Vadokrist
Vadokrist (canonical ESET naming per January 21, 2021 "A wolf in sheep's clothing" disclosure by ESET researcher Jakub Soucek, title references signature unused-code anti-analysis tradecraft) is a Brazilian- origin banking trojan + ESET Dirty Dozen LATAM banking trojan member active since 2018 almost exclusively in Brazil per ESET tracking ("Vadokrist is a Latin American banking trojan that ESET has been tracking since 2018 and that is active almost exclusively in Brazil")
Brazilian-origin organized cybercrime attribution via ESET canonical January 2021 first documentation + ESET press release canonical Vadokrist dissection + ESET canonical December 15, 2021 Dirty Dozen retrospective listing Vadokrist as one of 9 actively covered LATAM banking trojans + Threatpost canonical October 2020 LatAm Banking Trojans coverage.
standalone malware platform cluster paralleling amavaldo + ousaban + numando in v0.1.142 LATAM banking trojan operators cell expansion.
operational target profile Brazil almost-exclusive primary target per ESET 2018-2021 tracking + Portuguese-speaking countries focus; operational attack architecture: (1) spam distribution typical LATAM banking trojan distribution.
(2) fake banking overlay windows credential capture typical LATAM banking trojan tradecraft + backdoor functionality + screenshots + mouse/keyboard simulation + keystroke logging.
(3) cluster-defining unusually large unused code anti- analysis tradecraft per ESET ("One of the most notable characteristics is the unusually large amount of unused code in the binaries. After further examination, we believe this is an attempt to evade detection and dissuade or slow analysis"), title "wolf in sheep's clothing" references this signature tradecraft.
(4) cluster-defining post-attack username-only collection per ESET researcher Jakub Soucek ("The vast majority of Latin American banking trojans collect information about the victim's machine when first run. The only information Vadokrist collects is the victim's username, and it does so only after initiating an attack on a targeted financial institution"), distinctive deviation from typical LATAM banking trojan operational pattern.
(5) cluster-defining kills browser process banking access denial tradecraft per ESET ("It is also able to prevent access to banking websites by killing the browser process, which we believe is a technique to prevent victims from accessing their online bank accounts, aiding the attackers in retaining control"), distinctive access denial signature.
(6) cluster-defining string table identical to Casbaneiro earlier versions per ESET ("Vadokrist stores strings inside string tables. It used to contain an implementation of a string table identical to Casbaneiro.
however, some recent versions of this banking trojan switched to using multiple string tables, each for a different purpose"), cluster- cell coherence with v0.1.139 casbaneiro.yaml string table implementation.
(7) Run key + LNK file startup folder persistence per ESET ("To ensure persistence, Vadokrist utilizes either a Run key or it creates a LNK file in the startup folder")
(8) mouse + keyboard simulation + keystroke logging + screenshots + restart machine capability per ESET; (9) cluster-defining family connections to Amavaldo + Casbaneiro + Grandoreiro + Mekotio per ESET ("Vadokrist shares several important features with families we have described earlier in the series, namely Amavaldo, Casbaneiro, Grandoreiro and Mekotio. We recently published a white paper dedicated to documenting the similarities between Latin American banking trojans"), cross-family operational signature.
(10) Delphi programming language origin signature typical LATAM banking trojan codebase.
cluster fills the ESET-Dirty-Dozen + unused-code-anti-analysis + post-attack-username- only-collection + browser-process-kill-tradecraft + Amavaldo-Casbaneiro-Grandoreiro-Mekotio-family- connections position in Latin American banking trojan operators cell.
canonical illustration of ESET Dirty Dozen LATAM banking trojan + unused code anti-analysis tradecraft + post-attack username- only collection + kill-browser-process access denial + Casbaneiro string table overlap + 4-family connections cited in essentially all subsequent Latin American banking trojan industry analyses through 2018-2026 period.