Parent PID Spoofing (Stage 2) Ataware Ransomware – Part 0x3

Overview of ATAPIConfiguration.exe (Stage 2)

Stage 2 downloads the final Ataware Ransomware (ATAPIUpdtr.exe) from CC which can encrypt files. Then, it uses Parent PID Spoofing to change the parent PID to lsass.exe before executing it.

CONTENTS

1. Static Analysis
2. Parent PID Spoofing
3. Analysis steps in Ghidra
4. Conclusion
5. References

Static Analysis

• 32bit PE, compiled using GCC MINGW
• Nothing interesting in overlay, no resources
• Compiler timestamp invalid is 1997
• File contain TLS callback but nothing interesting

Strings

Based on the strings berylia[.]net and /index/, we can guess that malware may be downloading something.
wininet.dll
InternetConnectW
berylia.net
HttpOpenRequestW
/index/
GET
InternetQueryOptionW
InternetSetOptionW
HttpSendRequestA
TEMP
kernel32.dll
CreateFileW
InternetReadFile
WriteFile
InternetCloseHandle
Advapi32.dll
LookupPrivilegeValueW
AdjustTokenPrivileges
OpenThreadToken
ImpersonateSelf
SeDebugPrivilege
CreateToolhelp32Snapshot
Process32FirstW
Process32NextW
lsass.exe
OpenProcess
InitializeProcThreadAttributeList
UpdateProcThreadAttribute
CreateProcessA


Parent PID Spoofing

Stage 2 mainly uses InitializeProcThreadAttributeList, UpdateProcThreadAttribute & CreateProcessA with STARTUPINFOEXA structure API for spoofing. Didier Stevens already blogged about this in 2009 ^[1], “Normally the parent process of a new process is the process that created the new process (via CreateProcess). But when using STARTUPINFOEX with the right LPPROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_LIST to create a process, you can arbitrarily specify the parent process, provided you have the debug rights.” Before spoofing, this Stage 2 enables SeDebugPrivilege of current thread.

UpdateProcThreadAttribute function^[2] is called with PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_PARENT_PROCESS (0x00020000) attribute with the handle of lsass.exe. At last, CreateProcessA is called with STARTUPINFOEXA Structure which contain new StartupInfoEx.lpAttributeList and creation flag 0x80010 (EXTENDED_STARTUPINFO_PRESENT | CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE) for creating new process with different Parent PID.

Analysis steps in Ghidra

1. Navigate to entry function, then to WinMain address @ 0x4013dd as shown below

2. We will concentrate on download_spoof_parent_process_exe (0x40208b) in main function as shown below

3. Before any rename/comment @ 0x401cb7

4. This function contains two main functions FUN_00401b91() & FUN_00401579().
5. Let’s focus on FUN_00401b91 (adjust_priv_current_thread_sedebug), this function enables SeDebugPrivilege of current thread.



6. FUN_00401579()/download_save_ATAPIUpdtr_exe function download the file from CC hxxps://berylia[.]net/index/ and save it to $temp directory as ATAPIUpdtr.exe.

7. Parent PID Spoofing is shown below in the final code download_spoof_parent_process_exe.

Dynamic Analysis using Sysmon

File Create event Sysmon

Here you can see Process Create with spoofing in action with Parent Image lsass.exe.

Conclusion

• Analysed Parent PID Spoofing and saw this in action using Sysmon
• Malware uses this technique to evade detection which is based on parent-child process
• We understood how malware author can enable SeDebugPrivilege

References

1. 1. SelectMyParent or Playing With the Windows Process Tree
   2. UpdateProcThreadAttribute function
   3. Enabling and Disabling Privileges in C++
   4. Access Token Manipulation: Parent PID Spoofing