Skype-based malware shows how 'peculiar' malicious code can be


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Malware often does strange things, but this one -- which looked like Skype installed on a corporate domain controller -- was most "peculiar," says Jim Butterworth, a security expert at ManTech International, whose security subsidiary HBGary recently found the custom-designed remote-access Trojan on a customer's network.
The Skype-looking specimen first seemed to simply be supporting Skype communications traffic, but it was installed in an unusual directory location and configured to operate as a standalone VoIP application. One of the tip-offs that it was malware was the strange network traffic spike occurring during off-peak hours and difficulties that systems administrators had getting to the domain controller. A close look at the Skype specimen in the executables removed from the domain controller showed a creative attacker had used a modified version of the old Skype software development kit (SDK) and turned it into a remote-access Trojan to steal corporate data.
This malicious software had accomplished what some had predicted about eight years ago could be done to exploit Skype when “researchers discovered the ability to use Skype as a remote-control procedure,” says Butterworth, executive director of commercial services at ManTech.
 
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