Citadel malware now targets open source password managers

IBM Trusteer researchers recently discovered a new variant of the Citadel Trojan that targets several popular open source password managers. For high class cyber criminals it's a mentality that targeting to admin is better than to target all members one by one and new citadel malware works on this strategy.

According to the recently reports, millions of computers worldwide already infected with the Citadel malware, the researchers say it's easy for cybercriminals to provide updated instructions to those machines via a command and control (C&C) server.

The targeted processes include Password Safe (PWsafe.exe), which was designed by security expert Bruce Schneier, and KeePass (KeePass.exe). Both are open-source password managers. The variant also targets the nexus Personal Security Client used to secure financial transactions and other services that require heightened security.

Password managers have become popular in the wake of breaches that have exposed millions of end-user credentials. Users collect all their passwords in a “vault” that is protected by a master password. In addition to added security, users can devise long and complex passwords that are hard to guess and that they don't have to remember since the password manager fills in the password field on the user’s log-on screen.

KeePass and Password Safe both support two-factor authenticatin to help combat such attacks, including plug-ins, hardware tokens, and supprot for Google two-step verification and AWS multi-factor authentication.

IBM discovered the variant on a machine that was protected by IBM Trusteer, a suite of security software. IBM bought Trusteer, an Israel company, in Sept. 2013 for $1 billion.

The researchers say they are unsure how the variant got on the machine. In addition, the researchers said they did not know if it was an attack with a specific target or a random expedition by attackers to find what types of data they could collect.

“Password management and authentication programs are important solutions that help secure access to applications and Web Services,” Dana Tamir, director of enterprise security at Trusteer, wrote on IBM’s Security Intelligence blog.

“If an adversary is able to steal the master password and gains access to the user/password database of a password management solution or compromise authentication technology, the attacker can gain unfettered access to sensitive systems and information.”