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Malspam (2016-04-26) - Dridex botnet 122

Low
Published: Tue Apr 26 2016 (04/26/2016, 00:00:00 UTC)
Source: CIRCL
Vendor/Project: circl
Product: incident-classification

Description

Malspam (2016-04-26) - Dridex botnet 122

AI-Powered Analysis

AILast updated: 07/03/2025, 03:24:55 UTC

Technical Analysis

The provided information pertains to a malspam campaign associated with the Dridex botnet, identified as 'Dridex botnet 122' and dated April 26, 2016. Dridex is a well-known banking Trojan primarily designed to steal banking credentials and financial information by infecting victims through malicious spam emails (malspam). These emails typically contain malicious attachments or links that, when opened, execute the malware payload. Dridex operates by injecting itself into browser processes to intercept banking sessions and harvest sensitive data. Although the specific technical details in this report are limited, the reference to 'malspam' indicates the primary infection vector is email-based social engineering. The threat level is noted as 3 (on an unspecified scale), and the severity is marked as low by the source, with no known exploits in the wild beyond the malspam campaign itself. No affected software versions or patches are listed, suggesting this is a malware campaign rather than a software vulnerability. The lack of indicators and CWE entries further supports this. Dridex's modular architecture allows it to update and adapt, making it a persistent threat in financial cybercrime. Despite the age of this campaign (2016), Dridex variants continue to pose risks globally.

Potential Impact

For European organizations, especially financial institutions and enterprises with employees handling sensitive financial transactions, Dridex represents a significant threat to confidentiality and integrity of financial data. Successful infections can lead to credential theft, unauthorized fund transfers, and financial fraud. The impact extends beyond direct financial loss to reputational damage and regulatory penalties under GDPR for failure to protect personal data. While the severity here is marked low, this may reflect the specific campaign's scale or detection rather than the malware's overall risk. European organizations with large email user bases are at risk of infection through phishing emails, which can lead to lateral movement within networks, data exfiltration, and disruption of business operations. The botnet's persistence and ability to update complicate detection and remediation.

Mitigation Recommendations

To mitigate Dridex malspam threats, European organizations should implement advanced email filtering solutions that include sandboxing and heuristic analysis to detect and block malicious attachments and links. User awareness training focused on phishing recognition is critical to reduce successful infection rates. Endpoint protection platforms should be updated with the latest signatures and behavioral detection capabilities to identify and quarantine Dridex infections. Network segmentation and strict access controls can limit lateral movement if an endpoint is compromised. Regular backups and incident response plans should be in place to recover from potential ransomware or data loss scenarios linked to malware infections. Additionally, multi-factor authentication (MFA) on financial systems can reduce the impact of credential theft. Continuous monitoring of network traffic for anomalies associated with botnet command and control communications is advised. Since no patches are applicable, focus should be on detection, prevention, and user education.

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Technical Details

Threat Level
3
Analysis
2
Original Timestamp
1461669829

Threat ID: 682acdbcbbaf20d303f0b3f5

Added to database: 5/19/2025, 6:20:44 AM

Last enriched: 7/3/2025, 3:24:55 AM

Last updated: 8/15/2025, 12:49:26 PM

Views: 9

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