Sophos Ransomware Protection

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This document explains how to react quickly and effectively to the
threats posed by ransomware such as Cryptowall, TeslaCrypt and Locky.
It first details the mechanisms that these infections use to find their way
into companies and why a large number of new infections continue to
surface despite existing protective measures.
It then provides practical recommendations to protect against them,
showing how these threats can be tackled using short-term and long-
term technical and organizational measures.
It also includes optimal configuration settings for Sophos solutions to
protect against ransomware.
How to stay protected
against ransomware
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How to stay protected against ransomware
Introduction
Ransomware has become one of the most widespread and damaging threats that internet
users face. Since the infamous CryptoLocker first appeared in 2013, we’ve seen a new era
of file-encrypting ransomware variants delivered through spam messages and Exploit Kits,
extorting money from home users and businesses alike.
The current wave of ransomware families can have their roots traced back to the early
days of FakeAV, through “Locker” variants and finally to the file-encrypting variants that are
prevalent today. Each distinct category of malware has shared a common goal – to extort
money from victims through social engineering and outright intimidation. The demands for
money have grown more forceful with each iteration.
Where does the current wave of ransomware
infection come from?
Even though most companies have extensive security mechanisms in place, such as virus
scanners, firewalls, IPS systems, anti-SPAM/anti-virus-email-gateways and web filters, we
are currently witnessing large numbers of infections worldwide with ransomware infections,
such as Cryptowall, TeslaCrypt and Locky. Files on computers and network drives are
encrypted as part of these infections in order to blackmail the users of these computers to
pay a sum of money, usually in the region of USD 200-500, for the decryption tool.
A common infection scenario may look like this:
ÌA user receives an email that comes from a seemingly plausible sender with an
attached document, a parcel service with attached delivery information or an
external company with an attached invoice.
ÌThe email attachment contains an MS Word or Excel document with an embedded
macro. If the recipient opens the document a macro will attempt to start
automatically, executing the following actions:
ÌIt tries to download the actual ransomware payload from a series of web
addresses that only exist momentarily. If a web address cannot be reached, the
next one is accessed until the payload has been downloaded successfully.
ÌThe macro executes the ransomware.
ÌThe ransomware contacts the command & control server of the attacker,
sends information about the infected computer and downloads an individual
public key for this computer.
ÌFiles of certain types (Office documents, database files, PDFs, CAD documents,
HTML, XML etc.) are then encrypted on the local computer and on all
accessible network drives with this public key.
ÌAutomatic backups of the Windows operating system (shadow copies) are often
deleted to prevent this type of data recovery.
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How to stay protected against ransomware
ÌA message then appears on the user’s desktop, explaining how a ransom (often
in the form of bitcoins) can be paid within a time frame of e.g. 72 hours to ensure
delivery of a suitable decryption tool with the private key that is only available in
the attacker’s system.
ÌThe ransomware will then delete itself leaving just the encrypted files and ransom
notes behind.
This is just an example of how such an infection scenario may play out. While email is a popular
technique to spread these threats, by no means is it the only approach. Exploit kits are also
common and, for example, the Angler exploit kit has been widely used to spread CryptoWall.
The rise of malicous JavaScript attachments
As awareness of the dangers of booby trapped documents grows, crooks are increasingly
turning to JavaScript attachments to spread ransomware. This approach is proving effective
because:
ÌWindows hides file extensions by default, so README.TXT.JS shows up as README.
TXT, making it look mostly harmless.
ÌWindows uses an icon for script files that looks like a scroll of paper (because scripts
are stored as text files), adding to the sense of harmlessness.
ÌBrowser JavaScript has become much safer in recent years, thanks to a proactive
attitude to security by browser makers, and to the "sandbox" in which web pages load
and execute. As a result JavaScript is often considered safe.
ÌAlmost all email clients have blocked JavaScript inside messages for many years.
As a result, it feels as though there should be nothing to lose in opening script files. The
problem is that when you launch a JavaScript file that's been saved to disk, it's no longer
"sandboxed" by your email program or your browser. It can do anything that a regular application
(.EXE file) can do - including downloading and running other applications, such as ransomware.
Why are ransomware attacks so successful?
The main reasons why these infections are successful are:
1. Sophisticated attack technology
ÌProducers of ransomware operate in a highly professional manner. This includes,
among other things, usually providing an actual decryption tool after the ransom has
been paid.
ÌSkillful social engineering is employed to prompt the user to execute the installation
routine of the ransomware. For example, you may get an email that reads something
like this: “If the encoding of the attached Word document seems incorrect, please
activate macros. This is done as follows...
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How to stay protected against ransomware
The most common way that Locky arrives is:
ÌYou receive an email containing an attached document.
Ì The document looks like gobbledegook.
ÌThe document advises you to enable macros “if the data encoding is incorrect.
Ì The hackers want you to click on the 'Options' button at the top of the page.
ÌThey use technologies to spread infections that are permitted in many companies
and in which malicious code can easily be disguised (Microsoft Office macros,
JavaScript, VBScript, CHM, Flash, Java).
ÌOnce you click Options, Locky will start to execute on your computer. As soon as it
is ready to ask you for the ransom, it changes your desktop wallpaper:
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How to stay protected against ransomware
2. Security weaknesses in affected companies
ÌInadequate backup strategy (no real-time backups, backups not offline/off-site)
ÌUpdates/patches for operating system and applications are not implemented
swiftly enough
ÌDangerous user/rights permissions (users work as administrators and/or have
more file rights on network drives than necessary for their tasks)
ÌLack of user security training (“Which documents may I open and from whom?”,
“What is the procedure if a document looks malicious, “How do I recognize a
phishing email?”)
ÌSecurity systems (virus scanners, firewalls, IPS, email/web gateways) are not
implemented or are not configured correctly. Inadequate network segmentation
can also be included here (servers and work stations in the same network)
ÌLack of knowledge on the part of administrators in the area of IT security (.exe files
may be blocked in emails but not Office macros or other active content)
ÌConflicting priorities (“We know that this method is not secure but our people have
to work...“)
Setting priorities
The last point pertaining to priorities must be challenged in particular. The argument that
“security only disrupts the users ... they have to get on with their work” often prevents many
useful safety-related measures from being implemented. In many cases, this argument
does not apply if the safety-related measures are planned with due care and adjusted to the
situation of the employees and the company.
In some cases, for example when an email is received or when Office documents with
macros are used internally, one has to be aware of what is more important for the company:
Example 1:
Every user can receive Office documents from the Internet and can also execute them
with macros on corporate computers.
Example 2:
Only the users of the specialist departments who have to work with Office macros
(order processing, accounting, sales) have authorization to execute Office macros in line
with the company's central policy.
If business partners send an email with an Office document to recipients in the
company, then this email is placed in quarantine. The recipient is informed of this and is
asked to confirm with the sender of the email that he or she actually sent it. After doing
this, the employee can then remove this email from quarantine automatically.
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How to stay protected against ransomware
Alternatively, he or she can ask the business partner to pack all future documents
into a password-protected ZIP archive whose password they both create during
this conversation. Such password-protected ZIP archives are never placed in email
quarantine; future emails will always arrive immediately and the transfer via email will
now also be encrypted.
Example 1 is definitely the simplest from an administration perspective. In Example 2 you
first have to find out which specialist departments have to receive Office documents from
business partners in the Internet; you have to define the appropriate group guidelines and
train the employees of the specialist departments. Nevertheless, implementing Example 2
is of course the more logical step if you want to improve security significantly by using
technical measures and by minimizing changes to employees’ working behavior.
In keeping with this example, the following recommended measures should always be
taken into account, considering what the consequences of non-implementation would be
and how these measures could be implemented so that they affect the user only as much
as is necessary.
Best practices to apply immediately
ÌBackup regularly and keep a recent backup copy off-site. There are dozens of
ways other than ransomware that files can suddenly vanish, such as fire, flood,
theft, a dropped laptop or even an accidental delete. Encrypt your backup and you
won’t have to worry about the backup device falling into the wrong hands.
ÌDon’t enable macros in document attachments received via email. Microsoft
deliberately turned off auto-execution of macros by default many years ago as
a security measure. A lot of malware infections rely on persuading you to turn
macros back on, so don’t do it!
ÌBe cautious about unsolicited attachments. The crooks are relying on the
dilemma that you shouldn’t open a document until you are sure it’s one you want,
but you can’t tell if it’s one you want until you open it. If in doubt, leave it out.
ÌDon’t give yourself more login power than you need. Most importantly, don’t
stay logged in as an administrator any longer than is strictly necessary, and avoid
browsing, opening documents or other “regular work” activities while you have
administrator rights.
ÌConsider installing the Microsoft Office viewers. These viewer applications let
you see what documents look like without opening them in Word or Excel itself. In
particular, the viewer software doesn’t support macros at all, so you can’t enable
macros by mistake!
ÌPatch early, patch often. Malware that doesn’t come in via document macros
often relies on security bugs in popular applications, including Office, your
browser, Flash and more. The sooner you patch, the fewer open holes remain for
the crooks to exploit.
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How to stay protected against ransomware
ÌKeep informed about new security features added to your business applications. For
example, Office 2016 now includes a control called "Block macros from running in
Office files from the internet" which helps protect you from external malicious content
without stopping you using macros internally.
ÌOpen .JS files with Notepad by default. This helps protect against JavaScript borne
malware by enabling you to identify the file type and spot suspicious files.
ÌShow files with their extensions. Malware authors increasingly try to disguise the
actual file extension to trick you into opening them. Avoid this by displaying files with
their extensions at all times.
Configuration settings for Sophos solutions
Sophos technologies protect and block malicious files and web traffic used by ransomware. To
enable your protection to work effectively, it's important to configure your solutions correctly.
Please ensure before making changes to your live environment you have run them in a test
environment first.
Sophos Endpoint Protection
If you manage Sophos Endpoint Security and Control via Sophos Enterprise Console, ensure
that the following settings have been made in the AV policy of all work stations and file servers/
terminal servers:
ÌOn-access-scan: on
ÌCheck files on Read, Rename, Write: on
ÌScan system memory: on
ÌDownload scans: on
ÌBlock access to malicious websites: on
ÌSophos Live Protection: on
ÌBehavior monitoring: on
Ì Detect malicious behavior: on
Ì Detect malicious traffic: on
Ì Detect buffer overflows: on
If you use Sophos Central-managed Endpoint Protection, then the following settings must be
made for all users:
ÌReal-time scanning: on
Sophos Endpoint customer can also use the Application Control feature to protect against
outside-the-browser script malware by blocking the Windows Script Host program WScript.exe:
Ì Application type: Programming/ Scripting tools
ÌMicrosoft WSH WScript: block
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How to stay protected against ransomware
If you use Sophos Central-managed Server Protection, configure your server as follows:
ÌReal-time scanning – local files...: all switches on
ÌReal-time scanning – Internet: all switches on
ÌReal-time scanning - Options:
ÌDetect malicious behavior: on
ÌLive protection: on
ÌActivate the “Server Lockdown” functionality
Configure email gateway correctly
A virus scan and a SPAM scan of all inbound and outbound emails must first be set up on the email
gateway, configured in accordance with the manufacturer's Best Practices.
If your email gateway provides sandboxing technology to analyze attachments, then activate this
function. The Sophos Email Appliance provides this function from Version 4.0; Sophos UTM
provides it from Version 9.4.
Also configure your email gateway in such a way that no executable attachments are allowed
through from incoming emails from the Internet, including Office documents, VBS, JavaScript, Java,
ActiveX, CHM.
Sophos recommends in particular that you quarantine files types with the following extensions (.ade,
.adp, .bas, .bat, .chm, .cla, .class, .cmd, .com, .cpl, .exe, .hlp, .hta, .inf, .ins, .js, .jse, .lnk, .msc, .msi, .mst,
.ocx, .pcd, .pif, .reg, .scr, .sct, .shb, .shs, .url, .vb, .vbs, .vbe, .wsf, .wsh, and .wsc). It is also important to
scan unencrypted archives for these files and place them in quarantine if necessary.
There is a predefined rule for this with the Sophos Email Appliance - “Threat Protection ->
SophosLabs Suspect Attachments to all”.
Emails with these types of attachments should be placed in quarantine and the recipient should be
notified that a corresponding email is in quarantine (e.g. by replacing the original attachment with a
message explaining that the attachment is in quarantine and how you should now proceed).
If you use the Sophos Email Appliance enable the 'Delay queue' in "Policy -> SMTP Options -> Delay
Queue". When turned on, the appliance will delay suspected spam that was not caught on the first
round of scanning between 10 - 60 mins, and rescan it afterwards. This will help prevent spam
campaigns from being delivered on initial arrival.
Depending on the email solution, the organization and the training that the employees have received,
the emails can be released from quarantine either by the email administrators or by the original
recipients of the email - after the recipient in question has verified (e.g. after calling the sender of the
email) that it is a valid email.
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How to stay protected against ransomware
Configure web gateway
Configure your web gateway in such a way as to scan all downloads for viruses and block
known web addresses and mechanisms for communication with command & control
servers. Activate the scanning of SSL connections in each case. If your web gateway provides
sandboxing technology to analyze downloads, then activate this function.
Configure the Sophos UTM as follows:
ÌATP: Network Protection -> Advanced Threat Protection: on
ÌWeb Filter Profile -> Filter Action -> Anti-Virus -> Anti-Virus Scan: Dual Scan
ÌWeb Filter Profile -> Filter Action -> Anti-Virus -> Sandstorm: on (from UTM 9.4)
ÌWeb Filter -> HTTPS -> Decrypt and Scan
ÌBlock web filter categories:
ÌAnonymizers
ÌBrowser exploits
ÌDangerous downloads
ÌMalicious sites
ÌPhishing
ÌSPAM URLs
ÌProgram data is anonymized (also anonymizing utilities)
Configure the Sophos XG/SF-OS Firewall as follows:
ÌATP: On the dashboard -> go to the right column and click “Advanced Threat
Protection” -> Configure -> “Advanced Threat Protection: on”
ÌWeb Content Filter -> Scanning: Dual Anti-Virus
ÌIn each relevant policy rule -> Malware Scan -> Decrypt & Scan HTTPS: on
ÌIn each relevant policy rule -> Web filter policy with blocked categories:
ÌAnonymizers
ÌCommand & Control
ÌPhishing & Fraud
ÌSPAM URLs
Configure the Sophos Web Appliance as follows:
ÌGlobal Policy -> HTTPS Scanning: on
ÌGlobal Policy -> Sandstorm: on
ÌBlock web filter categories: Proxies & translators
All other malicious URLs (phishing, spyware, SPAM, high risk sites) are blocked by
default and the virus scan is activated.
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Configure firewall/intrusion prevention system
A dedicated IPS or an IPS integrated into a firewall/UTM should be configured in such a way
that the command & control communication is blocked.
In the Sophos UTM you use the IPS policy to block communication:
ÌNetwork Protection -> Intrusion Prevention -> Attack Pattern
ÌMalware
In the Sophos XG/SF-OS Firewall you use the IPS policy to block communication:
ÌPolicies -> Intrusion Prevention Category
ÌMalware Communication
Additional measures to secure against
ransomware
Employee awareness/training
In addition to the immediate measures described above , it's important that all employees
receive regular IT security training. The success of these measures should also be checked
regularly.
Sophos provides a number of free tools to help educate employees on security threats,
including IT Security DOs and DON'Ts and the Threatsaurus. See the further reading section
at the end of this paper for links to these resources.
Segmentation of the company network
Security measures at the gateway are rendered useless if a computer that is introduced to the
network without authorization (private notebook, computer belonging to the service provider,
company notebook with outdated virus protection) is allowed to infiltrate these measures.
Network Access Control (NAC) solutions, for example, can help against the threat of an
unauthorized device in the network by only allowing known computers access to the network.
Therefore, in general, the principle that each system only has access to those resources that
are necessary to fulfill the relevant tasks should also apply to the network design.
In the network area, this also means that you separate functional areas with a firewall, e.g. the
client and server networks. The relevant target systems and services can only be accessed if
this is really necessary. The backup servers can then only be accessed from the work stations,
for example, via the port required by the backup solution, not via Windows file system access.
As a result, you must also consider applying a client firewall to work stations or servers
because there is usually no reason for work stations or servers to have communication with
each other, unless it relates to known services. This method can also help to prevent waves of
infection within a network.
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Encrypting company data
Suitable encryption of company documents can help to prevent malware from obtaining
unencrypted access to confidential documents. This prevents damage caused by the outflow
of business-relevant documents.
Think of security as a system
In many companies, security components (e.g. firewall, VPN, IPS, endpoint security,
encryption, web security, email security, mobile management, WLAN management) run
alongside each other in parallel without these components communicating with each other,
correlating results or being able to trigger automatic countermeasures when potential
security incidents arise.
However, if these security components were able to communicate with each other and
trigger automatic actions to safeguard the entire system in the event of potential security
incidents - that is, act as a system - then the overall security of the infrastructure would be
increased significantly.
Sophos' synchronized security approach enables you to share intelligence in real time
between your endpoints and firewall. By automating threat discovery, investigation, and
response, synchronized security gives you unparalleled protection against advanced threats.
To find out more visit www.sophos.com/heartbeat
Deploy malicious traffic detection capabilities
It's essential to react quickly to new threats. Malicious Traffic Detection, which is available
in Sophos Endpoint Protection, detects communications between a compromised endpoint
and an attacker’s servers. The Malicious Traffic Detection automatically identifies offending
software and stop it from running to prevent potential damage or data loss.
Use security-analysis tools
Even if you implement all of the above measures, you can never guarantee with 100%
certainty that security incidents/infections in company computers will be prevented in the
future. However, if an incident does occur, it is vital that the source of the infection and
any potential effects on other company systems are identified as quickly as possible and
contained. This can help to reduce the time and effort required to identify and correct the
affected systems and restore functionality to the IT infrastructure drastically. In addition, by
identifying the source and the method of infection, potential vulnerabilities in the security
concept can be highlighted and eliminated.
IT Security Best Practices
Many of the measures proposed in this document are “Best Practices” in IT security and
should in fact be long established in the company, just like some other measures that have
not been mentioned here, e.g. strong passwords. We recommend regular security check-ups/
health checks to identify potential security deficits and to be up to date when it comes to
technical and organizational options for protecting your IT infrastructure.
How to stay protected against ransomware
05/16.NP.wpna.simple
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Email: salesasia@sophos.com
Ransomware is a very present risk for all organizations, and indications
suggest that it is not going away any time soon. It is therefore essential
to take immediate steps to secure your organization against this type of
attack. By following both the short and longer term recommendations
outlined in this document, organizations will take significant steps to
protect themselves against ransomware infections.
Further reading
Sophos technical whitepaper on ransomware
Sophos blog post on Locky
Sophos blog post on ransomware
IT Security DOs and DON'Ts
Threatsaurus
New macro controls in Microsoft Office 2016
Sophos blog post on the rise of malicious JavaScript attachments
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to
providing complete security solutions that are simple to deploy, manage, and use that deliver the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos
offers award winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile, server and network security backed by SophosLabs—a global network of
threat intelligence centers. Read more at www.sophos.com/products.
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