One of the vital infamous suppliers of abuse-friendly “bulletproof” webhosting for cybercriminals has began routing its operations by way of networks run by the Russian antivirus and safety agency Kaspersky Lab, KrebsOnSecurity has realized.
Safety consultants 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 providers marketed on Russian cybercrime boards underneath 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 repute for ignoring authorized calls for and abuse complaints. And BEARHOST has been cultivating its repute since at the least 2019.
“For those who want a server for a botnet, for malware, brute, scan, phishing, fakes and every 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 often hosts malware operations reminiscent of SocGholish and GootLoader, that are unfold primarily through pretend browser updates on hacked web sites and sometimes lay the groundwork for extra severe cyber intrusions — together with ransomware.
A pretend browser replace web page pushing cellular 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 determine 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 way of networks operated by Kaspersky Lab in Moscow.
Kaspersky didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.
Kaspersky started promoting antivirus and safety software program in the US in 2005, and the corporate’s malware researchers have earned accolades from the safety neighborhood for a lot of necessary discoveries through the years. However in September 2017, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) barred U.S. federal businesses 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 experiences quoting nameless authorities officers referenced two incidents. Zetter wrote:
In line with one story, an NSA contractor growing offensive hacking instruments for the spy company had Kaspersky software program put in on his dwelling laptop the place he was growing the instruments, and the software program detected the supply code as malicious code and extracted it from his laptop, as antivirus software program is designed to do. A second story claimed that Israeli spies caught Russian authorities hackers utilizing Kaspersky software program to go looking buyer methods for information 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 manner that each one antivirus software program detects information 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 staff 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 knowledge gathered final 12 months by the Interisle Consulting Group ranked internet hosting networks by their measurement and focus of spambot hosts, and discovered Prospero had the next spam rating than every 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 information present the connection between Prospero and Kaspersky began firstly 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 providers to assist shield prospects from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults, and Madory mentioned it might be that Prospero is just 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 risk 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 connect with the remainder of the Web over your infrastructure,” Edwards mentioned.
