It’s not just Ukraine: There’s a flood of intel on Russian military, nukes and crooks, suggests dark-web intel skilled Vinny Troia, even with the Conti ransomware gang shuttering its leaking Jabber chat server.
Data about nuclear plants and air drive abilities. Conti ransomware gang crooks conjecturing that the Countrywide Security Company (NSA) was it’s possible at the rear of the mysterious, months-prolonged TrickBot lull. Doxxed facts about 120K Russian troopers.
Individuals are just some of the sensitive, important knowledge that’s becoming hacked out of Russia in the cyber war zone – a war that erupted even before the state invaded Ukraine.
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“Everyone is so focused on Russia hacking the entire world, but the earth has been hacking Russia…. And dumping a good deal of critical info on armed service, nuclear vegetation, and so forth.,” said Vinny Troia, cybersecurity Ph.D. and founder of ShadowByte, a dark web threat intelligence and cyber fraud investigations firm.
He’s a person of an untold quantity of professionals on dark-web threat intelligence who’ve been pouring about the intel that’s been flooding out of virtually just about every nook and cranny of the internet: facts that’s staying posted on Twitter, Telegram and in just the numerous dumps of insider knowledge about the Conti ransomware gang posted by the Ukrainian supporter ContiLeaks/vx_underground.
That ongoing dump, which has involved resource code for Conti and TrickBot, a decryptor (that does not assist latest victims whose information have been encrypted by the Conti gang, regrettably), and substantially extra, stopped yesterday when the Conti gang shut down its Jabber servers, Troia instructed Threatpost on Wednesday.
He visited the Threatpost podcast to update us on the mountain of details about Russia that intelligence professionals are now slogging by.
You can obtain the podcast below or hear here. For more podcasts, check out Threatpost’s podcast web-site. Also, see under for a evenly edited transcript.
Frivolously Edited Transcript
Lisa Vaas: Listeners, welcome to the Threatpost podcast. My visitor currently is Vinny Troia, cybersecurity PhD and founder of ShadowByte, a dark web risk intelligence and cyber fraud investigations agency. Now, we’re going to concentrate on all of the facts which is remaining leaked on Russia as a outcome of its invasion of Ukraine.
Lisa Vaas: Many thanks for coming on the podcast. Vinny, right before we jump in, could you give us a little bit of your track record, be sure to?
Vinny Troia: Confident. Many thanks for acquiring me. Of course. So my track record I occur from a DOD track record did a great deal of do the job for area deployment command. And yeah, I was there for about, I assume 6 or seven many years before shifting about to non-public sector.
Vinny Troia: And although I was there, you know did a ton of operate in compliance and you know, random security hacking jobs, a good deal of red teaming, pen testing. And then inevitably I commenced my personal firm. You know, fast ahead to right now you know, our aim now is principally working with a whole lot of ransomware conditions, incident response you know, we do a ton of ransom negotiations as effectively.
Vinny Troia: So we’re constantly centered on, you know, dark web menace actors and you know, any of the players genuinely.
Lisa Vaas: Thank you for that. And very well this previous week will have to be just a flurry with the dark web exercise all-around Ukraine and Russia. So in an email, you were being chatting about how every person is so focused on Russia hacking the world, but the entire world has been also hacking Russia and dumping a ton of critical information on navy nuclear vegetation, and so forth.
Lisa Vaas: Where by is your Intel coming from? Are there any boards in individual that you’re clued into or is that anything you cannot even focus on?
Vinny Troia: it is not even like that. It’s a, I necessarily mean, it is actually almost everywhere. I imply, there’s Telegram channels. I signify, some is just becoming pasted proper on Twitter.
Vinny Troia: I signify, it is practically coming from all angles at this position.
Lisa Vaas: Nicely, tell me what you’re looking at.
Vinny Troia: I’d say very last thirty day period, there was a ton of facts coming out about Ukrainian citizens. I imply, a great deal. So that was type of appealing, nearly like a precursor to what was occurring.
Vinny Troia: And now it’s nearly like, you know, the rest of the globe which is really pissed and begun hacking again and you’re looking at so much info coming out. I’m basically searching for sorry, as we discuss, I’m likely by way of some of this data. I indicate, there’s things on a nuclear crops, some of their air power abilities.
Vinny Troia: There is a different database that I just a short while ago came throughout that is about a hundred thousand of their armed service members with photographs, passport quantities, points like that. I signify, it is seriously just data coming from all depths of. From other infrastructure,
Lisa Vaas: very well, who, who, who is the principal sources?
Lisa Vaas: I suggest, I know that nameless of class has jumped in to, to, to wage war on behalf of Ukraine, cyber war on behalf of Ukraine. And I know that you can put out a contact for assistance from cyber gurus on this much too. So who, who specifically is, is. Hacking this things out of Russia.
Vinny Troia: I mean, I, honestly, I couldn’t tell you, I imply, it’s coming, like I mentioned, it is coming from all types of places.
Vinny Troia: Proper. And when, when items get leaked, I suggest, they just get leaked from various, you know, you know, individuals commence, you know, usernames on message boards or telegram channels. And so you never really know who it’s coming from. It is appealing that, you know, the environment variety of banded jointly versus this. And, you know, Russia was intended to have this big cyber arsenal versus them.
Vinny Troia: And, you know, it’s really amusing that Joe Biden didn’t point out security the moment in the state of the union very last night time, getting that it was such a huge deal and everybody’s been chatting about it.
Lisa Vaas: Yeah. And, and I recall it was an NBC information final week or, or was reporting on the huge cyber attack, big offensive.
Lisa Vaas: Offensives that were getting talked about at the white house, but then the white house denied that.
Vinny Troia: Perfectly, but, and even, so the information has been all about cyber attacks and Russia’s capabilities and, you know, it is these a precedence, but it just was not even stated the moment. I just, I locate that actually odd, but regardless you know, it is, it is pleasant that the globe kind of banded with each other to truly.
Vinny Troia: Occur right after Russia and you know, just one of the most, truthfully, just extremely fascinating things is all these leaks that have been taking place with regards to the Conti ransomware. Indeed. And they’re arguably, you know, the most significant or at least just one of the leading few major ransomware teams in the entire world. And I signify, they are just possessing almost everything leak, a resource code, recovery, keys, chat logs.
Vinny Troia: I imply, as early, as most new as now with the most current chat logs that came out, so somebody continue to has obtain to their servers and I have not even had a likelihood to go through the ones from the. But, I imply, there is genuinely great
Lisa Vaas: Intel. Damn. I just wrote up the second dump and I did not even know there was additional posted right now.
Lisa Vaas: Ah, it’s so tough to preserve up. Oh, damn very well. Let us can we talk a minimal bit about those dumps? Now as I have an understanding of it, I imply, it’s like, very well, the decrypter for version two of the Conti. LOC ransomware software program. Which is not even going to be usable to anyone since it was for an type of, for an older edition.
Lisa Vaas: Appropriate. So, so that’s, that is not usable, but and, and also, ah, You know, how is this going to have an effect on Conti? A further a person of my resources was telling me that they there is just a person, just one of the groups, a person of the gangs teams that, that bought hit by this and everyone else is very substantially doing high-quality. And they are, they are form of carrying on business as regular.
Vinny Troia: I think, I consider what’s definitely exciting. And they talked about this in one of the, in some of the logs. So Conkey makes use of or made use of this one particular. Named piece of application called trick bot in get to disseminate and in actuality clients, and one of the or grouping of the chat log confirmed that the NSA arrived just after trick bots exclusively.
Vinny Troia: I really do not know whether or not they reverse engineered or what they did, but I imply, they were equipped to shut it down for a pair of months just by. Modifying patch quantities and uploading them to a server that would acknowledge the adjustments. And so what they did was they maxed out it will, they maxed out the utmost patch selection.
Vinny Troia: And so the provide the. The software package could not acquire any new updates at that issue. So they properly shut it down for a small little bit. That was truly genuinely incredible.
Lisa Vaas: I completely missed that. Which, which repository was that in? What’s the identify of the repository? You know,
Vinny Troia: offhand. It’s all Jason documents. I could not even
Lisa Vaas: all right.
Lisa Vaas: Ok. Due to the fact. I mean, we reported everyone. Everyone understood that trick bot quite a lot shut down for a couple of months, but I did not, I did not know that about the NSA piece. That’s, that’s intriguing.
Vinny Troia: Alright. So, and I will say it’s presumed to be the NSA, but offered the degree of skill that was associated in we’ll connect with it finesse.
Vinny Troia: I would say it was some, it would have to be some federal government agency.
Lisa Vaas: What what’s in the the leak data files. Is it a chat chatter about that? That shutdown?
Vinny Troia: Yeah, it is mainly a couple, it is a handful of officials chatting about it and how they have been shut down and how they generally experienced to rebuild their infrastructure.
Vinny Troia: And I signify, they ended up down for a minimal bit and I indicate, ultimately they arrived back, but it just exhibits that you know, they ended up staying focused for you know, by, you know, nation states. But I necessarily mean, I believe the most interesting thing is, I signify, if this really is a Russian operated group, which is what it appears to be like Then the fact that all these files are being leaked, whether it’s from an insider or anyone who’s, you know, a researcher who’s attacking them exclusively.
Vinny Troia: I feel this is heading to have a main toll on Russia’s finances, in particular taking into consideration, I mean, this is a team that is averaging what a couple hundred million bucks a 12 months recurring revenue. I imply, that, that can’t be an simple strike for.
Lisa Vaas: Right. And, and I guess, effectively, if Russia’s economic system is, I signify, what, what, I I’m just musing out loud.
Lisa Vaas: I do not count on you to know this, but probably you do how much of Russia’s economy is truly coming from ransomware or other malware.
Vinny Troia: I feel the the greater part basically. So I think the the vast majority of Russia’s economic system is coming from some kind of crime period. I suggest, there’s not a entire whole lot heading on around there.
Vinny Troia: I indicate, it’s like a large wasteland,
Lisa Vaas: correct? And the, as like the, the, the underground members say defend the motherland, the motherland shields you. Except for when they want some Stooges to Arrest some reduced-level Stooges to make the us happier, what ever happened recently. Ok. Perfectly,
Vinny Troia: I indicate, as far as what I was gonna say, as considerably as the decryptor, I indicate, you’re right.
Vinny Troia: I necessarily mean, it is for an older model. I consider I saw some keys floating all-around as nicely, but you know what I suggest, new code is prepared on leading of aged code and it’s not like it was changed fully. So I would imagine that there will be some fallout from, you know, from that code base.
Lisa Vaas: Yeah, well, yeah, there’s a whole lot to go as a result of.
Lisa Vaas: There is a ton of code to go by. I hear. So what had been some other genuinely great fines in the in the intelligence that we’re receiving out of Russia in the course of this disaster?
Vinny Troia: I indicate, you know, it is like I pointed out before, I imply, it’s data on citizens, it’s info on navy associates. I I’ve found points on nuclear crops, so it is.
Vinny Troia: You know, I can not talk to what can be carried out with all of it, truthfully, but the position is it’s, it is there and you know, in the proper fingers, I’m certain it could be pretty practical.
Lisa Vaas: Right. Proper. Alright. Effectively, it it’s actually attention-grabbing. I don’t know what else to check with you about it. But you are just, you’re holding an eye on it frequently.
Lisa Vaas: I suppose, for the duration of these times, it’s just not heading to enable up.
Vinny Troia: No, you know, and like I said, You know, a pair of several hours ago we had much more leaks from their Jabber server. So I would visualize whoever has access, you know, has been capable to pull off a great deal down and I feel they in fact just shut it down last but not least.
Vinny Troia: Oh,
Lisa Vaas: so that suggests they they figured out, very well, they just shut down Jabber. That does not mean that they determine it out who the leaker is. Correct.
Vinny Troia: I imply the individual leaking it, it goes by VX underneath. But you know, no matter if or not he’s the one with access, you know, I really do not know. But the level is they, they figured out that any individual did have entry to their Jabber logs.
Vinny Troia: So now they’ve moved servers.
Lisa Vaas: Okay. But Vieques underground. I assumed they had been just a resource that was connected to Conti leaks, but a, there could be just one in the exact entity, I think.
Vinny Troia: Yeah. I can’t communicate to that.
Lisa Vaas: Yeah. Okay. Well, wonderful. What what else, what else can you inform listeners? What can you leave us with?
Vinny Troia: You know, I would say that. You know, just because Connie’s out doesn’t imply that the challenge is going absent at any time quickly. So be diligent and preserving up with your passwords and generating sure that you basically have clean passwords, simply because I suggest, wanting at these logs and how they are finding into a lot of these techniques, it is just applying other people’s recycled passwords.
Vinny Troia: You know, the hacks they are utilizing are not even that innovative. And I signify, even now the the greater part of hats are still. You know, brought on by reuse passwords.
Lisa Vaas: So yeah. Nicely, we can get some much more, we can get some intelligence out of like the exploits that they’re focusing on. I believe I noticed zero login was outlined as 1 and of system we, we know a lot about their instruments, their tooling proper now.
Lisa Vaas: Like the entire cobalt strike beacon factor. Well, I suggest,
Vinny Troia: cobalt strikes been a, a crimson teaming software without end. I signify, which is, I mean, that is just, it’s a, it is a staple. I imply, for pen testers, I indicate, it’s an amazing device. And so the actuality that they have been applying it, isn’t seriously a surprise. I indicate, just one of the points that cobalt Stripe does definitely nicely is it allows pen testing concerning groups.
Vinny Troia: So you can you can interact with other crew customers. So I imply, I could totally see why they would do one thing.
Lisa Vaas: Effectively, is there nearly anything surprising that was located in the dumps? It is just truly terrific things. I, I know that we’ve got like email, email addresses of, of some of the associates of the gang, but I, I really don’t know what variety of accomplished with that.
Vinny Troia: I suggest, you can use that to glance for other accounts, so their usernames and most likely begin to reverse back again to perhaps who they are. But I necessarily mean, there is so substantially information and facts listed here. I indicate, I haven’t even long gone by perhaps a 10th of it. I mean, it’s, it’s coming up too quickly. What
Lisa Vaas: are you going to appear for in particular?
Lisa Vaas: You just likely to applaud by way of it and just whatever jumps out you ain’t meant to be a good deal of.
Vinny Troia: Yeah, it can take it is a full-time yeah. Entire-time job. It takes a comprehensive-time crew at this place to go through all of this. I suggest, because then there was an additional thing that came out rocket chat logs from a rocket chat.
Vinny Troia: I signify, there’s countless numbers of logs here.
Lisa Vaas: Yeah, which is rather undesirable. When you have received a researcher, an Intel professional who claims he’s finding far too much right until the firehouse is open so large. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Effectively, all right. So, so, ok. So the takeaways for listeners or that and these, these leaks haven’t stopped, we do not even know how quite a few that VX underground is promising.
Vinny Troia: I mean, the simple fact that today’s leaks brought on the shutdown, I presume brought on a shut down of their Jabber server. I’m likely to say that properly has very significantly run dry. I don’t know what else is heading to be launched in terms of tools, but I’d say all of this has likely place a dent in every thing they’re executing for a very little little bit.
Lisa Vaas: Very well, we can hope so, but I never consider we ought to believe anything at all. And that is what you’re, you’re telling us, you know, they are even now likely to be lively and they are going to retool in any case. Appropriate. And come up resurface. So it is not,
Vinny Troia: yeah. Oh, no, I was likely to say, you know, providing credit history to Krebs on this just one, one of the items he documented on was that there was a conversation and I haven’t even created it to the set about how the ransomware groups have been getting investigated.
Vinny Troia: And an individual substantial up in the team basically told them, you know, they didn’t have anything at all to be concerned about. The investigation was going to go off of them. And that was right all-around the time that Russia took down rebel. So it was intriguing. It’s almost like the head insider details, or probably they’ve actually, we’re working for.
Lisa Vaas: Yeah, maybe. I imply I assume revel that I consider that take down was the one particular I was thinking about when I was contemplating of when I alluded to this sort of token tokenism token law enforcement action on Russia’s aspect to maybe make us shut up now it is like, yeah, they didn’t get any individual. And that manager at all lousy slob degree grunts Jesus.
Lisa Vaas: Ok, well awesome. Now I have to go go through Brian Krebs. Why did not I go through Brian Krebs previously currently? I have to do that. That’s like a prerequisite of the task. Ok, properly, Vinnie, until you’ve got just about anything else to incorporate, I’m likely to allow you go.
Vinny Troia: No, all good.
Lisa Vaas: I enjoy it. Thank you so a lot. Many thanks for coming on the podcast.
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