{ "id": "329ffaef-022f-429a-9a77-b7f157566910", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:16:49.843365Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:21:34.904726Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "879b0ccdc3851579ce2e8f4be745b5674581d0e2", "title": "Malicious spam campaigns delivering banking Trojans", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 518411, "plain_text": "Malicious spam campaigns delivering banking Trojans\r\nBy Anton Kuzmenko\r\nPublished: 2021-06-24 · Archived: 2026-04-05 14:21:57 UTC\r\nIn mid-March 2021, we observed two new spam campaigns. The messages in both cases were written in English\r\nand contained ZIP attachments or links to ZIP files. Further research revealed that both campaigns ultimately\r\naimed to distribute banking Trojans. The payload in most cases was IcedID (Trojan-Banker.Win32.IcedID), but\r\nwe have also seen a few QBot (Backdoor.Win32.Qbot, also known as QakBot) samples. During campaign spikes\r\nwe observed increased activity of these Trojans: more than a hundred detections a day.\r\nIcedID is a banking Trojan capable of web injects, VM detection and other malicious actions. It consists of two\r\nparts – the downloader and the main body that performs all the malicious activity. The main body is hidden in a\r\nPNG image, which is downloaded and decrypted by the downloader.\r\nQBot is also a banking Trojan. It’s a single executable with an embedded DLL (main body) capable of\r\ndownloading and running additional modules that perform malicious activity: web injects, email collection,\r\npassword grabbing, etc.\r\nNeither of these malware families are new – we’ve seen them being distributed before via spam campaigns and\r\ndifferent downloaders, like the recently taken-down Emotet. However, in the recent campaign we observed several\r\nchanges to the IcedID Trojan.\r\nTechnical details\r\nInitial infection\r\nDotDat\r\nThe first campaign we called ‘DotDat’. It distributed ZIP attachments that claimed to be some sort of cancelled\r\noperation or compensation claims with the names in the following format [document type (optional)]-[some\r\ndigits]-[date in MMDDYYYY format]. We assume the dates correspond with the campaign spikes. The ZIP\r\narchives contained a malicious MS Excel file with the same name.\r\nThe Excel file downloads a malicious payload via a macro (see details below) from a URL with the following\r\nformat [host]/[digits].[digits].dat and executes it. The URL is generated during execution using the Excel function\r\nNOW(). The payload is either the IcedID downloader (Trojan.Win32.Ligooc) or QBot packed with a polymorph\r\npacker.\r\nExcel macro details (3e12880c20c41085ea5e249f8eb85ded)\r\nThe Excel file contains obfuscated Excel 4.0 macro formulas to download and execute the payload (IcedID or\r\nQBot). The macro generates a payload URL and calls the WinAPI function URLDownloadToFile to download the\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 1 of 7\n\npayload.\r\nMacro downloads IcedID downloader\r\nAfter a successful download, the payload is launched using the EXEC function and Windows Rundll32\r\nexecutable.\r\nMacro starts payload\r\nSummer.gif\r\nThe spam emails of the second campaign contained links to hacked websites with malicious archives named\r\n“documents.zip”, “document-XX.zip”, “doc-XX.zip” where XX stands for two random digits. Like in the first\r\ncampaign, the archives contained an Excel file with a macro that downloaded the IcedID downloader. According\r\nto our data, this spam campaign peaked on 17/03/2021. By April, the malicious activity had faded away.\r\nExcel macro details (c11bad6137c9205d8656714d362cc8e4)\r\nLike in the other case, Excel 4.0 macro formulas and the URLDownloadToFile function are used in this campaign.\r\nThe main difference in the download component is that the URL is stored in a cell inside the malicious file.\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 2 of 7\n\nPayload download\r\nThough the URL seems to refer to a file named “summer.gif”, the payload is an executable, not a GIF image. To\r\nexecute the payload, the macro uses WMI and regsvr32 tools.\r\nMacro starts payload\r\nIcedID\r\nAs we mention above, IcedID consists of two parts – downloader and main body. The downloader sends some\r\nuser information (username, MAC address, Windows version, etc.) to the C\u0026C and receives the main body. In the\r\npast, the main body was distributed as a shellcode hidden in a PNG image. The downloader gets the image,\r\ndecrypts the main body in the memory and executes it. The main body maps itself into the memory and starts to\r\nperform its malicious actions such as web injects, data exfiltration to the C\u0026C, download and execution of\r\nadditional payloads, exfiltration of system information and more.\r\nIcedID new downloader\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 3 of 7\n\nBesides the increase in infection attempts, the IcedID authors also changed the downloader a bit. In previous\r\nversions it was compiled as an x86 executable and the malware configuration after decryption contained fake\r\nC\u0026C addresses. We assume this was done to complicate analysis of the samples. In the new version, the threat\r\nactors moved from x86 to an x86-64 version and removed the fake C\u0026Cs from the configuration.\r\nConfiguration of the old version of IcedID downloader\r\nNew version configuration\r\nWe also observed a minor change in the malware’s main body. While it’s still distributed as a PNG image, and the\r\ndecryption and C\u0026C communication methods remain the same, the authors decided not to use shellcode. Instead,\r\nIcedID’s main body is distributed as a standard PE file with some loader-related data in the beginning.\r\nGeography of IcedID attacks\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 4 of 7\n\nGeography of IcedID downloader detections, March 2021 (download)\r\nIn March 2021, the greatest number of users attacked by Ligooc (IcedID downloader) were observed in China\r\n(15.88%), India (11.59%), Italy (10.73%), the United States (10.73%) and Germany (8.58%).\r\nQbot\r\nUnlike IcedID, QBot is a single executable with an embedded DLL (main body) stored into the resource PE\r\nsection. In order to perform traffic interception, steal passwords, perform web injects and take remote control of\r\nthe infected system, it downloads additional modules: web inject module, hVNC (remote control module), email\r\ncollector, password grabber and others. All the details on Qbot, as well as IoCs, MITRE ATT\u0026CK framework\r\ndata, YARA rules and hashes relating to this threat are available to users of our Financial Threat Intelligence\r\nservices.\r\nGeography of Qbot attacks\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 5 of 7\n\nGeography of QBot attacks, March 2021 (download)\r\nIn March 2021, QBot was also most active in China (10.78%), India (10.78%) and the United States (4.66%), but\r\nwe also observed it in Russia (7.60%) and France (7.60%).\r\nIndicators of compromise\r\nFile Hashes (MD5)\r\nExcel with macros\r\n042b349265bbac709ff2cbddb725033b\r\n054532b8b2b5c727ed8f74aabc9acc73\r\n1237e85fe00fcc1d14df0fb5cf323d6b\r\n3e12880c20c41085ea5e249f8eb85ded\r\nDocuments.zip\r\nc11bad6137c9205d8656714d362cc8e4\r\nTrojan.Win32.Ligooc\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 6 of 7\n\n997340ab32077836c7a055f52ab148de\r\nTrojan-Banker.Win32.QBot\r\n57f347e5f703398219e9edf2f31319f6\r\nDomains/IPs\r\nApoxiolazio55[.]space\r\nKarantino[.]xyz\r\nuqtgo16datx03ejjz[.]xyz\r\n188.127.254[.]114\r\nSource: https://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nhttps://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917\r\nPage 7 of 7", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia" ], "references": [ "https://securelist.com/malicious-spam-campaigns-delivering-banking-trojans/102917" ], "report_names": [ "102917" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434609, "ts_updated_at": 1775791294, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/879b0ccdc3851579ce2e8f4be745b5674581d0e2.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/879b0ccdc3851579ce2e8f4be745b5674581d0e2.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/879b0ccdc3851579ce2e8f4be745b5674581d0e2.jpg" } }