Roaming Mantis, part IV
By GReAT
Published: 2019-04-03 · Archived: 2026-04-02 12:09:39 UTC
One year has passed since we published the first blogpost about the Roaming Mantis campaign on securelist.com,
and this February we detected new activities by the group. This blogpost is follow up on our earlier reporting about
the group with updates on their tools and tactics.
Mobile config for Apple phishing
Our key finding is that the actor continues to seek ways to compromise iOS devices and has even built a new landing
page for iOS users. When an iPhone user visits this landing page, they sees pop-up messages guiding them to the
malicious iOS mobile config installation:
Pop-up messages and mobile config installation
After installation of this mobile config, the phishing site automatically opens in a web browser and collected
information from the device is sent to the attacker’s server. This information includes DEVICE_PRODUCT,
DEVICE_VERSION, UDID, ICCID, IMEI and MEID.
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XML and CA in mobile config
The CA contains the suspected developer’s email address, “zeeyf79797@yahoo.co[.]jp”, which could be malicious.
We created a test account for this research and used the account credentials at the phishing site. As soon as the threat
actor received the ID and password, the criminals attempted to log in to the account from Hong Kong. After entering
the credentials, we were directed to the next page, which tried to steal the two-factor authentication code (PIN) sent
to the device.
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Phishing page for stealing apple ID and two-factor authentication
Re-spreading the updated sagawa.apk Type A (MoqHao/XLoader)
On the Android front, our telemetry data shows a new wave of malicious APK files which we detect as “Trojan-Dropper.AndroidOS.Wroba.g”.
sagawa.apk Type A has spread since Feb 26
We have analyzed the malicious APK file and confirmed that it is definitely a variant of sagawa.apk Type A malware,
also known as MoqHao (Mcafee) and XLoader (TrendMicro). Type A malware was earlier distributed via SMS in
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Japan.
We also found out that the threat actors had compromised routers to overwrite DNS settings and discovered that the
following two features were updated as well:
Decryption algorithm for encrypted payload in Trojan-Dropper module
Stored destination and accounts for getting real C2
Decryption algorithm for encrypted payload in Trojan-Dropper module
Compared to the previous version, the Trojan-Dropper’s decryption function has been altered slightly (change
highlighted in purple):
Added 4-byte skip from encrypted data in decompiled code
Why did the attackers change it? Well, the simplified Python script for extracting encrypted payload was disclosed in
our previous blog posts. We are suspecting that the actor considered this and introduced some minor changes to their
decryption algorithm to evade detection by security products and researchers.
However, we have updated the simplified Python script according to this change:
sagawa.apk_typeA_payload_extractor_1.01.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
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import zlib
import base64
data = open(sys.argv[1],"rb").read()
dec_z = zlib.decompress(data[4:])            # open.skip(4);
dec_b = base64.b64decode(dec_z)
with open(sys.argv[1]+".dec","wb") as fp:
    fp.write(dec_b)
Stored destination and accounts for getting real C2
In the previous campaign, the three accounts “haoxingfu11”, “haoxingfu22” and “haoxingfu33” on @outlook.com
were stored inside the samples for the purpose of retrieving the C2 server address. In order to fetch the C2 server
address, the email service was used the real C2 destination was delivered to the victims in an encrypted form from
the email subject. In the new version the actor has switched their tactics for retrieving the C2 address from email
service to fetching it from Twitter.
“https://twitter.com/%s” is stored in the malware
The three suspected Twitter accounts were easily found as well, because the sample had the account IDs stored
together, separated by the “|” character just like the old samples:
Three account IDs separated by the “|” character
The decryption algorithm for the real C2 address remained untouched – the malware connects to the extracted real
C2 via web socket. In addition to the three accounts mentioned earlier, we found several other accounts:
lucky88755
lucky98745
lucky876543
gyugyu87418490
luckyone1232
sadwqewqeqw
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The decryption algorithm for extracting the real C2 from Chinese characters is the same as in the previous sample, so
our scripts from the old blogpost will still work. All the accounts are related to the same IP, although the port
numbers are different. The table below shows these changes as derived from the account “@luckyone1232”.
Datetime (UTC) Encrypted data Decrypted real C2
February 25 2019 11:30 傘傠傘偠傈傠偠傠傐傸偘储傀傐僨傀僨僸傸傀 114.43.155[.]227:28855
February 26 2019 08:00 傀傸傸偠傠傠傠偘傘储偘傰傠僠僨傀僨僸傸傀 220.136.47[.]169:28855
March 02 2019 01:00 傀傸傸偠傠傠傠偘傘僘偘傰傈傐僨傀僨僸傸傀 220.136.49[.]137:28855
March 05 2019 06:00 傀傸傸偠傠傠傠偘傠僘偘傰僀傸僸僐傀傐 220.136.39[.]1:28855
March 07 2019 03:00 傘傠僸偠傠傈僐偘傰傈储偈傀傰傈僀傸僸僐傀傐 118.168.130[.]236:28855
March 09 2019 10:00 傠傠偈傀傰傸偠傸傰傐偘储傀僨僨傀僨僸傸傀 61.230.210[.]228:28855
March 13 2019 01:00 傘傸傐偠傸储储偘傰储傈偈傈傀僨傀僨僸傸傀 125.227.174[.]35:28855
March 21 2019 01:00 傘偘傰傠僠偈傀储傠偠傈僸僀傸僸僐傀傐 1.169.203[.]48:28855
We also noticed that the threat actor has introduced a new backdoor command “getPhoneState”. The following table
shows the comparison of the older and newer versions of the malware:
Date August 08 2018 March 03 2019
MD5 956f32a28d0057805c7234d6a13aa99b 651b6888b3f419fc1aac535921535324
File size 427.3 KB (437556 bytes) 396.0 KB (405504 bytes)
Malware
type
sagawa.apk Type A
MoqHao (McAfee)
XLoader (TrendMicro)
sagawa.apk Type A
MoqHao (McAfee)
XLoader (TrendMicro)
Encrypted
payload
(enc_data)
\assets\a \assets\bin
Decryption
algorithm
for
payload
payload =
base64.b64decode(zlib.decompress(enc_data));
payload =
base64.b64decode(zlib.decompress(enc_data[4:]));
Backdoor
commands
sendSms
setWifi
gcont
lock
bc
sendSms
setWifi
gcont
lock
bc
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setForward
getForward
hasPkg
setRingerMode
setRecEnable
reqState
showHome
getnpki
http
onRecordAction
call
get_apps
show_fs_float_window
ping
setForward
getForward
hasPkg
setRingerMode
setRecEnable
reqState
showHome
getnpki
http
onRecordAction
call
get_apps
show_fs_float_window
ping
getPhoneState
Stored
destination
@outlook.com (email) https://twitter.com/%s (SNS)
Accounts
haoxingfu11
haoxingfu22
haoxingfu33
luckyone1232
sadwqewqeqw
gyugyu87418490
RegExp abcd <title>abcd([\\u4e00-\\u9fa5]+?) “;
Decryption
algorithm
for real C2
for i in range(len(ext)):
dec = dec + chr((ord(ext[i]) – 0x4e00) >> 3 ^
ord(‘beg'[j]))
j = (j+1) %3
for i in range(len(ext)):
dec = dec + chr((ord(ext[i]) – 0x4e00) >> 3 ^
ord(‘beg'[j]))
j = (j+1) %3
Rogue DNS settings in compromised routers again
In late February 2019, we detected a URL query of a malicious DNS changer. Here is an example:
URL query of malicious DNS changer
The router’s DNS setting is potentially compromised if the device reads the URL query of the DNS changer from
localnet under a router with the following conditions:
1. 1 No authentication for router panel from localnet
2. 2 The device has an admin session for the router panel
3. 3 Simple ID and password (or default) for route panel like admin:admin
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As we have observed, several hundred routers have been compromised and all pointed to the rogue DNS IPs.
This code overwrites the rogue DNS IPs below into the DNS settings of routers:
171.244.33[.]114
171.244.33[.]116
Geographical expansion
According to our detection data, new variants of sagawa.apk Type A (Trojan-Dropper.AndroidOS.Wroba.g) have
been detected in the wild, based on our KSN data from February 25, 2019 to March 20, 2019.
Geographical expansion from KSN data
The worst affected countries are Russia, Japan, India, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Vietnam. Our
products detected this malware over 6,800 times for over 950 unique users during this period. We believe this attack
wave has a much bigger scale and these numbers reflect only a small part of this campaign.
Conclusion
We have seen increased distribution of sagawa.apk Type A since late February 2019. This wave is characterized by a
new attack method of phishing with malicious mobile config, although the previously observed DNS manipulation is
also still actively used. We find the use of malicious mobile config especially alarming as this may cause serious
problems for the users. As explained in an earlier blog post, “the profile could configure the device to use a malicious
proxy or VPN, effectively allowing the attacker to monitor everything.”
We recommend users take the following steps:
Change the default ID and password, and apply the relevant security patches to counter these threats;
For Android users: do not download APKs from third-party sources;
For iOS users: do not install a non-trusted third-party mobile config.
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For further information about this threat actor, please refer to our previous blog posts about Roaming mantis:
Roaming Mantis uses DNS hijacking to infect Android smartphones
Roaming Mantis dabbles in mining and phishing multilingually
Roaming Mantis, part III: iOS crypto-mining and spreading via malicious content delivery system
Kaspersky Lab products detect this malware for Android as:
HEUR:Trojan-Banker.AndroidOS.Wroba
HEUR:Trojan-Dropper.AndroidOS.Wroba
Finally, we would like to show our appreciation to the Japanese researchers @ninoseki and @papa_anniekey, who
have shared and discussed with us their results of Roaming Mantis campaign research. The criminals are still rapidly
improving their methods: we discovered some updated sagawa.apk Type A this April, the fresh sample has embedded
DES algorithm instead of some decryption feature. We’re going to track Roaming Mantis activity and publish any
new activities in the future.
Indicators of compromise (IoCs) examples
Malicious hosts:
114.43.155[.]227 real C2
220.136.47[.]169 real C2
220.136.49[.]137 real C2
220.136.39[.]1 real C2
118.168.130[.]236 real C2
171.244.33[.]114 RogueDNS
171.244.33[.]116 RogueDNS
61.230.153[.]211 Landing page
154.223.62[.]130 Landing page
ffakecg[.]com Landing page
sagawa-mwm[.]com Landing page
sagawa-mqd[.]com Landing page
sagawa-bz[.]com Landing page
nttdocomo-qae[.]com Landing page
nttdocomo-qat[.]com Landing page
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Suspicious Twitter accounts:
luckyone1232
sadwqewqeqw
gyugyu87418490
lucky88755
lucky98745
lucky876543
sagawa.apk Type A and its modules:
417a6af1172042986f602cc0e2e681dc APK file
651b6888b3f419fc1aac535921535324 APK file
0a4e8d3fe5ee383ba3a22d0f00670ce3 APK file
870697ddb36a8f205478c2338d7e6bc7 APK file
7e247800b95c643a3c9d4a320b12726b \classes.dex
7cfb9ed812e0250bfcb4022c567771ec \classes.dex
8358d2a39d412edbd1cf662e0d8a9f19 \classes.dex
7cfb9ed812e0250bfcb4022c567771ec \classes.dex
af2890a472b85d473faee501337564a9 Decrypted dex file
c8d7475a27fb7d669ec3787fe3e9c031 Decrypted dex file
d0848d71a14e0f07c6e64bf84c30ee39 Decrypted dex file
e2b557721902bc97382d268f1785e085 Decrypted dex file
Source: https://securelist.com/roaming-mantis-part-iv/90332/
https://securelist.com/roaming-mantis-part-iv/90332/
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