Backdoor Trojan masquerading as KLM e-ticket

As many flyers tend to book their tickets online and receive them in electronic form, it’s no wonder that malware peddlers often choose to deliver their malicious wares via spam campaigns impersonating big airlines.

The latest of these attempts takes the form of an email supposedly sent by KLM. It looks pretty believable as it uses a legitimate KLM e-ticket layout, but the fake ticket is missing crucial information that is purportedly contained in the attachment (KLM-e-Ticket_.zip).

Websense researchers have analyzed two malicious binaries extracted from two different attachments used in this campaign, and have discovered that they both allow remote shell access to the compromised machine via telnet to port 8000.

According to the researchers, the same binaries (but with a different name) have recently been used in two other malicious spam campaigns impersonating Microsoft and Telstra.

“Although this scam does not specifically target KLM customers, those who have made recent ticket purchases as well as recipients who may fear that an unauthorized credit card purchase has been made could fall victim,” the researchers point out the scheme’s potential.