Anti-virus companies like Symantec are interested in obtaining information about Botnets as they provide an excellent source on new kinds of malware. Once collected, these organizations publish information on Botnets, unfortunately at times this information is not enough. We can leverage honeypots to collect the necessary information ourselves as we demonstrate below. When it comes to publishing information on Botnets, organizations like Symantec take two common approaches.

  1. If the binary of the bot is recognized, it is ignored as its already known and documented.
  2. If the binary of the bot requires a new signature, they can publish data about the Botnet server.

We think that it is better to choose the second option. People who are using a virus scanner are not potential conscription victims, and nobody wants his Botnet getting published. But we show now that the information that is published by Symantec is not enough to actually track Botnets - it is just a pressure for the operators. The following section is an irssi session connecting and watching two Botnets. Commands and comments issued by us are color encoded.

  1. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.pejaybot.html#technicaldetails 
    
!home.pj34r.us *** Looking up your hostname...
!home.pj34r.us *** Couldn't resolve your hostname; using your IP address instead
-!- Welcome to the pj34r IRC Network secfcs!secfcs@google.com
// we honestly decided to strip out IP-address

-!- Your host is home.pj34r.us, running version Unreal3.2.2
-!- This server was created Mon Jan 10 2005 at 16:14:18 PST
-!- home.pj34r.us Unreal3.2.2 iowghraAsORTVSxNCWqBzvdHtGp lvhopsmntikrRcaqOALQbSeKVfMGCuzNT
-!- SAFELIST HCN MAXCHANNELS=25 CHANLIMIT=#:25 MAXLIST=b:60,e:60 NICKLEN=30 CHANNELLEN=32 TOPICLEN=307 KICKLEN=307 AWAYLEN=307 MAXTARGETS=20 WALLCHOPS
WATCH=128 are supported by this server
-!- SILENCE=15 MODES=12 CHANTYPES=# PREFIX=(qaohv)~&@%+ CHANMODES=be,kfL,l,psmntirRcOAQKVGCuzNSMT NETWORK=pj34r CASEMAPPING=ascii EXTBAN=~,cqnr
ELIST=MNUCT STATUSMSG=~&@%+ EXCEPTS CMDS=KNOCK,MAP,DCCALLOW,USERIP are supported by this server
-!- There are 1 users and 9360 invisible on 1 servers
-!- 2 operator(s) online
-!- 141 unknown connection(s)
-!- 26 channels formed
// the bots hang around in 26 (sic!) channels

-!- I have 9361 clients and 0 servers
-!- Current Local Users: 9361  Max: 9365
-!- Current Global Users: 9361  Max: 9365
// seems like a 10.000 Botnet on the first view.
// but this value is often inaccurate because attackers hardcode some values.

-!- MOTD File is missing
-!- Mode change [+iw] for user secfcs

/stats a
-!- /Stats flags:
-!- B - banversion - Send the ban version list
-!- b - badword - Send the badwords list
-!- C - link - Send the link block list
-!- d - denylinkauto - Send the deny link (auto) block list
-!- D - denylinkall - Send the deny link (all) block list
-!- e - exceptthrottle - Send the except trottle block list
-!- E - exceptban - Send the except ban block list
-!- f - spamfilter - Send the spamfilter list
-!- F - denydcc - Send the deny dcc and allow dcc block lists
-!- G - gline - Send the gline list
-!-   Extended flags: [+/-mrs] [mask] [reason] [setby]
-!-    m Return glines matching/not matching the specified mask
-!-    r Return glines with a reason matching/not matching the specified reason
-!-    s Return glines set by/not set by clients matching the specified name
-!- I - allow - Send the allow block list
-!- j - officialchans - Send the offical channels list
-!- K - kline - Send the ban user/ban ip/except ban block list
-!- l - linkinfo - Send link information
-!- L - linkinfoall - Send all link information
-!- M - command - Send list of how many times each command was used
-!- n - banrealname - Send the ban realname block list
-!- O - oper - Send the oper block list
-!- S - set - Send the set block list
-!- s - shun - Send the shun list
-!-   Extended flags: [+/-mrs] [mask] [reason] [setby]
-!-    m Return shuns matching/not matching the specified mask
-!-    r Return shuns with a reason matching/not matching the specified reason
-!-    s Return shuns set by/not set by clients matching the specified name
-!- P - port - Send information about ports
-!- q - bannick - Send the ban nick block list
-!- Q - sqline - Send the global qline list
-!- r - chanrestrict - Send the channel deny/allow block list
-!- t - tld - Send the tld block list
-!- T - traffic - Send traffic information
-!- u - uptime - Send the server uptime and connection count
-!- U - uline - Send the ulines block list
-!- v - denyver - Send the deny version block list
-!- V - vhost - Send the vhost block list
-!- X - notlink - Send the list of servers that are not current linked
-!- Y - class - Send the class block list
-!- Z - mem - Send memory usage information
-!- * End of /STATS report
// often attackers forget to switch this off

/stats P
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:9832, clients 452. is PERM
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:21045, clients 3. is PERM
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:8126, clients 7467. is PERM clientsonly
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:7000, clients 2. is PERM
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:5662, clients 0. is PERM
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:5226, clients 1573. is PERM
!home.pj34r.us *** Listener on 72.20.25.205:6971, clients 0. is PERM
-!- P End of /STATS report
// we never saw these values getting faked, so we take them as accurate guess.
// 10.000 Bots are only on a single server so far.

/stats T
-!- accepts 3876280 refused 3757278
-!- unknown commands 46 prefixes 0
-!- nick collisions 0 unknown closes 1196562
-!- wrong direction 0 empty 0
-!- numerics seen 0 mode fakes 0
-!- auth successes 0 fails 0
-!- local connections 0 udp packets 0
-!- Client Server
-!- connected 765951 0
-!- bytes sent 3075996.135K 0.0K
-!- bytes recv 901930.525K 0.0K
-!- time connected 1873628117 0
-!- incoming rate 0.00 kb/s - outgoing rate 2.00 kb/s

/stats u
-!- Server Up 4 days, 2:54:23
-!- Highest connection count: 9554 (9554 clients)
-!- u End of /STATS report

/map
11:53 -!- home.pj34r.us  (9394)  69
11:53 -!- End of /MAP

/links
11:53 -!- home.pj34r.us home.pj34r.us 0 DosNet Linux IRCd
11:53 -!- * End of /LINKS list.

/WHOIS -YES *

/list -YES *
-!- Channel Users  Name
-!- End of /LIST
// the botnet channels are set +sp
// so they are hidden from outside

    So we got the following information about this Botnet: It is a single-server network with about 10.000 clients on 26 channels. The server is listening on seven ports, but we lack any information about channels names or nickname structure. Thus we can not track botnets as close as we want to. The only possibility is to just add a randomly named client to that server. Maybe the operators of the botnet do not notice this strange client. And if we have a bit luck, they send interesting information to all clients via WALLMSG or the server gets linked somewhere.

  2. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.sdbot.aj.html#technicaldetails 
    -!- Irssi: Looking up moskemongo.biz
-!- Irssi: Connecting to moskemongo.biz [213.113.114.213] port 59
-!- Irssi: Connection to moskemongo.biz established
!MoskeMongo.BIZ *** Looking up your hostname...
!MoskeMongo.BIZ *** Found your hostname (cached)
!MoskeMongo.BIZ *** If you are having problems connecting due to ping timeouts, please type /quote pong EC38C51C or /raw pong EC38C51C now.
-!- Welcome to the ucofNET IRC Network secfcs!secfcs@google.com
-!- Your host is MoskeMongo.BIZ, running version Unreal3.2.2
-!- This server was created Tue Dec 14 2004 at 16:19:11 CET
-!- MoskeMongo.BIZ Unreal3.2.2 iowghraAsORTVSxNCWqBzvdHtGp lvhopsmntikrRcaqOALQbSeKVfMGCuzNT
-!- SAFELIST HCN MAXCHANNELS=10 CHANLIMIT=#:10 MAXLIST=b:60,e:60 NICKLEN=30 CHANNELLEN=32 TOPICLEN=307 KICKLEN=307 AWAYLEN=307 MAXTARGETS=20 WALLCHOPS
WATCH=128 are supported by this server
-!- SILENCE=15 MODES=12 CHANTYPES=# PREFIX=(qaohv)~&@%+ CHANMODES=be,kfL,l,psmntirRcOAQKVGCuzNSMT NETWORK=ucofNET CASEMAPPING=ascii EXTBAN=~,cqnr
ELIST=MNUCT STATUSMSG=~&@%+ EXCEPTS CMDS=KNOCK,MAP,DCCALLOW,USERIP are supported by this server
-!- There are 1 users and 1266 invisible on 1 servers
-!- 2 operator(s) online
-!- 5 unknown connection(s)
-!- 5 channels formed
-!- I have 1267 clients and 0 servers
-!- Current Local Users: 1267  Max: 2381
-!- Current Global Users: 1267  Max: 1439
// 1.2k is a small botnet, but quite destructive if you want it to be

-!- MOTD File is missing
// Message Of The Day (MOTD) is disabled on many botnets to save traffic

-!- Mode change [+iw] for user secfcs

/map
-!- MoskeMongo.BIZ  (1292)  1
-!- End of /MAP

/links
11:58 -!- MoskeMongo.BIZ MoskeMongo.BIZ 0 ucofNET main server
-!- * End of /LINKS list.

/list
-!- Channel Users  Name
-!- End of /LIST
// once again channels are hidden :\

/stats a
-!- /Stats flags:
-!- B - banversion - Send the ban version list
-!- b - badword - Send the badwords list
-!- C - link - Send the link block list
-!- d - denylinkauto - Send the deny link (auto) block list
-!- D - denylinkall - Send the deny link (all) block list
-!- e - exceptthrottle - Send the except trottle block list
-!- E - exceptban - Send the except ban block list
-!- f - spamfilter - Send the spamfilter list
-!- F - denydcc - Send the deny dcc and allow dcc block lists
-!- G - gline - Send the gline list
-!-   Extended flags: [+/-mrs] [mask] [reason] [setby]
-!-    m Return glines matching/not matching the specified mask
-!-    r Return glines with a reason matching/not matching the specified reason
-!-    s Return glines set by/not set by clients matching the specified name
-!- I - allow - Send the allow block list
-!- j - officialchans - Send the offical channels list
-!- K - kline - Send the ban user/ban ip/except ban block list
-!- l - linkinfo - Send link information
-!- L - linkinfoall - Send all link information
-!- M - command - Send list of how many times each command was used
-!- n - banrealname - Send the ban realname block list
-!- O - oper - Send the oper block list
-!- S - set - Send the set block list
-!- s - shun - Send the shun list
-!-   Extended flags: [+/-mrs] [mask] [reason] [setby]
-!-    m Return shuns matching/not matching the specified mask
-!-    r Return shuns with a reason matching/not matching the specified reason
-!-    s Return shuns set by/not set by clients matching the specified name
-!- P - port - Send information about ports
-!- q - bannick - Send the ban nick block list
-!- Q - sqline - Send the global qline list
-!- r - chanrestrict - Send the channel deny/allow block list
-!- t - tld - Send the tld block list
-!- T - traffic - Send traffic information
-!- u - uptime - Send the server uptime and connection count
-!- U - uline - Send the ulines block list
-!- v - denyver - Send the deny version block list
-!- V - vhost - Send the vhost block list
-!- X - notlink - Send the list of servers that are not current linked
-!- Y - class - Send the class block list
-!- Z - mem - Send memory usage information
-!- * End of /STATS report
// but at least the IRCd is bad configured

/stats P
!MoskeMongo.BIZ *** Listener on *:59, clients 11. is PERM
!MoskeMongo.BIZ *** Listener on *:443, clients 1145. is PERM
!MoskeMongo.BIZ *** Listener on *:6667, clients 133. is PERM
-!- P End of /STATS report

/stats T
-!- accepts 99407 refused 68764
-!- unknown commands 1 prefixes 0
-!- nick collisions 0 unknown closes 10646
-!- wrong direction 0 empty 0
-!- numerics seen 0 mode fakes 0
-!- auth successes 0 fails 0
-!- local connections 1 udp packets 0
-!- Client Server
-!- connected 20038 0
-!- bytes sent 84864.352K 0.0K
-!- bytes recv 32342.833K 0.0K
-!- time connected 64309972 0
-!- incoming rate 0.00 kb/s - outgoing rate 1.00 kb/s
-!- T End of /STATS report

/stats V
-!- vhost i.hate.microsefrs.com stskeeps *@*.image.dk
-!- V End of /STATS report
// we saw similar named vhost some time ago
// seems a known network

/stats u
-!- Server Up 0 days, 18:15:19
-!- Highest connection count: 1439 (2381 clients)
-!- u End of /STATS report

    Once again, we are just able to add a client idling on the server. We lack information about nickname structure and Botnet channels since Symantec did not offers these informations.

  3. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.sdbot.ao.html#technicaldetails
    This time we use a telnet session to connect to the Botnet server to see some interesting banner. 
    $ telnet axess.warezfr.ca 2784

Trying 24.226.214.149...
Connected to 214-149.sh.cgocable.ca.
Escape character is '^]'.
QUIT
NICK foo
NICK :You have not registered
USER foo 0 0 :foo
NICK foo
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 001 foo :www.packetstormsecurity.org
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 002 foo :All Ip Is Logged
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 003 foo :This Server Was Created For Honey-Pot
// a botnet for us? hooray!
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 004 foo :Cheking Security Server
// checking spelling
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 005 foo :No Hacker Supported On This Server
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 005 foo :No Hacker Supported On This Server
// oh no, they have disabled it...
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 251 foo :There are 10 users and 1 invisible on 1 servers
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 252 foo 0 :operator(s) online
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 254 foo 1 :channels formed
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 255 foo :I have 10 clients and 1 servers
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 265 foo :Current Local Users: 1  Max: 5
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 266 foo :Current Global Users: 10  Max: 11
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 375 foo :- www.packetstormsecurity.org Message of the Day -
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- 25/12/2004 16:48
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Gouvernement Security Network
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Http://www.FBI.gov
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Federal Bureau of Investigation
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Attention: Content Manager, FBI Home Page 
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 7350
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Washington, DC 20535
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- (202) 324-3000
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Http://www.CIA.gov
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- By postal mail:
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Central Intelligence Agency
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Office of Public Affairs
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Washington, D.C. 20505
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- By phone:
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- (703) 482-0623
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- By fax:
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- (703) 482-1739
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- (please include a phone number where we may call you)
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- To verify a CIA employee's employment:
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- if you are a mortgage company, creditor or potential employer, please address inq
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- uiries to:
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- CIA
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Human Resource Management
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Washington, DC 20505
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- ATTN: Employee Verification
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Http://www.gouvernmentsecurity.org
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Network Security Jobs
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :-
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- Welcome to the GSO Network Security Jobs Directory a free service of GSO.
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- If you wish to include your information in the directory simply
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- http://www.governmentsecurity.org/forum/index.php?act=Post&CODE=00&f=32
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- and post the information about the position you are seeking to fill..
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 372 foo :- You can attach a file up to 9mb in size.
:www.packetstormsecurity.org 376 foo :End of /MOTD command.
:foo MODE foo :+G
QUIT
ERROR :Closing Link: foo[ripped] (Quit: foo)

    This time, we could even collect less information (but some very interesting one). Again, we can't use the information to sneak a bot into the Botnet.

These three examples show that we can not rely on 3rd party information about existing Botnets. We have to collect these information ourselves using own Honeynets. Even though two of the three examples are unstripped and bad configured IRC daemons, we are not able to gain enough sensitive information. Incomplete information like Symantec offers just inform others about existing Botnets. But we are not able to collect any data about the Botnet usage or the botnetters themselves. We thus can not learn more about the tactics and motives of the operators of the Botnets with information provided only by others. We have to track Botnets ourselves and Honeypots are a perfect solution to help us in gathering the necessary information.