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Security IT

Zeus Crimeware Kit Source Code Leaked 121

Trailrunner7 writes "The source code to the infamous Zeus crimeware kit, which has been sold on underground forums for years, has been leaked and is now available for anyone to see if they know where to look. Security researchers over the weekend noticed that files appearing to contain the source code for the Zeus crimeware kit were starting to pop up on various forums frequented by attackers and cyber-criminals. The Zeus exploit kit is perhaps the most well-known kit of its kind right now, and has been used by a variety of attackers for numerous malware campaigns and targeted attacks."
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Zeus Crimeware Kit Source Code Leaked

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  • by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @09:37AM (#36093056) Homepage Journal

    This story is useless without the actual source code attached to it.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @09:42AM (#36093100)

      http://www.thehackernews.com/2011/05/finally-source-code-of-zeus-crimeware.html

      You're welcome.

      • by thijsh ( 910751 )
        Thank you very much! The RAR archive [krash.in] (9.2Mb, password 'zeus') contains the Zeus source code alright (almost 60 KLOC of C++ and PHP with 10 KLOC of Russian comments). Interesting to see how the different parts work, I hope someone does an English translation for all non-Russian-speaking security researchers...
        • by doperative ( 1958782 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @10:01AM (#36093298)

          Says "PWS-Zbot.gen.ds trojan detected" here ...

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Duh.

          • by TypoNAM ( 695420 )
            Yep, clamwin reported this:

            F:\zeus\ZeuS 2.0.8.9\output\builder\zsb.exe: Trojan.Spy.Zbot-142 FOUND
            F:\zeus\ZeuS 2.0.8.9\output\client32.bin: Trojan.Spy.Zbot-142 FOUND


            ----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
            Known viruses: 950447
            Engine version: 0.97
            Scanned directories: 49
            Scanned files: 436
            Infected files: 2

            Data scanned: 36.92 MB
            Data read: 34.83 MB (ratio 1.06:1)
            Time: 15.219 sec (0 m 15 s)

            So, basically the zeus.rar archive contains a few precompiled executables that I assume were created with the pro
            • Big deal, open the application in a sandbox, take a look at the log's. and as the poster above commented, most likely examples.

            • Well, no reason to bother with an MD5 for this download; you know it's what it says it is...

          • +5 insightful. Or funny? Can't decide.
        • There are several different ways to have Google Translate do the heavy lifting for you. I'll bet that the machine translation will be good enough for you to get the gist of the message.

        • I find it hilarious that the download links are almost all broken.

        • I hope someone does an English translation for all non-Russian-speaking security researchers...

          I thought you programmer types enjoyed learning new languages.

          (I do speak a little Russian, but nowhere near enough to even consider trying something like this.)

      • Wish I had mod points.... never when you need them.
      • But this is not the full source... I have uploaded the full source here: http://www.myupload.dk/showfile/908525d7de1.zip/ [myupload.dk] (can't guarantee how long time the link will work).
  • by Manip ( 656104 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @09:41AM (#36093094)
    This news is good for the security researchers and anti-virus companies to a certain degree, but bad for the rest of us. Zeus is extremely well written and extendible. Now "everyone" has access to it.

    The ironic part about charging people for access was that it kept the number of criminals with access to the world's best crimeware kit down, and now the floodgates have opened.
    • by x*yy*x ( 2058140 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @09:51AM (#36093188)
      But isn't open source a good thing? Now everyone can improve it and so on..
      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        My company is on it...after a year through our processes, zeus will be so broken and useless no one will want to use it.

        •     Bob, I told you to stay off of Slashdot while you're suppose to be "working". We all know you don't do much of anything, but referencing your coworkers as incompetent slackers really doesn't make you any new friends.

              Now get back to work. You've been doing that "simple" change for 2 months now. Get it done with so we can present it to the customer.

        • My company is on it...after a year through our processes, zeus will be so broken and useless no one will want to use it.

          So, who do you work for? Apple or Microsoft?

        • by ae1294 ( 1547521 )

          My company is on it...after a year through our processes, zeus will be so broken and useless no one will want to use it.

          A year? WOW we only get three months per project! Where do you work?

          • Are you saying that you keep the product managers and marketing from feature bombing you 3 days from code complete by employing some magical force barrier? DO WANT!
            • by ae1294 ( 1547521 )

              Are you saying that you keep the product managers and marketing from feature bombing you 3 days from code complete by employing some magical force barrier? DO WANT!

              No.. they just won't let us leave until it's finished.

    • I see a the dawn of a new era for the script kiddies of the dark corners of the interwebs.

      I give it till tomorrow before we see new variants popping up if we are lucky.

    • by jimicus ( 737525 )

      You know what? I'm not entirely convinced.

      It may lead to stronger heuristics, but I can also see it leading to about a thousand variants, all just different enough to avoid tripping a scanner.

      • Google the term "packer".
        • Packed executable code has to be unpacked at some point before it is executed, and if the virus scanner is actively monitoring processes it can detect it at that point.

          • I am not a skilled reverser, but I have read about a solution to this problem: waiting out the antivirus sandbox by either doing seemingly harmless things for long enough or burying the malware code inside another executable (code cave, pushing code forwards and recalculating the references, etc.) referencing it from a place in the executable that is guaranteed to execute but after the sandbox timeout. AFAIK no antivirus scans process memory at intervals or otherwise "actively monitors" the memory of proces
        • I Tried that....
          But I cant for the life of me figure out what FUDGE has to do with viruses.

    • Well theoretically wouldn't that also give microsoft and security vendors a chance to adapt, patch the holes and flaws that allow the kit to work in the first place? Sure it's a huge extra fear since the source code is out and it can adapt to new holes faster, but I'd imagine the ones who were capable of finding and exploiting vulnerabilities were already a threat.
    • by qpqp ( 1969898 )
      Strangely, I had a feeling you were talking about governments when reading your post; I'd be less worried about "traditional" criminals.
  • Success! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by binarylarry ( 1338699 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @09:45AM (#36093128)

    Chalk up another victory for Open Source!

    Err wait...

  • by halfdan the black ( 638018 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @09:52AM (#36093200)
    Why do Windows users get all kinds of great software like this, now with the source, maybe we can finally get some really great malware for Linux.
    • With all of the money and PR behind Windows, surely it can't be for the lack of trying.

      Although to be fair I had a Linux box rooted back in 2001, due to some carelessness on my own part. Still have the trojan code, too...

      • by rednip ( 186217 )

        Still have the trojan code, too...

        While it shouldn't be confusing, do you have it running as some sort of 'honey pot', or are you just a bit hoarder?

        One of the things that people often tout about Linux is it's strong security model; however, I'll believe it's a true advantage when I even see a majority of system admins avoid the use of root for day to day activities/ process users.

      • I can up you on that one. Well, kinda.

        I worked for a company that had "free hosting" servers. They were honestly free for customers that used our payment system. Since anyone could sign up, anyone did. We had all kinda of neat root kits, PHP shells, back doors, and the like installed. I'd sweep on a regular basis looking for them. We were locked down tight enough so they never broke very much of anything The worse would be someone would exploit something a user install

    • Dude! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
    • Why do Windows users get all kinds of great software like this, now with the source, maybe we can finally get some really great malware for Linux.

      You jest, but your joke is confused. A "Linux port" would mean that users of Linux would be able to use the attack toolkit -- not that they would suddenly become susceptible to the Windows exploit vectors.

      Thus a port wouldn't enable us to create malware targeting Linux any more than a Windows port of GCC suddenly makes MS Visual Studio better.

      • by Skapare ( 16644 )

        It depends on what parts of it you do the porting on. Where there is a piece of code that attacks some Windows exploit, you have to "port it" so that it attacks some Linux exploit. That's probably harder to do, but not impossible. Create enough incentive (like getting 100 million moms with credit cards to use Linux), and it will be solved in no time.

  • ... are going to sue any one for leaking their code?

    =)

  • jam3s? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @10:34AM (#36093690)

    Doing a little forensics on the solutions file for the visual studio project, we can see that the username the hackers users on his Windows box is "jam3s". There are several strings in the solutions file that reference this username:

    C : \ U s e r s \ j a m 3 s \ D e s k t o p \ Z e u s \
    C : \ U s e r s \ j a m 3 s \ D e s k t o p \ Z e u s \ s o u r c e \ c l i e n t \ c o r e . c p p

    I've seen this handle before in a lot of other malware designed to steal logon credentials and financial data.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      funny... there's a jam3s on twitter [twitter.com] who appears to be an intern [itspj.com] at Intel [foursquare.com] in the UK. but surely that must just be a coincidence.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I think it might be this guy:

      http://www.jam3s.net/

      "Computers ~
      I have a passion for computers and I learned about many different aspects of computers in terms of dialup service, networking, software, anti-virus / malware, website design, databases, servers, etc. I am always learning stuff with computers as computers are ever-changing. I have designed a few websites for different nonprofit organizations and companies. Microsoft sadly is my least favorite software company, however at the same time it is my fav

    • Doing a little forensics on the solutions file for the visual studio project, we can see that the username the hackers users on his Windows box is "jam3s". There are several strings in the solutions file that reference this username:

      So, are we dealing with jamtrees that jam some sweet jazz music, or are those trees that produce jam (and if so, which flavour)?

  • What is the Zeus Crimeware Kit? I'm assuming it's something to help write viruses? I really don't know.

    seriously, I dont know what it is.
    • OK I will explain.
      Since the rise of modern religions like Christianity and Judaism, The Gods of the older religions, such as the Norse Gods and the Greek Gods have gotten left behind.
      With nothing to do some of them have taken up hobbies.
      Hestia has her own show on the Food network. Good recipes btw, although she tends to over use the Greek yogurt to much for my tastes.
      Aphrodite started a marriage consoling service with Hera.
      Poseidon opened up a water park, the rides were great but it was shut down due to leg

    • It's a kit to assemble credit-card stealing keylogger worms. Select the expliots to use, select the payloads, tell it where to send the data, what your command and control servers are, compile, and steal data.
  • Thinking about this over dinner, I came to a thought about HOW this got put into general availability.

    This crimeware kit is like $10,000 a go. If I where the developer, I would be very careful about where copies go and security on the local machine. So either this guy, or his backups got hacked, or the other potential way it got out is through a trusted client or similar.

    It would be sweet irony if the malware developer got pawned by another piece of malware, but I guess we will never know.

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