We are forensicly investigating the use of this hidden file for capturing (id/passwd, ip address) data. Out in the 'Google Me Batman' domain there are only scant references to this exploit.

Looking to see if Forum contributors have anything to say here.

Thanks
jugknot

What distro is this on and what program installs it? I'm curious.

If you are forensically investigating a compromise then it would make sense to first weed out "known good" files and check what remains. Also attacks require reconnaissance so there should be "noise" in router logs, system and daemon logs and user shell history if not tampered with, downloaded (deleted?) files obscured or not and replaced binaries and scripts. Indeed the distro question is a good start (kernel, patch level, accessible accounts and services) but posting found files and log excerpts could be interesting too. If you do not want to share information in public feel free to contact me by email.

One of our old servers got caught by this worm a few weeks ago. Our analysis showed that this file was a simple XOR 0x22 of incoming/outgoing usernames, passwords and servers. The worm appeared to then use these data to propagate.

Back in my first digital logic class about 20 years ago, we had a discussion about how you can use XOR to 'encrypt' data and then use the same XOR mask to restore it. I wonder if they are using a technique like this to encode the data in such a way as to not be as obvious.

Also I would love to have technical details wrt exploit and files dropped if this could benefit us enhancing Rootkit Hunter. Feel free to email me if you wish to share information outside of LQ.