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Update Protection against the Kneber/Zeus Botnet

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Check Point Reference: CPAI-2010-038
Date Published:
Severity:
Source: NetworkWorld
Protection Provided by: Security Gateway
  • R70
VPN-1
  • NGX R65
VSX
  • NGX R65
IPS-1
  • IPS-1
  • IPS-1 NGX R65
Who is Vulnerable?
Microsoft Windows machines
Vulnerability Description
Kneber (Zbot, BTN1) is a form of malware which is reported to have affected more than 74,000 PCs in 2,400 business and government systems around the world. Kneber, named after the username linking the infected computers worldwide (Hilary Kneber), is related to the ZeuS botnet, a malware botnet package that is readily available for sale and also traded in underground cybercriminal forums.

The Kneber/Zeus botnet gathers login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and e-mail systems from infested computers and reports the information back to botnet owners and their clients. They, in turn, use the information to break into accounts, steal corporate and government information as well as personal and financial identities.
Vulnerability Details
According to the researcher who discovered Kneber, Alex Cox from NetWitness, more than half of the computer systems in the Kneber botnet also have the Waledac Trojan, a worm known to create email spam botnets that was recently associated with conficker.

Protection Overview
The protection will detect and block attempts to connect to the Kneber/Zeus botnet.

In order for the protection to be activated, update your Security Gateway/VPN-1 product to the latest IPS/SmartDefense update. For information on how to update IPS/SmartDefense, go to SBP-2006-05, Protection tab and select the version of your choice.

To configure the defense, select your product from the list below and follow the related protection steps.

Security Gateway R70

How Can I Protect My Network?

1. In the IPS tab, click Protections > By Protocol > Web Intelligence > HTTP Client Protections > Botnet: Kneber.
2. In the right pane, double-click the Botnet:Kneber protection.
3. In the Protection Details window, click on Edit. Choose the protection's Action (Override IPS Policy with: Prevent/Detect), and apply Additional Settings.
4. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Botnet: Kneber

 

VPN-1 NGX R65 & VPN-1 VSX NGX R65

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the SmartDefense tab, click Web Intelligence > HTTP Client Protections.
2. Select the following protection:

Botnet Kneber

3. In the configuration pane, under Settings > Mode, check Active.
4. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Botnet: Kneber

 

IPS-1 & IPS-1 NGX R65

How Can I Protect My Network?
This attack can be mitigated by a previously released protection:
1. In the IPS-1 Policy Manager, click on the Protection tab.
2. In the Protection tree, click Network Security> DNS and select the Client protection group.
3. Click User-Defined bad DNS query (IPS-1 NGX R65 only).
4. In the configuration pane, under Settings, check Active.
5. Click on Install Policy.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
Upon attack, the following entries will be logged:

Alert Name: DNS Questions Alerts
Description: User-Defined bad DNS query