Fast-Flux Techniques in .mobi
Thursday, July 3. 2008
Danmec/Asprox is an SQL injection attack tool that is responsible for some aspects of the recent wave of SQL injections (full list maintained by ShadowServer). This malware also uses fast-flux techniques to host some facets of the attacks. Since a few days, the attackers also use the .mobi TLD - the first time I see this TLD being abused this way by malware. The following listing shows the results of a DNS lookup for one of the .mobi domains:
The DNS answer has a short time to live (600 seconds - 10 minutes) and the IP addresses are located in many different networks - a typical sign for fast-flux techniques. Most IP addresses are located in dial-up networks like Comcast and Roadrunner, presumably these machines are infected and compromised machines. When doing a DNS lookup a couple of minutes later, a different set of IP addresses is returned:
This indicates the "fluxiness" of the domain. By DNS mining, i.e., performing DNS lookups of this domain every TTL +1 seconds, we can observe the botnet behind this attack. In the past week, we found about 1,000 unique bot IP addresses this way.
$ dig allocbn.mobi
; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> allocbn.mobi
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26203
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 14, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;allocbn.mobi. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 200.167.230.85
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 69.247.175.135
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 71.56.42.87
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 72.187.108.240
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 74.138.199.132
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 75.66.193.0
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 75.143.150.108
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 76.175.178.111
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 98.165.213.34
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 98.192.74.13
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 98.223.61.12
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 99.233.217.232
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 118.160.173.122
allocbn.mobi. 600 IN A 190.18.116.54
The DNS answer has a short time to live (600 seconds - 10 minutes) and the IP addresses are located in many different networks - a typical sign for fast-flux techniques. Most IP addresses are located in dial-up networks like Comcast and Roadrunner, presumably these machines are infected and compromised machines. When doing a DNS lookup a couple of minutes later, a different set of IP addresses is returned:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 208.107.82.31 [NEW]
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 71.56.42.87
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 72.177.224.125 [NEW]
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 72.187.175.42 [NEW]
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 75.143.150.108
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 76.171.151.145 [NEW]
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 76.175.178.111
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 81.203.14.159 [NEW]
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 92.233.227.123 [NEW]
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 98.165.213.34
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 98.192.74.13
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 98.223.61.12
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 99.233.217.232
allocbn.mobi. 493 IN A 156.34.132.62 [NEW]
This indicates the "fluxiness" of the domain. By DNS mining, i.e., performing DNS lookups of this domain every TTL +1 seconds, we can observe the botnet behind this attack. In the past week, we found about 1,000 unique bot IP addresses this way.


