### #BulletproofHosting #Proton66 #MaliciousInfrastructure
Summary: This report investigates the connections between the Russian autonomous systems PROSPERO and Proton66, highlighting their involvement in various cybercriminal activities, including malware distribution and phishing campaigns. The findings suggest a sophisticated network of bulletproof hosting services facilitating these malicious operations.
Threat Actor: Proton66 | Proton66
Victim: Various individuals and organizations | phishing victims
Key Point :
- PROSPERO and Proton66 share similar network configurations and peering agreements, indicating a strong operational link.
- Both networks have been observed hosting command-and-control servers for GootLoader and SpyNote malware, transitioning their infrastructure to Proton66.
- Recent phishing campaigns targeting bank login information have been traced back to domains hosted on PROSPERO and Proton66.
- SocGholish and FakeBat are utilizing Proton66 for hosting malicious scripts and infrastructure, further linking these networks to cybercrime.
- Bulletproof hosting services like those operated by PROSPERO and Proton66 provide a shield against legal actions, facilitating illicit activities.
Key findings
This report presents:
- The Russian autonomous system PROSPERO (AS200593) could be linked with a high level of confidence to Proton66 (AS198953), another Russian AS, that we believe to be connected to the bulletproof services named ‘SecureHost‘ and ‘BEARHOST‘. We notably observed that both network’s configurations are almost identical in terms of peering agreements and their respective share of loads throughout time.
- Amongst the activities shared by the two networks, we noticed that both GootLoader and SpyNote malwares recently changed their infrastructure of command-and-control servers and phishing pages from to Proton66. Additionally, the domains hosting the phishing pages deploying SpyNote were hosted on either one of the two AS and had already been used in previous campaigns delivering revoked AnyDesk and LiveChat versions for both Windows and Mac.
- Regarding the other malicious activities found on PROSPERO’s IPs, we found that throughout September, multiple SMS spam campaigns targeting citizens from various countries were leading to phishing domains hosted on PROSPERO and Proton66. While most phishing templates were usurping bank login pages to steal credit card details, we also noticed that some of them were used to deploy android spywares such as Coper (a.k.a. Octo).
- SocGholish, another initial access broker (IAB) that we found to be hosting a major part of its infrastructure on Proton66, continues to leverage this autonomous system to host fingerprinting scripts contained on the websites it infects. Along SocGholish, we found out that FakeBat, another loader that infects systems through compromised websites, was using the same IPs to host both screening and redirection scripts.
Introduction
In the continuity of our constant monitoring of bulletproof networks, we discovered an autonomous system named PROSPERO OOO (AS200593) based in Russia. We believe that it could be linked to Proton66 OOO (AS198953), another Russian and anonymous autonomous system that we previously found to be connected to a bigger infrastructure composed of multiple AS and offshore companies all operated by a common Russian national. This individual notably promotes its bulletproof hosting businesses named ‘UNDERGROUND‘ and ‘BEARHOST‘ on various Russian-speaking underground marketplaces stating that the service is “100% bulletproof […] we completely ignore all abuses and complaints, including Spamhaus”. He notably used to work with another bulletproof provider named ‘SecureHost‘, advertised on the same underground platforms that we believe with a high level of confidence to be the present operator of both PROSPERO OOO and Proton66 OOO.
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Bulletproof hosting A bulletproof hosting service is a type of web hosting service known for offering high levels of privacy, security, and leniency regarding the content and activities allowed on their servers. These services typically provide robust protection against takedown requests, legal actions, and law enforcement investigations, often by locating their servers in jurisdictions with minimal regulations or weak enforcement of international laws. Bulletproof hosting is often associated with hosting illicit content or activities, such as malware distribution, spam operations, or copyright-infringing materials, due to its permissive stance and commitment to client confidentiality. However, it’s important to note that not all uses of such services are illegal, as some users may seek such hosting for legitimate privacy concerns. |
The connection between PROSPERO and Proton66 could be made through similarities in the way both networks are operated, notably in their respective peering agreements shared with other Russian networks. Additionally, we noticed that botnets operated by GootLoader, an initial access broker, and SpyNote, an android RAT, had moved their infrastructure from PROSPERO to Proton66, or would sometimes host their command-and-control servers on both AS. Along those finds, this report aims to provide an overview of all the malicious activities that are hosted on PROSPERO OOO.
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Legal format of Russian companies As a reminder, the Russian format “OOO” stands for “Obschestvo s Ogranichennoy Otvetstvennostyu” which corresponds to the Anglo-Saxon format “LLC” or “limited liability company”. |
Intrinsec’s CTI services
Organisations are facing a rise in the sophistication of threat actors and intrusion sets. To address these evolving threats, it is now necessary to take a proactive approach in the detection and analysis of any element deemed malicious. Such a hands-on approach allows companies to anticipate, or at least react as quickly as possible to the compromises they face.
For this report, shared with our clients in July 2023, Intrinsec relied on its Cyber Threat Intelligence service, which provides its customers with high value-added, contextualized and actionable intelligence to understand and contain cyber threats. Our CTI team consolidates data & information gathered from our security monitoring services (SOC, MDR …), our incident response team (CERT-Intrinsec) and custom cyber intelligence generated by our analysts using custom heuristics, honeypots, hunting, reverse-engineering & pivots.
Intrinsec also offers various services around Cyber Threat Intelligence:
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For more information, go to www.intrinsec.com/en/cyber-threat-intelligence/.