Probably the most infamous suppliers of abuse-friendly “bulletproof” website hosting for cybercriminals has began routing its operations by means of networks run by the Russian antivirus and safety agency Kaspersky Lab, KrebsOnSecurity has discovered.
Safety specialists say the Russia-based service supplier Prospero OOO (the triple O is the Russian model of “LLC”) has lengthy been a persistent supply of malicious software program, botnet controllers, and a torrent of phishing web sites. Final 12 months, the French safety agency Intrinsec detailed Prospero’s connections to bulletproof companies marketed on Russian cybercrime boards beneath the names Securehost and BEARHOST.
The bulletproof internet hosting supplier BEARHOST. This screenshot has been machine-translated from Russian. Picture: Ke-la.com.
Bulletproof hosts are so named after they earn or domesticate a popularity for ignoring authorized calls for and abuse complaints. And BEARHOST has been cultivating its popularity since not less than 2019.
“In case you want a server for a botnet, for malware, brute, scan, phishing, fakes and some other duties, please contact us,” BEARHOST’s advert on one discussion board advises. “We utterly ignore all abuses with out exception, together with SPAMHAUS and different organizations.”
Intrinsec discovered Prospero has courted a few of Russia’s nastiest cybercrime teams, internet hosting management servers for a number of ransomware gangs over the previous two years. Intrinsec mentioned its evaluation confirmed Prospero steadily hosts malware operations akin to SocGholish and GootLoader, that are unfold primarily by way of faux browser updates on hacked web sites and sometimes lay the groundwork for extra critical cyber intrusions — together with ransomware.
A faux browser replace web page pushing cell malware. Picture: Intrinsec.
BEARHOST prides itself on the flexibility to evade blocking by Spamhaus, a corporation that many Web service suppliers around the globe depend on to assist establish and block sources of malware and spam. Earlier this week, Spamhaus mentioned it observed that Prospero was instantly connecting to the Web by routing by means of networks operated by Kaspersky Lab in Moscow.
Replace, March 1, 9:43 a.m. ET: In a written assertion, Kaspersky mentioned it’s conscious of the general public declare in regards to the firm allegedly offering companies to a “bulletproof” website hosting supplier. Right here is their full assertion:
“Kaspersky denies these claims as the corporate doesn’t work and has by no means labored with the service supplier in query. The routing by means of networks operated by Kaspersky doesn’t by default imply provision of the corporate’s companies, as Kaspersky’s automated system (AS) path would possibly seem as a technical prefix within the community of telecom suppliers the corporate works with and offers its DDoS companies.”
“Kaspersky pays nice consideration to conducting enterprise ethically and guaranteeing that its options are used for his or her unique function of offering cybersecurity safety. The corporate is at the moment investigating the state of affairs to tell the corporate whose community may have served as a transit for a “bulletproof” website hosting supplier in order that the previous takes the mandatory measures.”
Kaspersky started promoting antivirus and safety software program in the USA in 2005, and the corporate’s malware researchers have earned accolades from the safety group for a lot of essential discoveries through the years. However in September 2017, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) barred U.S. federal companies from utilizing Kaspersky software program, mandating its removing inside 90 days.
Cybersecurity reporter Kim Zetter notes that DHS didn’t cite any particular justification for its ban in 2017, however media stories quoting nameless authorities officers referenced two incidents. Zetter wrote:
Based on one story, an NSA contractor growing offensive hacking instruments for the spy company had Kaspersky software program put in on his house pc the place he was growing the instruments, and the software program detected the supply code as malicious code and extracted it from his pc, as antivirus software program is designed to do. A second story claimed that Israeli spies caught Russian authorities hackers utilizing Kaspersky software program to look buyer programs for recordsdata containing U.S. secrets and techniques.
Kaspersky denied that anybody used its software program to seek for secret info on buyer machines and mentioned that the instruments on the NSA employee’s machine have been detected in the identical means that each one antivirus software program detects recordsdata it deems suspicious after which quarantines or extracts them for evaluation. As soon as Kaspersky found that the code its antivirus software program detected on the NSA employee’s machine weren’t malicious applications however supply code in improvement by the U.S. authorities for its hacking operations, CEO Eugene Kaspersky says he ordered employees to delete the code.
Final 12 months, the U.S. Commerce Division banned the sale of Kaspersky software program within the U.S. efficient July 20, 2024. U.S. officers argued the ban was wanted as a result of Russian regulation requires home corporations to cooperate in all official investigations, and thus the Russian authorities may pressure Kaspersky to secretly collect intelligence on its behalf.
Phishing information gathered final 12 months by the Interisle Consulting Group ranked internet hosting networks by their dimension and focus of spambot hosts, and discovered Prospero had the next spam rating than some other supplier by far.
AS209030, owned by Kaspersky Lab, is offering connectivity to the bulletproof host Prospero (AS200593). Picture: cidr-report.org.
It stays unclear why Kaspersky is offering transit to Prospero. Doug Madory, director of Web evaluation at Kentik, mentioned routing data present the connection between Prospero and Kaspersky began at first of December 2024.
Madory mentioned Kaspersky’s community seems to be internet hosting a number of monetary establishments, together with Russia’s largest — Alfa-Financial institution. Kaspersky sells companies to assist defend prospects from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults, and Madory mentioned it may very well be that Prospero is solely buying that safety from Kaspersky.
But when that’s the case, it doesn’t make the state of affairs any higher, mentioned Zach Edwards, a senior menace researcher on the safety agency Silent Push.
“In some methods, offering DDoS safety to a well known bulletproof internet hosting supplier could also be even worse than simply permitting them to hook up with the remainder of the Web over your infrastructure,” Edwards mentioned.
