Welcome Spelevo: New exploit kit full of old tricks

Nick Biasini authored this post with contributions from Caitlyn Hammond .

Executive summary

Exploit kits are an ever-present and often forgotten threat on the landscape today. Their popularity seemed to peak several years ago with the success and eventual downfall of some of the best compromise platforms ever created, including the Angler Exploit Kit . These kits generated millions of dollars from their victims and they are still effective. One of their biggest appeals today is the removal of reliance on user assistance. Increasingly, on the crimeware landscape today, user assistance is required, whether it’s through blatant social engineering attacks like ongoing sextortion campaigns or through the countless malspam messages traversing the globe daily, users are required to help achieve infection. That is where exploit kits stand alone as an effective web-based platform for compromise that only requires users to surf the internet.

Today, Cisco Talos is unveiling the details of a new exploit kit campaign that proves exploit kits are still a threat and should be taken seriously by defenders: Spelevo. This recent campaign leveraged a compromised business-to-business site to deliver Spelevo, one of the first new kits we’ve seen in months.