @elvingearmasterirma7241 ปีที่แล้ว

      The bigger font is helpful for computer users and people who struggle to see. Not everyone can afford glasses sadly

    • @joachimfrank4134
      @joachimfrank4134 ปีที่แล้ว

      It's not the malware, it's the payload. The malware is the program that loads and executes theese programs.

  • @primeix
    @primeix ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Thank your triple L

  • @ljsmooth69
    @ljsmooth69 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    You know what people I commented on a lot of videos about not being able to read them and stuff. This is the first content creators that I ran into that's actually blown it up for the people that have to use the phones that are too poor for the internet. So just content creator on the sign up for that thank you for considering us is part of your viewing group.

  • @twilmer34
    @twilmer34 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for the big font - nice video, strange that though debug symbols show the variables with strange names...

  • @cherubin7th
    @cherubin7th ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Why should they strip their code? If it is secure, then this information is useless anyway?

    • @bcnelson
      @bcnelson ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Exactly, in fact it might make the victims more likely to payout because they can see that your binary uses openssl and therefore is unlikely to have cryptographic vulnerabilities.

    • @EiboThieme
      @EiboThieme ปีที่แล้ว

      Moreover, by keeping everything they show they understood the math. Obfuscation is only ever done to hide ineffective security algorithms or by those who do not understand at all. Hiding proprietary encryption would always amount to hiding probably ineffective algorithms, so even those cases are ruled out. If you understand science your only real option is to take a stance and show everything, they should even provide a donload link for the source code.

  • @Vespyro
    @Vespyro ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Thank you LLL, as a mobile consumer it’s appreciated

  • @juancarranza6967
    @juancarranza6967 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks for the large fonts, I am now enjoying your videos from bed before going to sleep 👍

  • @borisvukcevic1454
    @borisvukcevic1454 ปีที่แล้ว

    This was really interesting. I'd love to see more content like this.

  • @BladeOfLight16
    @BladeOfLight16 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    So the only weird thing was the presence of debug symbols? I was expecting _a lot_ more with such a clickbait title. This ended up just being a walkthrough of the most basic steps for how _ordinary_ encryption/decryption works, and barely even that.

  • @Finkelfunk
    @Finkelfunk ปีที่แล้ว +83

    Obviously the people making this were just shitty script kiddies. Not only did they not strip their code and left the debug info in it, but you can clearly see that their code is absolute garbage as well.
    Anytime you have to commit the crime of nesting 5 or 6 "if else" statements you know your code sucks.

    • @LowLevelLearning
      @LowLevelLearning  ปีที่แล้ว +26

      TRUE

    • @xBZZZZyt
      @xBZZZZyt ปีที่แล้ว +28

      are you sure code is garbage not because decompiler?

    • @NateROCKS112
      @NateROCKS112 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      I'm also not sure why they chose to dynamically link these cryptography libraries, either. Wouldn't you want to make the code more portable?

    • @pqsk
      @pqsk ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@xBZZZZyt well they did leave the debugging symbols, so more than likely no optimizations on the binary.

    • @thomaslindell5448
      @thomaslindell5448 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I didn't find the nested ifs that hard to follow. Why the hate

  • @eamonia
    @eamonia ปีที่แล้ว

    Hey Lx3, thanks for enlarging the text so I can see it on my phone. Not that I have any idea what any of it means, it's just nice to know that you're thinking about your audience. Good form, brotha. Bravo.

  • @hausmaster9801
    @hausmaster9801 ปีที่แล้ว

    The large font is great for my phone so thanks, but also great for my TV so thanks again.
    Double thanks for you my good sir!

  • @dukefleed9525
    @dukefleed9525 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    they left the debug info to prove that if they give you the private key, you can build a decrypter by yourself, so you know that there is something to buy. quite smart. also if you buy the decript key but you don't have a way to verify or build by yourself the decrypt program, the effort to write a decryptor could be significative and also you may not trust the decrypted data and then make less likely to buy the key.
    i think that it is really to make you to buy the key, and it is a very smart move.

  • @freezinfire
    @freezinfire ปีที่แล้ว +22

    If all universities taught like this, we would have a much difficult time getting jobs...

  • @FA18_Driver
    @FA18_Driver หลายเดือนก่อน

    THANK YOU TRIPPLE L! JUst found your channel today I love it I don't even code.

  • @andyh7152
    @andyh7152 ปีที่แล้ว

    thanks for doing this, very interesting talk. From where I sit I'd be worried about this code could get onto an ESX in the first place. I can imagine how but it makes me cringe :D

  • @Melpheos1er
    @Melpheos1er ปีที่แล้ว +3

    People who got hit by this ESX attack should be fired. The version that was touched by this attack had been release in december 2020 for 7.x and february 2021 for 6.7 ! They were a year late in patching

    • @johndododoe1411
      @johndododoe1411 ปีที่แล้ว

      Unfortunately, VMWare release practices prevent upgrading past the last version with hardware drivers released for a given server model. When the latest attack description came out it was something that should have been blocked by firewalls already (remote access to an internal admin network address). But yeah, replacing ESXi by something else will be more maintainable.

  • @Verrisin
    @Verrisin ปีที่แล้ว +3

    why should the attacker care if you reverse engineer their binary? 2:47
    - They don't want you to find the vulnerability that gave them exec permission on the host. And they don't want the channel used for money transfer to lead to their identity. That's all.
    - Antivirus people will find a way to fingerprint the binary regardless of it being stripped or reverse engineered or what not.
    - If the data is "properly" encrypted, it doesn't matter that you know the alg - without the key you cannot do anything anyway.

  • @EricVanWinkle
    @EricVanWinkle ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for the readable font size!

  • @KG4JYS
    @KG4JYS ปีที่แล้ว

    Another here who likes the large font. I watch via casting to my TV and it made everything nice and easy to read. No squinting required. Thanks!

  • @BradleyWeston92
    @BradleyWeston92 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Correct me if I’m wrong (probably am) but the random bytes is the initialisation vector for each chunk? (9:20)

    • @Rob_III
      @Rob_III ปีที่แล้ว

      Just a bunch of random data; you could consider it an IV or "key" or both... But I agree, I would refer to it as IV since that is usually stored with a file since it isn't secret whereas a (private) key is.

    • @johndododoe1411
      @johndododoe1411 ปีที่แล้ว

      It's a key, and they don't store it directly, only an encrypted copy.

  • @georgehelyar
    @georgehelyar ปีที่แล้ว +12

    The concept of the series is nice but the example is not great. You can tell exactly what the binaries do just from looking at the shell script, and it doesn't really help to have debug symbols etc because what you really need is the private key. They pretty much could have done the same thing using readily available cli tools.
    It would be nice if you could show examples where reverse engineering lets you fix the damage because they have done something stupid like embedded the key in the binary etc, but I don't know how easy it is to find examples of that kind of thing.

  • @Harry_Blotter
    @Harry_Blotter ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you LLL! I'm just leaving this comment to help you out in the algorithm. Great content man, love your vids. Have a good night!

  • @Proferk
    @Proferk 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    you went from an informative, straight to the point, understandable and good title (iirc it was "I reverse engineered this malware" or something)
    and then changed it to "I HACKED THIS MALWARE OMG"

  • @eugenb9017
    @eugenb9017 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I would love to see death penalty for those who write ransomware and malware.

    • @nolram
      @nolram ปีที่แล้ว

      That would be a terrible idea. Because many people who now work in cybersecurity used to write these kinds of software themselves before „coming clean“.
      Also the death penalty is completely unjustified for this and completely immoral.

  • @wolvenar
    @wolvenar ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Ok, I didn't expect a simple open bash script doing a lot of it. Possibly explains why there was a lot of seemingly rookie moves in the encryption code. I suppose it does what it needs to do to accomplish what they're trying to get done. It will be enough to get a result from most people and businesses.

  • @EmbeddedSorcery
    @EmbeddedSorcery 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I'm all microcontroller firmware, but I've been very interested in higher level info sec for a long time.... been listening to old stuff like Security Now for a decade. Definitely love this content.

  • @jacks6910
    @jacks6910 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you LLL, my eyes appreciate it.

  • @TheMcSebi
    @TheMcSebi ปีที่แล้ว

    I'm rarely watching your Videos on my phone, but this time I was, thanks :)

  • @larswillsen
    @larswillsen 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I have been coding in assembly since the late '70s, working with processors like 8088/86. One effective method to avoid dealing with semi-script kiddie activities is to restrict access to specific files through a tunneling script stored in the RAM. There are various ways to achieve this using concise code snippets. It seems like the world has it backward; instead of preventing such issues with straightforward methods, many rely on extensive, advanced, and expensive antivirus software. What's the point?

  • @James-Calvin
    @James-Calvin 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thank you, LLL. I appreciate the large code font! It doesn't looks cursed as a video.

  • @TringmotionCoUk
    @TringmotionCoUk ปีที่แล้ว

    This was 12 minutes of recommended video, that I watched and said "I'll take your word for it"🤣🤣

  • @mikerope5785
    @mikerope5785 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    props to you for including mobile/partially blind accessibility

  • @nachosncheez2492
    @nachosncheez2492 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Make a series of these 💯

  • @speezy2k656
    @speezy2k656 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Nice video bro keep them coming

  • @zaphod101010
    @zaphod101010 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    The way the ransomware is encrypting--ie. making the symmetric key with their public key, and then they supply the corresponding private key to that when someone pays--doesn't that imply that the first person to get that private key could decrypt anyone else's ransomware-encrypted files? ie. Their algorithm does not employ perfect forward secrecy.

  • @vissitorsteve
    @vissitorsteve ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you SO much! You're a genius!!!

  • @prgnify
    @prgnify ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I'm on the toilet with my phone on hand really appreciating the fontsize. Thank you Mr. Triple L

  • @Zooiest
    @Zooiest ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for the large font size 🙏

  • @unclesmrgol
    @unclesmrgol ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The .pem file in the encrypt argument list gave everything away, even without the debug info.

  • @Mostaism
    @Mostaism ปีที่แล้ว

    I'm just smart enough to hear you speak and know that I'm not smart enough to understand 90% of what you said.
    Whatever you're doing, keep it up

  • @Silver_Knee
    @Silver_Knee ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Well they are certainly going with the No Security Through Obscurity Principle.

  • @MisterK-YT
    @MisterK-YT ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for the larger font size!

  • @burrito_slap2767
    @burrito_slap2767 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you triple L. I went down a youtube rabbit hole and found a cool video with a cool creator (facial hair game is on point btw) who's considerate to their viewers. Y'all are cool

  • @MeriaDuck
    @MeriaDuck ปีที่แล้ว +2

    With debug info not stripped, that's luxurious :D
    Also, thanks youtube algorithm for recommending this!

  • @christopherjohnson3745
    @christopherjohnson3745 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you triple L. First time watching, but I already think you're great.

  • @SuperMichel63
    @SuperMichel63 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you for the 64 size’s font 🙏🏻

  • @fireballferret8146
    @fireballferret8146 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you LLL for the large font