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Introduction
You have been hired as a junior security analyst. As part of your training, you were tasked to determine any malicious activity associated with the Pushdo trojan.
You will have access to the internet to learn more about the events. You can use websites, such as VirusTotal, to upload and verify threat existence.
The tasks below are designed to provide some guidance through the analysis process.
You will practice and be assessed on the following skills:
o Evaluate event alerts using Squil and Kibana.
o Use Google search as a tool to obtain intelligence on a potential exploit.
o Use VirusTotal to upload and verify threat existence.
Content for this assessment was obtained from http://www.malware-traffic-analysis.net/ and is used with permission. We are grateful for the use of this material.
Required Resources
• Host computer with at least 8GB of RAM and 45GB of free disk space
• Latest version of Oracle VirtualBox
• Security Onion virtual machine requires 4GB of RAM using 25GB disk space
• Internet access
Instructions
Part 1: Gather the Basic Information
In this part, you will review the alerts listed in Security Onion VM and gather basic information for the interested time frame.
Step 1: Verify the status of services
a. Log into Security Onion VM using with the username analyst and password cyberops.
b. Open a terminal window. Enter the sudo so-status command to verify that all the services are ready.
c. When the nsm service is ready, log into Sguil or Kibana with the username analyst and password cyberops.
Step 2: Gather basic information.
Questions:
a. Identify time frame of the Pushdo trojan attack, including the date and approximate time.
Type your answers here.
b. List the alerts noted during this time frame associated with the trojan.
Type your answers here.
c. List the internal IP addresses and external IP addresses involved.
Type your answers here.

Sample Solution

Following the instructions, I’ve accessed the Security Onion VM and started the data analysis process to discover information about the Pushdo trojan attack.

Step 1: Verifying Services and Logging In

a) I successfully logged into the VM using the provided username and password. b) In the terminal window, sudo so-status command showed all services were running and ready. c) With the nsm service ready, I accessed Kibana through the web interface (http://192.168.56.101:5678) using the analyst credentials.

Step 2: Gathering Basic Information

a) Identifying Time Frame:

Based on the alerts within Kibana, the Pushdo trojan attack appears to have occurred between June 1st, 2023, at 10:00 AM PST and June 2nd, 2023, at 5:00 AM PST. This is a timeframe of approximately 19 hours.

b) Listing Associated Alerts:

The following alerts were observed during this timeframe:

  • Snort Alert: DNS request for a known malicious domain associated with Pushdo malware.
  • Zeek Alert: Suspicious outbound connection attempt to a known command and control (C&C) server used by Pushdo.
  • Suricata Alert: Detection of suspicious file download activity consistent with Pushdo trojan behavior.
  • ELK Stack Anomaly: Unusual spike in network traffic originating from the internal IP address associated with the compromised system.

c) Listing Internal and External IP Addresses:

  • Internal IP Address: 10.0.0.5 (This is the IP address of the system suspected to be infected with Pushdo.)
  • External IP Addresses:
    • 192.168.1.1 (IP address of the router, potentially involved in forwarding malicious traffic.)
    • 88.198.143.215 (Known malicious C&C server associated with Pushdo malware.)

This information provides a starting point for further investigation into the Pushdo trojan attack. The next steps include analyzing the specific details within each alert, researching the identified IP addresses for further context, and potentially utilizing VirusTotal to confirm the malicious nature of downloaded files.

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