Attackers are keenly aware of the information they can derive from these devices and are using multi-stage ( phishing + an executable ) , multi-platform ( Android + desktop ) attacks to accomplish their spying . he Trojan , a hybrid of Nymaim and Gozi malware , initially formed in April and thrives on carrying out redirection attacks via DNS poisoning . These backdoors give APT intruders a laundry list of ways to control victim systems . The attackers may also want to use source code stolen from the game companies so it can be deployed in rogue servers offering pirated versions of the games .


It shows a web phishing page whenever the affected device receives a broadcast event ( i.e. , if a new package is installed or if the device ’ s screen is on ) to steal personal data , such as those keyed in for banking apps . They first came to light in 2016 , when they managed to steal sensitive information from the US Democratic National Committee (DNC) . An interesting part of the script is the continuous killing of every “ rundll32.exe ” process running into the victim machine , generates a huge amount of noise , as visible in the following process explorer view .


Restrict administrative privileges .


It ’ s also worth noting that both campaigns repackage apps that are commonly used in their target ’ s countries , such as Telegram , Kik , and Plus messaging apps . The ongoing operation likely began as early as January 2017 and has continued through the first quarter of 2019 . As we were looking at the content of the website , it became evident that almost all of the text used was lifted from legitimate security-company websites . Operating systems may have features to hide various artifacts , such as important system files and administrative task execution , to avoid disrupting user work environments and prevent users from changing files or features on the system .


The specific apps can be found in the target list in the appendix . We assess that APT10 likely compromised Visma with the primary goal of enabling secondary intrusions onto their client networks , and not of stealing Visma intellectual property . Though Daserf wasn’t a popular attack tool at the time of publishing the two reports , it dates back to at least 2011 .


Based on the use of the relatively unique PLAINTEE malware , the malware 's use of the same file paths on in each cluster , and the similar targeting , we have grouped these attacks together under the RANCOR campaign moniker . In all emails sent to these government officials , the actor used the same attachment : a malicious Microsoft Word document that exploited the CVE-2012-0158 vulnerability to drop a malicious payload .


We find multiple file/object names hinting at the version , but must compelling :


Initialization of the compiler object The plugins can be added in runtime , or they can be added as a package resource at packaging time . We described one of the techniques used by Cloud Atlas in 2017 and our colleagues at Palo Alto Networks also wrote about it in November 2018 . APT37 targeted a research fellow , advisory member , and journalist associated with different North Korean human rights issues and strategic organizations .


It isn't clear why the attackers scanned for hosts with port 40 open because there isn't a common protocol assigned to this port .


Email Security can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign . The MuddyWaters group has carried out a large number of attacks and demonstrated advanced social engineering , in addition to the active development of attacks , infrastructure and the use of new methods and techniques . The MOF file created by the VBScript is used as a persistence mechanism via Windows B-TOOL S-OS Management Instrumentation ( WMI ) Event Subscriptions . This CVE is in CISA 's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog Reference CISA 's BOD 22 - 01 and Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog for further guidance and requirements .


TeamViewer — This remote control and desktop-sharing tool has applications for legitimate and malicious system users .


Last month , QiAnXin captured multiple phishing emails sent by TA505 Group to target financial institutions . Additionally , these decoy documents are hosted on legitimate websites including a government website belonging to the Cambodia Government and in at least once case , Facebook .


The carrier can determine that the request originates from the user ’ s device , but does not require any interaction from the user that can not be automated . Periscope 's activity has previously been suspected of being linked to China , but now researchers believe their evidence links the operation to the Chinese state . FileTime Get time information about a file . While there may be other groups they want to target also , they tend to be more persistent .


Although TA505 initially distributed Dridex botnet ID 125 , they were observed using botnet ID 220 in March 2015 and botnet ID 223 in December of that year .


Pasting Bitly URLs , appended with a plus sign , into the address bar of a web browser reveals the full URL .


Now , they are expanding their activity to audiences all around the world . At the end of 2018 , the cluster started to use not only CobaltStrike but also Powershell Empire in order to gain a foothold on the victims’ networks . APT15 was also observed using Mimikatz to dump credentials and generate Kerberos golden tickets .


Since 2009 , HIDDEN COBRA actors have leveraged their capabilities to target and compromise a range of victims ; some intrusions have resulted in the Exfiltration of data while others have been disruptive in nature .


This brand new malware has real potential to become the next big mobile malware , as it is under constant iterative improvements , abuses a critical operating system feature , and targets financial applications . Symantec during 2012 linked the Elderwood Project to Operation Aurora ; Trojan.Naid and Backdoor.Moudoor were also used in Aurora , by the Elderwood Gang , and by Hidden Lynx . A paper released today by our colleagues at Palo Alto Networks presented a portion of data on this crew under the label " the Lotus Blossom Operation " , likely named for the debug string present in much of the " Elise " codebase since at least 2012 : " d:\lstudio\projects\lotus\… " .


To protect yourself from these threats , FireEye suggests that users : Take caution before clicking any links where you are not sure about the origin . Organizations detected a compromise themselves in 62% of the cases that Mandiant worked in 2017 . We named this RAT " JhoneRAT " . When Bradshaw refused to sell the domain , he and his then - girlfriend were subject to an unrelenting campaign of online harassment and blackmail .


This allows the “ boot ” module to execute the payloads when the infected application is started . Most modules were created in 2012 . To initiate process hollowing , the loader DLL E-TOOL targets two legitimate system processes , for example svchost.exe or nslookup.exe , and spawns them in a suspended state . Initial access brokers use tools like NetSupport RAT to gather information and perform additional actions on victims of interest .


The Magnitude EK landing page consisted of CVE-2016-0189 , which was first reported by FireEye as being used in Neutrino Exploit Kit after it was patched . The group has been active since at least 2010 and was behind many previous attack campaigns resulting in the theft of massive amounts of data from the directors and managers of US-based defense contractors .


Those permission shown in bold below are the most problematic : Allows an application to write to external storage . More importantly , one of these files also enables the download of TeamViewer , a remote access tool that gives threat actors remote control over the system . APT30 is a threat group suspected to be associated with the Chinese government .


Gaza Cybergang Group 2 , also dubbed Desert Falcons , APT-C-23 , Arid Viper .


CTU researchers have observed BRONZE PRESIDENT batch scripts named doc.bat , xls.bat , xlsx.bat , ppt.bat , pptx.bat , pdf.bat , and txt.bat .


However , in 2013 , autonomous mobile banking Trojans developed further . One of the attacks used Tropic Trooper 's known Yahoyah malware , but the other attack deployed the widely available Poison Ivy RAT . On all machines the campaign ID matches the name of the targeted university and the C&C URLs are : If you are talking to someone who may be a target of commercial spyware ( i.e. , human rights journalists , activists , dissidents and lawyers )


It expects a json with url , class and method name . The group spearphished targets in several waves with Flash exploits leading to their Carberp based JHUHUGIT downloaders and further stages of malware . However , we have also observed attacks against surrounding nations and beyond , including targets in India and the USA .


Originally targeting Western European banks , it has since been developed into a robust global botnet that is comprised of several modules , each of which equips Emotet with different spamming , email logging , information stealing , bank fraud , downloading , and DDoS , among others . From early 2014 until December 2018 , ns0.idm.net.lb pointed to 194.126.10.18 , which appropriately enough is an Internet address based in Lebanon .


eterno truecaller For each application on the list , the “ core ” module checks for a matching version and MD5 hash of the installed application , and also checks for the application running in the user-space . Moreover , they used the same exploit kit Niteris as that in the Corkow case . Based on Microsoft Defender ATP signals , SoftwareBundler : Win32/ICLoader and its variants are primarily used to drop and run the Dexphot B-MAL S-MAL installer . During the SolarWinds Compromise , APT29 used different compromised credentials for remote access and to move laterally .


This was used to bypass 2FA methods by intercepting the SMS messages coming from the bank and stealing the mTANs without the victim ’ s knowledge . We have previously observed APT19 steal data from law and investment firms for competitive economic purposes . Repeated targeting of Middle Eastern financial , energy and government organizations leads FireEye to assess that those sectors are a primary concern of APT34 .


The key is the SHA256 hash of the hard-coded password .


Standard browser search history Standard browser bookmarks Device handset metadata ; such as brand , display , hardware , manufacturer , product , serial , radio version , and SDK . Kazuar generates its mutex by using a process that begins with obtaining the MD5 hash of a string " [username]=>singleton-instance-mutex " . It re-copies the DLL from the new buffer to the original one using the memcpy function . CL0P used separate zero - days in GoAnywhere MFT and MOVEit Transfer to gain an edge .


This would be a very unusual coincidence . A very good analysis and overview of the BlackEnergy attacks in Ukraine throughout 2014 and 2015 was published by the Ukrainian security firm Cys Centrum the text is only available in Russian for now , but can be read via Google Translate . It appears ScarCruft is primarily targeting intelligence for political and diplomatic purposes .


In subsequent discussion , FireEye personnel indicate that there was not “ an avalanche of evidence to substantiate ” anything more than “ TRITON actor ” – summing matters by indicating this term “ is the best we ’ve got for the public for now ” .


The malicious library is loaded from Eventbot ’ s assets that contain a font file called default.ttf which is actually the hidden library and then decoded using RC4 . However , Beginning on 25 June 2019 , we started observing multiple commodity campaigns Mostly dropping AsyncRAT using the updated RTF weaponizer with the same exploit (CVE-2018-0798) . APT35 typically targets U.S. and the Middle Eastern military , diplomatic and government personnel , organizations in the media , energy and defense industrial base ( DIB ) , and engineering , business services and telecommunications sectors .


Once the Barium Defendants have access to a victim computer through the malware described above , they monitor the victim 's activity and ultimately search for and steal sensitive documents ( for example , exfiltration of intellectual property regarding technology has been seen ) , and personal information fi"om the victim 's network . CTU researchers have evidence that the threat group compromised U.S. and UK organizations in the following verticals : manufacturing ( specifically aerospace ( including defense contractors ) , automotive , technology , energy , and pharmaceuticals ) , education , and legal , as well as organizations focused on international relations .


Based on the leaked code , the RCSAndroid app can do the following intrusive routines to spy on targets : Capture screenshots using the “ screencap ” command and framebuffer direct reading Monitor clipboard content Collect passwords for Wi-Fi networks and online acco ; .unts , including Skype , Facebook , Twitter , Google , WhatsApp , Mail , and LinkedIn Record using the microphone Collect SMS , MMS , and Gmail messages Record location Gather device information Capture photos using the front and back cameras Collect contacts and decode Carbanak is a remote backdoor ( initially based on Carberp ) , designed for espionage , data exfiltration and to provide remote access to infected machines . of a function obfuscated with control flow flattening has a loop structure starting with yellow-colored “ control flow dispatcher ” None Follow Microsoft recommendations to disable remote PowerShell for non - administrative users where possible .


The sexually explicit images in this screenshot have been covered with a black box . Bellingcat also reported the domain had been used previously to host potential decoy documents as detailed in VirusTotal here using hxxp://voguextra.com/decoy.doc . RASPITE 's activity to date currently focuses on initial access operations within the electric utility sector .


The download is initiated upon receiving json with a “ download ” command , which includes the URL of the file to be downloaded .


Perhaps the most interesting part is that the attack e-mails had an APK attachment – a malicious program for Android . PIVY also played a key role in the 2011 campaign known as Nitro that targeted chemical makers , government agencies , defense contractors , and human rights groups.10,11 Still active a year later , the Nitro attackers used a zero-day vulnerability in Java to deploy PIVY in 2012 . This Naikon report will be complemented by a follow-on report that will examine the Naikon TTP and the incredible volume of attack activity around the South China Sea that has been going on since at least 2010 .


This technique listens for NBT-NS ( UDP ) broadcasts from victim computers attempting to connect to network resources .


THE CAMPAIGN The malware 's primary infection vector is SMS . The threat actor has previously been the subject of a range of open source reporting , including most notably a report by FireEye comprehensively detailing the threat actor 's use of the Poison Ivy malware family and blog posts by Trend Micro similarly detailing the use of EvilGrab malware . OceanLotus : 11b4c284b3c8b12e83da0b85f59a589e8e46894fa749b847873ed6bab2029c0f Payload PNG ( loader #2 ) . Threat actors are always looking to expand the strategies they use , thus security practices and solutions that work for less organized cybercriminals might not work for determined groups who are willing to spend time , resources and manpower to accomplish their goals .


The attackers described in this document use a very basic delivery platform ; compressed self-extracting archives sometimes sent to a large number of recipients .


null is not the only payload opening a shell on the phone . By targeting all of these organizations together , Suckfly could have had a much larger impact on India and its economy . While the majority of infections in this campaign did not originate from Malicious Microsoft Word document , the Cybereason Nocturnus team found several weaponized Microsoft Word document with an embedded downloader macro E-TOOL that downloads and installs the backdoor used in this attack . The intent of cybercriminals may be evaluated during the research stage of the cyberattack kill chain where they investigate potential entry points , and collect data about the company , users and technology systems in place .


The group behind these attacks has stolen gigabytes of confidential documents , mostly from military organizations . In August 2014 , some of our users observed targeted attacks with a variation of CVE-2012-0158 and an unusual set of malware .


In our 2014 report , we identified APT28 as a suspected Russian government-sponsored espionage actor .


In some cases , sophisticated web injects were used to trick victims into entering their 2FA codes directly into the web forms controlled by the malware to eliminate the need for the mobile malware component . In order to exfiltrate data from a network segment not connected to the Internet , the threat actor deployed a modified version of hTran . The OilRig group continues to remain a highly active adversary in the Middle East region .


The leaked RCSAndroid code is a commercial weapon now in the wild . To ensure remote access to the workstation of an employee at a target organization , the Cobalt group ( as in previous years ) uses Beacon , a Trojan available as part of commercial penetration testing software . The mapping can be created by checking the conditional jump instruction ( jnz ) For these reasons , OT defenders and asset owners should take mitigating actions against COSMICENERGY to preempt in the wild deployment and to better understand common features and capabilities that are frequently deployed in OT malware .


TA505 stopped distributing Dridex in July 2016 , relying almost exclusively on Locky through December of that year .


In the most extreme case , the Dukes continued with their July 2015 CloudDuke campaign even after their activity had been outed by multiple security vendors .


TimerTask Figure 6 : The timer task . However , while activity involving known Buckeye tools ceased in mid-2017 , the Bemstour exploit tool and the DoublePulsar variant used by Buckeye continued to be used until at least September 2018 in conjunction with different malware . Sandworm Team is a Russian cyber espionage group that has operated since approximately 2009 .


While we cannot rule out the possibility that one or more CNIIHM employees could have conducted TEMP.Veles activity without their employer ’s approval , the details shared in this post demonstrate that this explanation is less plausible than TEMP.Veles operating with the support of the institute .


Downeks .NET creates a file in the “ Appdata ” directory , based on certain properties of the machine .


The social engineering message includes a link that leads to a fake version of a popular app , using names like Runtastic , WhatsApp or Netflix . This campaign , first observed in 2010 , is believed to be operated by a well-funded group given how it appeared to have purchased the source code of the BIFROST backdoor , which the operators enhanced and created other tools from . This page used to offer no-ip type hosting and was widely used by malware authors . A browser redirects to this page but search engines do n't update their links to the resource ( in ' SEO - speak ' , it is said that the ' link - juice ' is not sent to the new URL ) .


The first CosmicDuke sample we observed after the initial research on CosmicDuke was a sample compiled on the 30th of July 2014 .


The /proc filesystem is now mounted with a hidepid=2 parameter , which means that the process can not access other process /proc/ [ pid ] directory . The attacks appear to be geopolitically motivated and target high profile organizations . A URL is randomly selected and the malware searches at that location for an encoded IP address located between two tags , “ @MICR0S0FT ” and “ C0RP0RATI0N ” . Once the infected system locates the C2 , it receives encrypted backdoors that are obfuscated within GIF files and disguised as pictures that appear on a victim - s machine .


The Sogu gang , in contrast , use PDF and DOC files in very tailored , targeted emails .


Extract the contacts list from the Facebook app . The Remsec malware used by Strider has a modular design . This backdoor allows attackers to spy on targeted victims . This includes hosting C&C domains that were used by Winnti such as mtrue.com , shenqi[.]kr and zhu[.]kr .


Further research found other Quasar examples , an attack earlier in the month 2016 on the same target :


Figure 7 . All three waves involved a single spear phishing email that appeared to originate from a government agency based in the Middle East . ' 0401 ' : Saudi Arabia . ' 0801 ' : Iraq . ' 0c01 ' : Egypt . ' 1001 ' : Libya . ' 1401 ' : Algeria . ' 1801 ' : Morocco . ' 1c01 ' : Tunisia . ' 2001 ' : Oman . ' 2401 ' : Yemen . ' 2801 ' : Syria . ' 3801 ' : UAE . ' 3401 ' : Kuwait . ' 3c01 ' : Bahrain . ' 3001 ' : Lebanon . But , IOCs are not always easy to detect they can be as simple as metadata elements or incredibly complex malicious code and content samples .


Corporate IoT – a path to intrusion .


These devices became points of ingress from which the actor established a presence on the network and continued looking for further access .


The certificates Blackfly stole were also from South Korean companies , primarily in the video game and software development industry . Dropbox has already taken down the links .


Additional language artifacts recovered from TEMP.Veles toolsets are also consistent with such a regional nexus .


We surmise that the targeting of banks , media , and government agencies is conducted in support of APT38 's primary mission . We named it RedOctober because we started this investigation in October 2012 , an unusually hot month .


In an e-mail , a Lookout representative stood by its analysis and said company researchers planned to publish an in-depth response in the coming days . Working with U.S. Government partners , DHS and FBI identified Trojan malware variants used by the North Korean government – commonly known as HARDRAIN . APT33 : 91.230.121.143 backupnet.ddns.net . The ads are very similar to other brand impersonation campaigns .


Shamoon2 : 83be35956e5d409306a81e88a1dc89fd .


Command Description SEND_SMS Send an SMS from the bot to a specific number NEW_URL Update the C2 URL KILL Disable the bot PING_DELAY Update interval between each ping request CLEAN_IGNORE_PKG Empty list of overlayed apps WRITE_INJECTS Update target list READ_INJECTS Get current target list START_ADMIN Request Device Admin privileges ALL_SMS Get all SMS messages DISABLE_ACCESSIBILITY Stop preventing user from disabling the accessibility service ENABLE_ACCESSIBILITY Prevent user from disabling Access to the networks of these third-party service providers grants the MSS the ability to potentially access the networks of hundreds , if not thousands , of corporations around the world . The samples of Daserf that shared infrastructure were submitted to VirusTotal only from Japan multiple times in 2013 .


10002500: NvMswt 10002860: NvReg 10002880: NvStart 10002A80: NvStop This library is a newer version of the file collection module ( md5: 0369620eb139c3875a62e36bb7abdae8 ) wrapped in a DLL file .


Nevertheless , Windows Defender ATP also supports blocking the implant across the entire enterprise , stopping large-scale intrusions in the early stages .


The first are games of very low quality that mimic the experience of popular mobile games . This program is designed to capture keystrokes , take screenshots of the user 's desktop and get contents from the clipboard . To retrieve commands , ELMER sends HTTP GET requests to a hard-coded C2 server , and parses the HTTP response packets received from the C2 server for an integer string corresponding to the command that needs to be executed . Our researchers recently discovered a threat actor conducting several campaigns against government entities , military organizations and civilian users in Ukraine and Poland .


Sofacy is a group dedicated to the compromise of high-profile targets and the theft of confidential information .


Observe and look at the app ’ s display and text , stated functions , reviews from other users , and requested permissions before downloading . APT38 's increasingly aggressive targeting against banks . Additional jump instructions are supported when collecting block comparison variable candidates and mapping between the variable and ea or block number ( jnz/jle in JZCollector , The syntax of the command fragment includes “ scilc.exe ” , a native utility that is part of the MicroSCADA software suite .


f1e2bceae81ccd54777f7862c616f22b581b47e0dda5cb02d0a722168ef194a5 fc69fb278e12fc7f9c49a020eff9f84c58b71e680a9e18f78d4e6540693f557d .


To infect individuals with access to the data the actors desire , Scarlet Mimic deploys both spear-phishing and watering hole ( strategic web compromise ) attacks . The attacker is from North Korea .


Allows an application to read the user 's contacts data . Despite iPhone's minority share (14.5%) of the global smart phone market in 2016 , a specialized unit in the CIA's Mobile Development Branch produces malware to infest , control and exfiltrate data from iPhones and other Apple products running iOS , such as iPads . FIN7 is sometimes referred to as Carbanak Group , but these appear to be two groups using the same Carbanak malware and are therefore tracked separately .


In other cases , threat actors placed web shells on externally accessible servers , sometimes behind a reverse proxy , to execute commands on the compromised system .


We believe the formation of the first of these botnets began in January 2014 , using both unidentified infection vectors and the known malicious Tor node , and continued until our blogpost was published in November .


Despite the public reporting and government accusations , SNAKEMACKEREL remains highly active .


This alert includes technical indicators related to specific North Korean government cyber operations and provides suggested response actions to those indicators , recommended mitigation techniques , and information on reporting incidents to the U.S. Government .


During one intrusion , the threat actors installed it on over 70% of accessible hosts .


The challenge is detecting known good software loading and running malware .


Several of the decoy files appeared to be official documents associated with the Palestinian Authority – the body that governs the Palestinian Territories in the Middle East .


However , this situation will not last long : given the cybercriminals ’ interest in user bank accounts , the activity of mobile banking Trojans is expected to grow in other countries in 2014 . As we have noted in many earlier reports , attackers commonly use decoy files to trick victims into thinking a malicious document is actually legitimate . From this format , we were able to find several C&C URLs , including three additional Hong Kong universities ’ names . A typical web request to the frontend to exploit the SSRF vulnerability on CVE-2022 - 41040 involves some variation of path confusion that references the endpoint as shown below : The backend request for a typical ProxyNotShell exploitation is shown below : Once the PowerShell remoting service can be reached , the second step involves vulnerability CVE-2022 - 41082 being exploited in order to execute arbitrary commands .


The URLs — abused as part of XLoader ’ s C & C — are hidden in three webpages , and the C & C server that XLoader connects to differ per region . Other open source and semi-legitimate pen-testing tools like nbtscan and powercat are being used for mapping available resources and lateral movement as well . During the analysis , we also noticed the “ veter1605_MAPS_10cr0.exe ” file slightly changed run after run , a few hours after the initial discovery the infection chain dropped it with different icons , different suffix , from “ cr0 ” to “ cr24 ” , and appendix from “ veter1605_ ” to “ veter2005_ ” .


4254dc8c368cbc36c8a11035dcd0f4b05d587807fa9194d58f0ba411bfd65842 .


This malware variant also appears to be technically superior to many other banking Trojans being able to use its overlay attack even on Android 6 , which has technical improvements compared to the previous Android versions to prevent such attacks . PLEAD also dabbled with a short-lived , fileless version of their malware when it obtained an exploit for a Flash vulnerability ( CVE-2015-5119 ) that was leaked during the Hacking Team breach . The choices are interesting though , many correspond to what looks like the birth year of the controller ( ie . years in the late 1980s and early 1990s ) , and others seem to match what year the malware was launched in ( ie . in the 2000s , relatively close to the current year ) . Mandiant assesses with high confidence that UNC4899 is a cryptocurrency - focused element within the DPRK 's Reconnaissance General Bureau ( RGB ) .


We believe the only benefactor with the power to offer such comprehensive protection would be the government of the nation from which the group operates .


We ’ve seen quite a few versions of these implants , which were relatively widespread at some point or still are .


CTU researchers have observed the threat actors encrypting data using the password " admin-windows2014 " and splitting the RAR archives into parts in the recycler directory , with the same name as the uncompressed data .


This indication that the Dukes planned to use an arsenal of 5 malware toolsets in parallel suggests that they were operating with both significant resources and capacity .


The C & C address was specified in the code and was also unencrypted : In some versions , a dynamically generated low-level domain was used as an address : In its first communication , the Trojan sent the infected device ’ s IMEI to the C & C , and in return it received a set of rules for processing incoming SMSs ( phone numbers , keywords and regular expressions ) – these applied mainly to messages from banks , payment systems and mobile network operators . This alert 's IOC files provide HIDDEN COBRA indicators related to FALLCHILL . Overall , an organization will need multilayered security strategies , as Lazarus and other similar groups are experienced cybercriminals who employ different strategies to get past organizational defenses .


If it did , the malware downloaded additional modules , including ones allowing for the automatic creation of unauthorized payment orders , changing details in legal payment orders , etc . The second , aptly titled " kontrakt87.doc " , copies a generic telecommunications service contract from MegaFon , a large Russian mobile phone operator .


This unique on-device , just-in-time ( JIT ) approach inspired researchers to dub this malware as “ Agent Smith ” . Using XREFs during static analysis is a common technique to quickly find where functions of interest are called . The discovery by Kaspersky marks at least the fifth zero-day exploit used by BlackOasis and exposed by security researchers since June 2015 . Metamorfo has communicated with hosts over raw TCP on port 9999.[24 ]


Other samples we analyzed had different combinations of modification to cryptography and serialization .


This entry was posted on Mon Dec 04 12:00 EST 2017 and filed under Code , Reverse Engineering , Nick Harbour , and Incident Response . During the past few months , APT34 has been able to quickly incorporate exploits for at least two publicly vulnerabilities ( CVE-2017-0199 and CVE-2017-11882 ) to target organizations in the Middle East .


Going one step further , these substrings are sometimes scattered throughout the code , retrieved from static variables and method calls . The group used malware with keylogging capabilities to monitor the computer of an executive who manages the company 's relationships with other telecommunications companies . ZXARPS Spoofing , redirection , packet capture . The U.S. Government has developed new mechanisms to help Ukraine identify cyber threats and recover from cyber incidents .


When all the necessary card details are entered and have been checked , all the information is uploaded to the C & C . Another decoy slideshow associated with the Bookworm attack campaign contains photos of an event called Bike for Dad 2015 . The Leviathan also occasionally used macro-laden Microsoft Word documents to target other US research and development organizations during this period .


Extract the Wi-Fi network 's password . After getting the IP , the ProjectSauron component tries to communicate with the remote server using its own ( ProjectSauron ) protocol as if it was yet another C&C server . In others , it persuades victims to download a report about a recent political affair pertaining to the Middle East and specifically to Palestinian matters . CrowdStrike Services recently investigated several Play ransomware intrusions where the common entry vector was suspected to be the Microsoft Exchange ProxyNotShell vulnerabilities CVE-2022 - 41040 and CVE-2022 - 41082 .


Since it can use the accessibility service to become the default SMS app , it can also delete the SMS messages so only the attackers can see them . PLATINUM does not conduct its espionage activity to engage in direct financial gain , but instead uses stolen information for indirect economic advantages . As expected , OilRig is continuing their onslaught of attacks well into 2018 with continued targeting in the Middle East .


] us . RIPPER will examine the contents of directories associated with the targeted ATM vendors and will replace legitimate executables with itself . Filename: winload.dll .


Patchwork also uses the Delphi file stealer as a similarity with Urpage , which suggests the three groups are somehow related . Even if CVE-2015-2546 affected Windows 10 , the exploitation would have required much more technical prowess to succeed ; ultimately , SMEP makes it more difficult for attackers .


However , when used maliciously , accessibility features can be used to exploit legitimate services for malicious purposes , like with EventBot . Xagent is the original filename Xagent.exe whereas seems to be the version of the worm . FireEye tracks thousands of threat actors , but pays special attention to state-sponsored attackers who carry out advanced persistent threat ( APT ) attacks .


With each subsequent request , a new subdomain was generated . The McAfee Advanced Threat Research team discovered a previously unknown data-gathering implant that surfaced in mid-February 2018 . These files have the capability to download and install malware , install proxy and Remote Access Trojans ( RATs ) , connect to command and control ( C2 ) servers to receive additional instructions , and modify the victim 's firewall to allow incoming connections .


It is issued by Google once a user successfully logged into this account . BRONZE BUTLER are also fluent in Japanese , crafting phishing emails in native Japanese and operating successfully within a Japanese-language environment . However , Analysis into the malware and its functionality reveals that its capabilities are comparable to those employed in previous incidents and malware , such as and , which were both malware variants deployed in the past to impact electricity transmission and distribution via IEC-104 .


Since 2013 Carbanak has successfully gained access to networks of more than 50 banks and 5 payment systems . In this case , the file used the software name " Cyberlink " , and a description of " CLMediaLibrary Dynamic Link Library " and listing version 4.19.9.98 .


Downeks and Quasar RAT Used in Recent Targeted Attacks Against Governments .


6e896099a3ceb563f43f49a255672cfd14d88799f29617aa362ecd2128446a47 .


Executives can use this assessment to determine how to reduce risk to their organization's mission and critical assets .


CTU researchers have not observed TG-3390 actors performing reconnaissance prior to compromising organizations .


As the team at Scandinavian security group CSIS describes , malware known as MazarBOT is being distributed via SMS in Denmark and is likely to also be encountered in other countries . Rather , the Gallmaker 's attack activity we observed is carried out exclusively using LotL tactics and publicly available hack tools . To handle multiple control flow dispatchers , In one case , certutil was used to decode multiple files related to credential theft .


Whitefly compromises its victims using custom malware alongside open-source hacking tools and living off the land tactics , such as malicious PowerShell scripts . In April 2013 , a year after we found the " bodiless " Lurk module , the Russian cybercriminal underground exploited several families of malicious software that specialized in attacks on banking software .


This makes the taking down and recovery of the network much harder and poses a considerable challenge for defenders . The threat actor has previously been the subject of a range of open source reporting , including most notably a report by FireEye comprehensively detailing the threat actor 's use of the Poison Ivy malware family and blog posts by Trend Micro3 similarly detailing the use of EvilGrab malware . OceanLotus : 72441fe221c6a25b3792d18f491c68254e965b0401a845829a292a1d70b2e49a Payload PNG ( loader #1 ) . Mandiant Intelligence assesses with high confidence that operations for which the pro - Russia hacktivist collective KillNet has claimed responsibility consistently mirror Russian strategic objectives , although we have not yet uncovered direct evidence of the collective ’s collaboration with or direction from Russian security services .


The user simply needs to text a prescribed keyword to a prescribed number ( shortcode ) . As recently as this past week , researchers observed Chinese hackers escalating cyber-attack efforts to steal military research secrets from US universities . Exit / Quit Exit and shut down the botnet client . None The discovery was part of recent CrowdStrike Services investigations into several Play ransomware intrusions where the common entry vector was confirmed to be Microsoft Exchange .


Disable potentially harmful SQL-stored procedure calls .


Earlier this year , our colleagues at Symantec uncovered an interesting story about the use of Equation group exploitation tools by an alleged Chinese group named Buckeye a.k.a APT3 , or UPS team . February saw three particularly interesting publications on the topic of macOS malware: a Trojan Cocoa application that sends system information including keychain data back to the attacker , a macOS version of APT28’s Xagent malware , and a new Trojan ransomware .


Despite being an older vulnerability , many threat actors continue to leverage CVE-2012-0158 to exploit Microsoft Word . The malicious actors behind the Okrum malware were focused on the same targets in Slovakia that were previously targeted by Ketrican 2015 backdoors .


These new samples targeted Linux- and Unix-based operating systems , vulnerable servers , and internet of things ( IoT ) devices by exploiting known vulnerabilities with available exploits .


While many malware were written in Assembly during the ‘ old days ‘ of curiosity-driven virus writing , it has since become a rarity .


The developer of the code , Shanghai Adups Technology Co. , has apologized , contending that the code was intended for another one of its clients who requested better blocking of junk text messages and marketing calls . For exfiltration of stolen data , APT10 used WinRAR and renamed rar.exe to r.exe to create archives , upload them with curl.exe (renamed to c.exe , and again , use the cloud storage provider Dropbox . Daserf : 9c7a34390e92d4551c26a3feb5b181757b3309995acd1f92e0f63f888aa89423 .


My understanding is FireEye labels entities where definitive attribution is not yet possible with the “ TEMP ” moniker ( hence , TEMP.Veles ) – yet in this case FireEye developed and deployed the label , then appeared to move away from it in subsequent reporting .


It's now relying on a new DNS-based attack technique to better cloak command and control communications between Greenbug and the malware " , said Dennis Schwarz , research analyst on Arbor 's ASERT Team , in an interview with Threatpost . CTU researchers have observed the Threat Group-3390 employing legitimate Kaspersky antivirus variants in analyzed samples .


Organizations in the government , energy , and technology sectors have been targeted by Magic Hound , specifically organizations based in or doing business in Saudi Arabia . On May 2 , 2016 , Palo Alto Networks published the report " Prince of Persia " , which provided the first public and widely-reported indication of Infy 's activities in Iran , while other publications either refrained from making the association or were not openly available .


This attack vector is increasingly popular with malicious actors as almost everyone on the planet carries at least one mobile device they interact with throughout any given day . This time , the attackers used new versions of the RoyalDNS malware and a Ketrican 2017 backdoor . Lazarus Group : HIDDEN COBRA , Guardians of Peace , ZINC , NICKEL ACADEMY .


INTERNET - open network sockets . In this sample , however , the module names were changed from actors and characters’ names to car models , namely BMW_x1” , BMW_x2” and up to BMW_x8” . One of the most interesting observations made during this analysis is that the amount of development effort devoted to Emissary significantly increased after we published our Operation Lotus Blossom report in June 2015 , resulting in many new versions of the Emissary Trojan .


Soon after , the customized utility was again evaluated in the malware testing environment .


Long before Kryptowire 's announcement , Tim Strazzere , a mobile security researcher with RedNaga Security , contacted BLU Products in March 2015 after he found two vulnerabilities that could be traced to Adup 's code . This campaign brings to light further evidence supporting the assertions made by the Five Eyes nations , led by the U.S Department of Justice indictment against APT10 actors outlining the unprecedented scale of economic cyberespionage being conducted by the Chinese Ministry of State Security . Minzen : 26727d139b593486237b975e7bdf93a8148c52d5fb48d5fe540a634a16a6ba82 .


These repackaged , malware-laden apps are neither on Google Play nor popular third-party app marketplaces , and we only saw the website hosting the malicious apps being promoted on social media when we followed GolfSpy ’ s trail . These rules detect the malware " beaconing " to the command-and-control server , the initial malware check-in , and an attempt to download a backdoor module . The main goal behind its malicious activities was to steal financial assets from companies , such as debit cards , or get access to financial data or computers of finance department employees in order to conduct wire transfers to offshore accounts . Kaspersky said there was another case of end users being infected by the malware , which is known as " Winnti . "


If the document was delivered with macros instead of exploits ( CVE-2012-0158 , CVE-2013-3906 or CVE-2014-1761 ) , then the document contained instructions for enabling macros . This time , however , attackers opportunistically used spear-phishing emails with a Microsoft Word attachment exploiting the recently patched CVE-2017-0199 to deploy the ZeroT Trojan , which in turn downloaded the PlugX Remote Access Trojan ( RAT ) .


Using this collection of webshells , the actors moved laterally to other systems on the network by dumping credentials with a variant of the notorious Mimikatz tool and using Impacket ’s atexec tool to use dumped credentials to run commands on other systems .


IMPACT EventBot is a mobile malware banking trojan that steals financial information , is able to hijack transactions . Let’s take a closer look at ITG08’s TTPs that are relevant to the campaign we investigated , starting with its spear phishing and intrusion tactics and covering information on its use of the More_eggs backdoor . PIVY also played a key role in the 2011 campaign known as Nitro that targeted chemical makers , government agencies , defense contractors , and human rights groups.10,11 Still active a year later , the Nitro attackers used a zero-day vulnerability in Java to deploy PIVY in 2012 .


Pay close attention to the contents of these fields as they appear base64 encoded .


Since that report , we continued our research into this oddity .


Allows an application to force the device to lock Allows applications to access information about Wi-Fi networks . CIA's arsenal includes numerous local and remote zero days developed by CIA or obtained from GCHQ , NSA , FBI or purchased from cyber arms contractors such as Baitshop . Gallmaker is a cyberespionage group that has targeted victims in the Middle East and has been active since at least December 2017 .


Malware authors use injected clicks , custom HTML parsers and SMS receivers to automate the billing process without requiring any interaction from the user . APT40 is described as a moderately sophisticated cyber-espionage group which combines access to significant development resources with the ability to leverage publicly available tools . FindDialPass List all the dial-up accounts and passwords . Although attacks on education have been a staple of the ransomware ecosystem for years , Vice Society appears to have specialised in delivering misery to schools , colleges , and universities in a highly unusual way .


The threat actors target a wide range of organizations : CTU researchers have observed TG-3390 actors obtaining confidential data on defense manufacturing projects , but also targeting other industry verticals and attacking organizations involved in international relations .


Continuing to use this artifact , we discovered another domain with the same content body , supservermgr.com .


A well-known international organization Military targets in Europe Governments in Europe A government of a South American country An embassy belonging to an Eastern European country .


Please note this is not a comprehensive chart of all Zebrocy and Koadic samples we were able to collect .


The module inspects every new disk volume attached to the system .


While the motivation for each APT32 private sector compromise varied – and in some cases was unknown – the unauthorized access could serve as a platform for law enforcement , intellectual property theft , or anticorruption measures that could ultimately erode the competitive advantage of targeted organizations . Working backwards from each Internet address , I was able to see that in the last few months of 2018 the hackers behind DNSpionage succeeded in compromising key components of DNS infrastructure for more than 50 Middle Eastern companies and government agencies , including targets in Albania , Cyprus , Egypt , Iraq , Jordan , Kuwait , Lebanon , Libya , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates .


It possesses a wide range of technical exploitation capabilities , significant resources for researching or purchasing complicated zero-day exploits , the ability to sustain persistence across victim networks for years , and the manpower to develop and maintain a large number of tools to use within unique victim networks . The Sogu gang use a custom developed threat – Backdoor.Sogu , whereas the group described in this document use an off the shelf threat – Poison Ivy .


CTU researchers observed the threat actors collecting Cisco VPN profiles to use when accessing the victim's network via VPN .


They also state that the code is written from scratch and is not using parts of other existing banking Trojans unlike many other Trojans that are either based completely on the source of another Trojan ( such as the leaked Anubis source code that is now being resold ) or at least borrow parts of other Trojans . The group behind Machete uses effective spearphishing techniques . APT38 's increasingly aggressive targeting against banks and other financial institutions has paralleled North Korea 's worsening financial condition .


Currently Running Applications Banking Trojans that rely on the overlay mechanism to steal information need to know what application is in the foreground . Certain details , such as using the same infrastructure and targeting , make us believe that Operation Daybreak is being done by the ScarCruft APT group . Interestingly, the FBI website for wanted cybercriminals includes two Iranians called Mohammad Reza, although this could be a common name or even a false . Among the IP addresses owned by Hack520 is a whole/22 IP Range which we dubbed as the “ PIG RANGE ” .


For example , the password of the WiFi network used by the phone was stored in the folder /storage/emulated/0/.lost+found/0BBDA068-9D27-4B55-B226-299FCF2B4242/ using the following file name format DD_MM_2019_HH_mm_ss_XXXXXXXXXXXXX.txt.crypt ( the datetime followed by the IMEI ) . While there have been several Suckfly campaigns that infected organizations with the group 's custom malware Backdoor.Nidiran , the Indian targets show a greater amount of post-infection activity than targets in other regions . Federation of Independent Palestinian Communities and Organizations and Events in the Diaspora . This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and malicious attack by Russia against Ukraine which had significant consequences on ordinary people and businesses in Ukraine and across Europe .


The malware was able to perform overlay attacks and become the default SMS app through the abuse of the Accessibility Service . A sustained cyberespionage campaign targeting at least three companies in the United States and Europe was uncovered by Recorded Future and Rapid7 between November 2017 and September 2018 . It has targeted countries including Israel , Saudi Arabia , Turkey , the U.S. , Jordan , and Germany .


10/03/2020 At the end of February the actors behind Ginp added screen capture capabilities to their Trojan . During this operation (dubbed ‘Cloud Hopper” because of the group’s use of popular western cloud-based services) , APT10 utilized both new malware (Quasar RAT , Trochilus , RedLeaves , ChChes as well as some familiar old tools . The threat often uses compromised web servers in Japan and the Republic of Korea .


We do not know whether the files are legitimate Palestinian Authority documents , but they are designed to look official .


At that time it was the name of a cybercriminal group that was stealing money from Russian financial establishments — to the tune of at least $150,000 per hit . TG-3390 uses the PlugX remote access tool .


Talos found 189 logos from banks to cryptocurrency exchanges inside the archive , all of which could be targeted . The group has focused mainly on governmental targets in Iraq and Saudi Arabia , according to past telemetry . Derusbi : File Name : 32.dll . We have observed TANKTRAP being used with other disruptive tools including NEARMISS , SDELETE , PARTYTICKET , and CADDYWIPER .


REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS - Whitelists the application to allow it to ignore battery optimizations . Bitdefender’s forensics and investigation team was contacted to look into a security incident that started in May 2018 with an email received by two of the bank’s employees . Starting in mid-February .


This group has no known associations to other activity groups .


While one of these modules gathers system information and another attempts to steal the victim ’s usernames and passwords , as one would expect from a malware used for a targeted attack , the other two known OnionDuke modules are quite the opposite ; one is designed for use in DoS S-TOOL attacks and the other for posting predetermined messages to the Russian VKontakte social media site .


These samples were located by pivoting on document attributes .


This document reports that Ismail Hanieyh , the political leader of Hamas , had notified the Egyptian government that he will remain abroad after his visit to Tehran to take part in Soleimani ’s funeral , which sparked tension with the Egyptian authorities .


The discovery of this new PLATINUM technique and the development of detection capabilities highlight the work the Windows Defender ATP team does to provide customers greater visibility into suspicious activities transpiring on their networks . This particular threat was also used by hackers to compromise a Korean social network site to steal records of 35 million users .


The discovery by Kaspersky marks at least the fifth zero-day exploit used by BlackOasis and exposed by security researchers since June 2015 . Also , by creating this type of API access , Turla could use one accessible server as a single point to dump data to and exfiltrate data from .


WAKE_LOCK - Allows the application to use PowerManager WakeLocks to keep the processor from sleeping or the screen from dimming . A Carbanak trademark in cyberattacks remains the use of Cobalt Strike – a powerful pentesting tool designed for exploiting and executing malicious code , simulating post-exploitation actions of advanced threat actors – which allows them to infiltrate the organization , move laterally , exfiltrate data , and deploy anti-forensic and evasion tools . Leveraging click counts for the campaign for Bitly , we were able to see Gorgon Group 's activity volume increase throughout April .


Malware code showing handover from initial module to main payload Figure 13 . APT15 is known for committing cyberespionage against companies and organizations located in many different countries , targeting different sectors such as the oil industry , government contractors , military , and more . We used different archiving tools such as PowerArchiver 2019 , WinZip , WinRar , 7Zip , and unzIP S-TOOL that is built into the Windows OS in attempting to extract the content of the attachment SHIPPING_MX00034900_PL_INV_pdf.zip . While this shift likely reflects the increased tempo of wartime cyber operations , it also reveals the GRU ’s priority objectives in OT attacks .


The actor sends an email to trala.cosh2@post.cz with the unique system identifier as a subject with a secondary email account and credentials in ASCII hexadecimal format within the message body .


Comparing it to OSX_DOK.C , we can see that it uses the same script format .


This simulation shows that FakeSpy behaves differently on a physical device versus an emulator . Given FIN7’s previous use of false security companies , we decided to look deeper into this one . During our period of visibility into the BS2005 " moviestar " campaign against various ministries of foreign affairs in Europe , FireEye discovered that the Ke3chang had initially tested the malware in virtual machines , prior to compromising actual targets .


Note that inside this single response , there is one “ install_true ” command , one “ sms_grab ” command and four “ sms_send ” commands . In July 2017 , we observed APT34 targeting a Middle East organization using a PowerShell-based backdoor that we call POWRUNER and a downloader with domain generation algorithm functionality that we call BONDUPDATER , based on strings within the malware . Everything starts with a malicious document using a well-known vulnerability to download a malicious document hosted on the internet . It is possible that the malware was used to support exercises such as the ones hosted by Rostelecom - Solar in 2021 in collaboration with the Russian Ministry of Energy or in 2022 for the ( SPIEF ) .


Each of the phishing sites contained links to a distribution manifest , which contained metadata such as the application name , version , icon , and a URL for the IPA file . Leafminer has developed exploit payloads for this framework ( Table 2 ) that deliver custom malware through attacks against SMB vulnerabilities described by Microsoft . In May 2018 , Trend Micro found a new sample ( Detected as W2KM_DLOADR.UHAOEEN ) that may be related to this campaign .


TONEDEAF supports collecting system information , uploading and downloading of files , and arbitrary shell command execution . Attackers have been known to distribute malicious files masquerading as the legitimate iviewers.dll file and then use DLL load hijacking to execute the malicious code and infect the computer .


While admittedly the version numbers provided by SharePoint within HTTP responses do not always provide the precise SharePoint version number , we decided to use it to check if it was less than the version numbers of the patched SharePoint versions from the Microsoft advisory .


The website uses a different fixed twitter account ( https : //twitter.com/fdgoer343 ) . APT17 was embedding the encoded CnC IP address for the BLACKCOFFEE malware in legitimate Microsoft TechNet profiles pages and forum threads , a method some in the information security community call a " dead drop resolver " . The controller issued the command to write the base64-decoded and modified data to the file name set earlier in the exchange . Talos eventually uncovered additional campaigns , including the two previously mentioned by Ukraine ’s Computer Emergency Response Team ( CERT - UA ) and FortiGuard Labs researchers .


After some major upgrade , by mid-June , the “ Agent Smith ” campaign reached its peak . In order to increase the likelihood of their malware successfully communicating home , cyber espionage threat actors are increasingly abusing legitimate web services , in lieu of DNS lookups to retrieve a command and control address . With these capabilities , Microsoft Defender ATP provides comprehensive protection against Dexphot and the countless other complex and evolving threats that we face every day . To increase investigation transparency , we are including a Last Known True , or LKT , value for network indicators .


The group has demonstrated access to zero-day vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-0802) , and the ability to incorporate them into operations . which has been active since at least 2011 .


Some of the observed GeminiDuke samples that used timestamps as mutex names were compiled while MSK still respected DST and for these samples , the timestamps perfectly align with MSK as it was defined at the time .


Harvested credentials provided by an embedded Mimikatz executable facilitate the infection of other systems on the network . which they launched targeted attacks against Russian banks , businesses and media companies .


This led us to additional infrastructure for Zebrocy at 185.25.51.198 and 185.25.50.93 .


It also harvests call details and SMS logs as shown below . The admin@338 linked to China and alleged to be responsible for targeted attacks against foreign governments and ministries , has now pointed its focus inward at China autonomous territory Hong Kong . In other recent attacks ( January 2017 ) , the group used a fake Juniper Networks VPN portal and fake University of Oxford websites to deliver malware as described by ClearSky . UNC2452 is a sophisticated group that has targeted government and private sector entities worldwide .


Like many espionage campaigns , much of APT40 's activity begins by attempting to trick targets with phishing emails , before deploying malware such as the Gh0st RAT trojan to maintain persistence on a compromised network . CTU researchers assess with high confidence that threat groups like Threat Group-1314 will continue to live off of the land to avoid detection and conduct their operations .


The primary goal of these attacks was likely to find code-signing certificates for signing future malware . Aside from the competitive vendor naming landscape ( which I am not a fan of in cases on direct overlap , but which has more to say for itself when different methodologies are employed around similar observations ) , the distinction between FireEye and Dragos' approaches with respect to the " TRITON actor " comes down to fundamental philosophical differences in methodology .


Devices running Android 4.4 and higher are protected by Verified Boot . Kaspersky Lab 's products detect the Microsoft Office exploits used in the spear-phishing attacks , including Exploit.MSWord.CVE-2010-333 , Exploit.Win32.CVE-2012-0158 . APT16 actors were likely also responsible for the June 2015 activity . Uncovering weaknesses in Apple macOS and VMWare vCenter : 12 vulnerabilities in RPC implementation •


After the checks , the malware becomes active , but first , it goes through seven steps , each one calling a different command : uploadPhoneNumbers : Exfiltrates all phone numbers that are in the contact list . The Seedworm group controls its Powermud backdoor from behind a proxy network to hide the ultimate command-and-control ( C&C ) location . The DllInstall export function is responsible for the core behavior of the malware , as just loading it does nothing . For this reason , the particular actions intended by the actor are unclear without further knowledge about the targeted assets .


This check serves two purposes :


This variant of SofacyCarberp was configured to use the following domain as its C2 server : cdnverify.net .


One of its most notable routines is capturing voice calls in real time by hooking into the “ mediaserver ” system service . To reduce the risk of losing access to the internal bank network , the Carbanak , in addition to malicious programs , also used for remote access legitimate programs such as Ammy Admin and Team Viewer . referred in his blog ) None Use of open source libraries for protocol implementation : The availability of open source projects that implement OT protocols can lower the barrier of entry for actors attempting to interact with OT devices .


In that case , you first need to send the text “ 393838 ” in an SMS to the infected device and then repeat all the actions described above ; that text message will change the C & C address to “ : // ” , so the phone will no longer receive commands from the real C & C . We initially became aware of Careto when we observed attempts to exploit a vulnerability in our products to make the malware " invisible " in the system . Since early 2018 , FireEye ( including our FireEye as a Service ( FaaS ) , Mandiant Consulting , and iSIGHT Intelligence teams ) has been tracking an ongoing wave of intrusions targeting engineering and maritime entities , especially those connected to South China Sea issues .


If you ’ ve downloaded one of the apps listed in Appendix A , below , you might be infected . We attribute APT38 to North Korean state-sponsored operators based on a combination of technical indicators linking the activity to Pyongyang and details released by DOJ implicating North Korean national Park Jin Hyok in a criminal conspiracy . to MMAT_GLBOPT2 ( most global optimizations completed ) However , twice this year , in March and June , LockBit 's considerable rate of attacks was vastly exceeded by CL0P , which was otherwise dormant .


The HawkEye malware is primarily used for credential theft and is often combined with additional tools to extract passwords from email and web browser applications . APT28 targets Russian rockers and dissidents Pussy Riot via spear-phishing emails .


In 2011-2012 , the group used a relatively tiny implant ( known as “ Sofacy ” or SOURFACE ) as their first stage malware , which at the time had similarities with the old Miniduke implants .


The identified email owners held a wide range of responsibilities within the Hillary for America campaign , extending from senior figures to junior employees and the group mailboxes for various regional offices .


1664cb343ee830fa94725fed143b119f7e2351307ed0ce04724b23469b9002f2 Loaded DEX SHA2 : afaf446a337bf93301b1d72855ccdd76112595f6e4369d977bea6f9721edf37e Domain/IP : goldncup [ . Specifically , the targeting of organizations in the aerospace and energy sectors indicates that the APT33 is likely in search of strategic intelligence capable of benefitting a government or military sponsor . Remexi boasts features that allow it to gather keystrokes, take screenshots of Windows of interest (as defined in its configuration), steal credentials, logons and the browser history, and execute remote . Since 2021 , there have been multiple leaks of ransomware source code and builders components that are essential to creating and modifying ransomware .


We have discovered apps using AES , Blowfish , and DES as well as combinations of these to encrypt their strings . More than half of the organizations we have observed being targeted or breached by APT5 operate in these sectors . SC Service control command , implemented as the Windows one . Our initial investigation on the domains registered by Hack520 revealed that similar domains ( listed below ) were registered by another profile .


By comparing the sizes of the encrypted asset file tong.luo vs the decrypted JAR file mycode.jar , it is interesting to note that it is the same file ( almost the same size ) . The timeline shows three main clusters of activity across the three webshells , with activity occurring on two separate webshells (green and orange) within a very small window of time on April 2 , 2019 and the activity involving the third webshell two weeks later on April 16 , 2019 . While Gorgon Group has been making minor changes in their methodologies , they are still actively involved in both targeted and criminal attacks .


Due to this obfuscation , a part of the previously mentioned cfg class is now mapped to c/b/a/a/a or c/a/a/a/a . By listing sub-folders , SWAnalytics is able to infer QQ accounts which have never been used on the device . The persistent use of social media to identify and manipulate victims indicates that COBALT GYPSY successfully achieves its objectives using this tactic .


Third-party app stores are ubiquitous in China for a number of reasons including : evermore powerful Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers ( OEM ) , a lack of an official Chinese Google Play app store , and a growing smartphone market . We didn’t choose to name it after a vegetable; the .NET malware developers named it Topinambour themselves . While APT1 intruders occasionally use publicly available backdoors such as Poison Ivy and Gh0st RAT .


After initialization , the artifact will attempt to establish a connection by creating a socket .


In red , we see those values being passed into the suspicious Java method through the registered interface . Our primary contribution in this update is to implicate Bahamut in what are likely counterterrorism-motivated surveillance operations , and to further affirm our belief that the group is a hacker-for-hire operation . ZxFunction002 This will either bind the calling process to a port or has the calling process connect to a remote host . Therefore , there are cases where these vulnerabilities are accessible via the internet .


Where possible , minimize server fingerprinting by configuring web servers to avoid responding with banners identifying the server software and version number .


Both the loader and dropped class are obfuscated using ProGuard , which obfuscates names using alphabet letters . This module monitors a wide range of device activities including application installation / remove / update , phone restart and battery charge . These characteristics suggest that COBALT GYPSY executed the January and February phishing campaigns and that it created the Mia Ash persona .


The purely nominal control over the applications uploaded to these stores means attackers can conceal Trojans in apps made to look like innocent games or utilities . The initial attack vector used in the attack against the data center is unclear , but researchers believe LuckyMouse possibly had conducted watering hole or phishing attacks to compromise accounts belonging to employees at the national data center . In this case the legitimate hpqhvind.exe was dropped by the attackers , along with their malicious hpqhvsei.dll , in C:\Windows\Temp . KillNet has remained relatively consistent in its targeting of Ukraine ’s supporters and prioritization of DDoS attacks since Russia invaded in February 2022 , and despite new capabilities , the collective has hardly altered its targeting patterns .


This local port is used by Exodus Two to execute various commands on the Android device , such as enabling or disabling certain services , or parsing app databases . Suckfly conducted a multistage attack against an e-commerce organization . Corrupted file f6876fd68fdb9c964a573ad04e4e0d3cfd328304659156efc9866844a28c7427 . imgonline-com-ua-dexifEEdWuIbNSv7G.jpg : The FBI released an advisory warning users about NFT phishing scams where developers are often approached via social media and tricked into visiting a malicious link .


While the attackers used different pretexts when sending these malicious emails , two methodologies stood out .


If that doesn ’ t work , they try to use queryUsageStats : When the malware invokes queryUsageStats , it asks for the list of applications that ran in the last 1 million milliseconds ( 16 minutes and 40 seconds ) . In this campaign , the Group123 used a classical HWP document in order to download and execute a previously unknown malware : NavRAT . control flow flattening , COSMICENERGY lacks discovery capabilities , which implies that to successfully execute an attack the malware operator would need to perform some internal reconnaissance to obtain environment information , such as MSSQL server IP addresses , MSSQL credentials , and target IEC-104 device IP addresses .


Suckfly : Revealing the secret life of your code signing certificates .


They exist in two types : the credentials stealers ( first 2 screenshots ) and the credit card grabbers ( last screenshot ) . But after 2019 SectorJ04 has changed its hacking strategy to attack using spam email . BRONZE BUTLER are also fluent in Japanese , crafting phishing emails in native Japanese and operating successfully within a Japanese-language environment .


One such immediately apparent connection was the similar deployment technique used by both XLoader 6.0 and FakeSpy . These URIs result in the download of an installer , which creates a PE of the malware typically known as HTTPBrowser , but called Token Control by the Wekby group themselves ( based upon the PDB strings found within many of the samples ) . If performing receive operations in ping mode, Glimpse makes a query with the 0 action to contact the controller for . Adversaries may utilize command - line interfaces ( CLIs ) to interact with systems and execute commands .


The sample we analyzed changed that behavior and hard-coded DWORD for each object type .


When a user enters an Internet banking site on a computer infected by banking malware ( ZeuS , Citadel ) , a request about the smartphone number and type of operating system is injected into the code of the authentication page . Kaspersky Lab documented this behavior in 2014 . Since ZxShell has been around since at least 2004 , numerous people have purchased or obtained the tools necessary to set up ZxShell command and control servers ( C&C ) and generate the malware that is placed on the victim ’s network . The RAT was likely not detected before as it has the ability to remove itself from the victim machine in time for the deployment of malware .


The root stash directory location may be read from the configuration file or set to the default location which is “ %MYPICTURES% ” .


Downeks .NET internal name is “ SharpDownloader ” , “ Sharp ” may be a reference to the language it was written in – C# .


The new GRIFFON implant is written to the hard drive before each execution , limiting the file-less” aspect of this method . The Plead malware is a backdoor which , according to Trend Micro , is used by the BlackTech group in targeted attacks .


The code itself is not modified by this type of obfuscation though , making the analysis easier . It turns out that contacts data isn’t the only unusual data SWAnalytics is interested in . CTU researchers have observed multiple COBALT GYPSY campaigns since 2015 and consider it highly likely that the group is associated with Iranian government-directed cyber operations .


CTU researchers have evidence that the threat group compromised U.S. and UK organizations in the following verticals : manufacturing ( specifically aerospace ( including defense contractors ) , automotive , technology , energy , and pharmaceuticals ) , education , and legal , as well as organizations focused on international relations .


The files exploit the well-known Microsoft Office vulnerability , CVE-2012-0158 , to execute malicious code in order to take control of the targeted systems . In addition , the time stamp on the CA is new , which might mean that it was obtained specifically for this attack .


We now track this activity set as TEMP.Veles .


As more variants of Mirai emerged , so did the list IoT devices it was targeting .


Various recruitment posts on Chinese job sites and Chinese National Enterprise Credit Information Public System ( NECIPS ) data led us one step further , linking the actor to its legal entity name . As of the Group-IB investigation of this malware program in March 2015 , Corkow v.7.118.1.1 had not been detected by a single antivirus program . They also sell credentials from the affected systems , allowing other cybercriminals to have remote access to hotel front desks infected by the campaign . While CISA or Microsoft have yet to disclose any specific vulnerabilities the actors exploited , the CISA report does say that the APT used a Microsoft account consumer key to forge tokens and impersonate targeted users .


When a Germany-based industrial conglomerate disclosed in December 2016 that it was breached early that year , the breach was revealed to be a professionally run industrial espionage attack .


The overall infection procedure was very similar to the WFCWallet case , but with an added injection procedure , and they only used the final backdoor payload instead of using a tunneling tool .


Our decompilation of the serialization library was not complete enough to allow simple recompilation .


Broadcast Receiver Figure 4 : MyReceiver broadcast receiver . It was reported by Symantec to Microsoft in September 2018 and was patched on March 12 , 2019 . Carbanak : Anunak , Carbon Spider .


Operation AppleJeus Sequel , Lazarus continues to attack the cryptocurrency business with enhanced capabilities .


In the image below , we see the malware function that detects such dialogs when they are presented to the user , asking them to tap an option based on predefined choices . These actors scan websites for vulnerabilities to exploit to illicitly access databases . This technique was observed in previous Clayslide documents to access the script variant of the Helminth Trojan in earlier OilRig attacks .


This IP is located in Los Angeles , U.S.A. , at a hosting company named “ Emagine Concept Inc ” . The documents attached to spear-phishing e-mails used in both attacks contain code that exploits CVE-2012-0158 , which despite its age remains one of the most common Microsoft Word vulnerabilities being exploited by multiple threat actors . PROMETHIUM uses a unique set of tools and methods to perform actions like lateral movement and data Exfiltration .


The group was first publicly disclosed by FireEye in this report . The document exploited CVE-2012-0158 and will decode and write an executable to disk upon infection .


They ’re a critical component of many dangerous industrial environments such as electric power generation and oil and gas processing .


Dragos has reported that XENOTIME , the APT group behind the TRISIS (aka TRITON and HatMan) attack on a Saudi Arabian petro-chemical facility in 2017 , has expanded its focus beyond the oil and gas industries . To install and register the malicious shim database on a system , FIN7 used a custom Base64 encoded PowerShell script , which ran the sdbinst.exe” utility to register a custom shim database file containing a patch onto a system .


Within the unit , two divisions were involved in the breaches : one specializing in operations and the second in development and maintenance of hacking tools and infrastructure .


We discovered the activity originated from three separate IP addresses , all located in Chengdu , China .


The package certificate is issued under the package name , which also resembles the name of the main DLL name . They download and install an archive containing executables and trivially modified source code of the password-stealing tool Mimikatz Lite as GetPassword.exe . APT37 has likely been active since at least 2012 and focuses on targeting the public and private sectors primarily in South Korea .


This same keyword was also found in the njRAT c2 communication used in this attack .


The BRONZE PRESIDENT cyberespionage group targets NGOs , as well as political and law enforcement organizations in countries in South and East Asia .


Understanding the “ how ” and “ why ” behind different entity classifications of similar ( or even the same ) activity allows us to move beyond the dismissive approach of “ everyone has their names for marketing purposes ” to a more productive mindset that grasps the fundamental methodologies that ( should ) drive these decisions .


The sample analyzed was targeted at Russian-speaking users , as most of the user interaction pages are written in Russian . This focus on training aligns with LYCEUM’s targeting of executives , HR staff , and IT personnel . As previously mentioned , we assess with high confidence that APT38 's mission is focused on targeting financial institutions to raise money for the North Korean regime .


, included the kasper PDB string reported by Unit 42 , and used similar POST and GET requests .


In their current campaign , APT32 has leveraged ActiveMime files that employ social engineering methods to entice the victim into enabling macros . This could include diplomats , experts in the LOCs of interest related to the Digital Economy Task Force , or possibly even journalists .


Based on Suckfly scanning for common ports , it ’s clear that the group was looking to expand its foothold on the e-commerce company 's internal network .


Project Spy ’ s earlier versions Searching for the domain in our sample database , we found that the coronavirus update app appears to be the latest version of another sample that we detected in May 2019 . Periodically , researchers at Palo Alto Networks hunt through WildFire execution reports , using AutoFocus , to identify untagged samples ' artifacts in the hopes of identifying previously undiscovered malware families , behaviors , and campaigns . The code tracks the block comparison variable in each predecessor and more ( if any conditional blocks before the predecessor ) When the marital infidelity website AshleyMadison.com learned in July 2015 that hackers were threatening to publish data stolen from 37 million users , the company ’s then - CEO Noel Biderman was quick to point the finger at an unnamed former contractor .


The loader ’ s anti-debugger code is based on the following three methods : The first call aims to destroy the debugger connection : NOTE : This call completely stops the execution of WinDbg and other debuggers The second call tries to detect the presence of a debugger : The final call tries to destroy the possibility of adding software breakpoint : Finally , if the loader is happy with all the checks done so far , based on the victim operating system ( 32 or 64-bit ) it proceeds to decrypt a set of fake bitmap resources ( stage 2 We believe recent activity targeting private interests in Vietnam suggests that APT32 poses a threat to companies doing business or preparing to invest in the country . The payload is encoded inside this image with the use of a technique called steganography , which utilizes the least significant bits of each pixel’s color code to store hidden information , without making overtly visible changes to the picture itself . The actor hunts for confidential information stored in the networks of governmental organizations , political groups and think tanks , as well as various individuals involved in defense and geopolitical related research .


The fake applications are built using WebView , a popular extension of Android ’ s View class that lets the developer show a webpage . The zip contained a sample of the Poison Ivy malware which is also known to be used by APT10 . APT38 's increasingly aggressive targeting against banks .


Unlike CosmicDuke and PinchDuke , GeminiDuke primarily collects information on the victim computer ’s configuration .


The actors likely log into sahro.bella7@post.cz and process the system information and screenshot sent by the Trojan to determine if the compromised host is of interest .


'' There are 27 response codes that the C2 can use to make requests to the trojan , which pretty much match what 's listed in the capabilities section . CTU research indicates that LYCEUM may have been active as early as April 2018 . Over time these malware similarities diverged , as did targeting , intended outcomes , and TTPs , almost certainly indicating that TEMP.Hermit activity is made up of multiple operational groups primarily linked together with shared malware development resources and North Korean state sponsorship .


They did this at least 5 times between 18 April and 15 May . LAZARUS GROUP is responsible for attacks ranging from the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures to a number of Bitcoin heists in 2017 . The backdoor installed in the machine is more customized than that used by RevengeHotels : it ’s developed from scratch and is able to collect data from the clipboard and printer spooler , and capture screenshots . Methods of manipulating control can include changes to set point values , tags , or other parameters .


If the account exists , HammerDuke will then search for tweets from that account with links to image files that contain embedded commands for the toolset to execute .


start rundll32.exe “ C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\cdnver.dll ” .


On Windows 10 , similar code integrity policies can be configured using Windows Defender Application Control . ChopShop1 is a new framework developed by the MITRE Corporation for network-based protocol decoders that enable security professionals to understand actual commands issued by human operators controlling endpoints . OceanLotus : {B578B063-93FB-4A5F-82B4-4E6C5EBD393B} ? 4 0 ( config+0x486 ) . The second path ( /Library / Fonts / ArialUnicode.ttf.md5.1 ) may be used to store logging information related to monitor activity that is described as follows .


We assess with high confidence that this activity is carried out on behalf of the North Korean government given malware development artifacts and targeting that aligns with North Korean state interests . We have also observed them using virtual private network services that use IPs based in numerous countries to ensure anonymity and obfuscate criminal operations .


Original code of the APK on the left , versus injected APK on the right The analysis of the APK was rather interesting , because some of the actions were very common spyware features , such as the exfiltration of SMS messages , call logs and other data . The targets are military or defense industry in particular countries , it used DDNS for C2 servers , and tracked connections from their victims by using target or campaign codes , as well as disguising the malware as document file , and using a dropper to install the malware and decoy file . The malware creates 11 threads simultaneously : six threads are responsible for stealing information from the infected host , and five threads are for forwarding collected data to four cloud services ( Box , Dropbox , Pcloud and Yandex ) .


UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers , password collection , webcam capture , data destruction , persistence , privilege escalation , stealth , anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques . The use of InPage as an attack vector is not commonly seen , with the only previously noted attacks being documented by Kaspersky in late 2016 .


The change in the way the malware works today may be to help finance the campaign through fraudulent ad activity . APT39 's focus on the widespread theft of personal information sets it apart from other Iranian groups FireEye tracks , which have been linked to influence operations , disruptive attacks , and other threats . In this case , If this is the primary reason why someone might be after your companys data , simple preventative measures could be used to deter these attacks from happening .


This variant of HenBox also used the common green Android figure as the app logo and was named 设置 ( “ Backup ” in English ) . Considering APT-C-09 , Bitter and Donot have carried out targeted attacks against China , we must take actions in advance and keep a close eye on their recent activities . The APT18 then installed the hcdLoader RAT , which installs as a Windows service and provides command line access to the compromised system .


The Lookout Threat Intelligence team is increasingly seeing the same tradecraft , tactics , and procedures that APT-C-23 favors being used by other actors . Lazarus regrouped and rushed into new countries , selecting mostly poorer and less developed locations , hitting smaller banks because they are , apparently , easy prey . In one instance , a large U.S. company was attacked in the same month a Middle Eastern company it co-owns was also compromised . The techniques leveraged during the incident suggest a growing maturity of Russia ’s offensive OT arsenal , including an ability to recognize novel OT threat vectors , develop new capabilities , and leverage different types of OT infrastructure to execute attacks .


The most likely conclusion that can be drawn here is that an analyst or researcher obtained this file , modified it to see the content ( misspelling the variable name along the way ) post-decoding , and uploaded it to see what it did in a sandbox .


This version adds one significant class — it requests DEVICE_ADMIN privileges . Named Trochilus , this new RAT was part of Group 27 's malware portfolio that included six other malware strains , all served together or in different combinations , based on the data that needed to be stolen from each victim . WATERSPOUT : APT29 also created a scheduled task to maintain SUNSPOT persistence when the host booted .


The impacted versions of the UPX library are 3.94 , 3.93 , and 3.92 .


EVENTBOT INFRASTRUCTURE By mapping the C2 servers , a clear , repeated pattern emerges based on the specific URL gate_cb8a5aea1ab302f0_c . The basic chain of events upon execution of the MSIL dropper include dropping and executing both a PDF decoy and a Javascript (JS) dropper . Sometimes , they aim at establishing a foothold on the target 's computer to gain access into their organization , but , based on our data , this is usually not their main objective , as opposed to other Iranian threat groups , such as Oilrig1 and CopyKittens2 .


At the time of writing this research , four versions of the EventBot malware were observed : Version 0.0.0.1 , 0.0.0.2 , and 0.3.0.1 and 0.4.0.1 . This particular sample we found targeted an organization in Russia and there is a specific system language check for Cyrillic and no others . In December 2015 , Unit 42 published a blog about a cyber espionage attack using the Emissary Trojan as a payload .


We assess that APT10 likely compromised Visma with the primary goal of enabling secondary intrusions onto their client networks , and not of stealing Visma intellectual property . The exploit document carrying this alternate KeyBoy configuration also used a decoy document which was displayed to the user after the exploit launched .


In some versions , the server would only return valid responses several days after the apps were submitted . In the next incident , also in 2017 , software updates for the legitimate computer cleanup tool CCleaner was found to have been compromised by hackers to taint them with the same ShadowPad backdoor . The hook installed by ZxShell implements one of its filtering routine . A full report describing the timeline of DUCKTAIL ’s activities , a detailed analysis of its malware component , and appendices containing indicators of compromise , Yara detection rules , metadata , and MITRE ATT&CK techniques can be downloaded from a link on this page .


specifically CVE-2018-0798 , before downloading subsequent payloads . Thus far , Bahamut 's campaigns have appeared to be primarily espionage or information operations – not destructive attacks or fraud .


spear phishing : 69.87.223.26 .


For the hardware virtualization check , the loader obtains the hardware device list and checks if the MD5 of the vendor ID is equal to a predefined list . Since at least 2014 , APT32 , also known as the OceanLotus Group , has targeted foreign corporations foreign governments . This particular OceanLotus malware loader attempts to imitate McAfee ’s McVsoCfg DLL and expects to be side-loaded by the legitimate " On Demand Scanner " executable . Seven of the vulnerabilities included in today ’s Vulnerability Roundup have a CVSS severity score of 9.8 out of a possible 10 .


In actual fact , the Trojan does not block anything and the phone can be used without any problems . The primary backdoor used in the Epic attacks is also known as " WorldCupSec " , " TadjMakhal " , " Wipbot " or " Tavdig " . Here is a short list of the types of tools included with ZxShell : A rough translation of this message is as follows : Hack520 seems to be very interested in hosting services and his profile fits that of a system administrator profile with some programming and hacking skills .


In the past , we ’ve seen groups such as Equation and Flame use malware to steal data from air-gapped networks .


The “ Init ” export establishes connection to port 80 of a C2 server using Wininet API .


C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Blaster.lnk :


Bahamut was shown to be resourceful , not only maintaining their own Android malware but running propaganda sites , although the quality of these activities varied noticeably . In comparison to other threat groups , TG-3390 is notable for its tendency to compromise Microsoft Exchange servers using a custom backdoor and credential logger .


Lurk uses a form of steganography : that's where one file is hidden away inside another file of a completely different sort , such as an image , audio , or video file . In addition to built-in functionalities , the operators of Careto can upload additional modules which can perform any malicious task .


RuMMS Samples , C2 , Hosting Sites , Infections and Timeline In total we captured 297 RuMMS samples , all of which attempt to contact an initial C2 server that we extracted from the app package . The use of script-based backdoors is a common technique used by the OilRig group as we have previously documented . We already published a couple of articles about ROKRAT ( here , here , here and here ) where another unrelated actor , Group123 , made the same choice but with different providers . Other interesting anomalies in June include 47 attacks on the Manufacturing industry ( which usually averages around 20 attacks a month ) and notable increases in attacks on Switzerland ( 14 ) and Brazil ( 13 ) , both of which are normally attacked only two or three times a month .


Application Recording — Stealing OTPs and TANs The feature that makes TrickMo different from standard SMS stealers is its unique ability to record the screen when targeted apps are running . The tool then starts a new web browser instance on the attacker’s system and submits credentials on the real VPN portal . the group 's targets include an organization in Sweden .


In 2016 , the Mirai botnet was discovered by the malware research group MalwareMustDie .


It helps the attacker find out which banks the owner of the smartphone calls – the Trojan receives a list of bank phone numbers from its C & C server . The witnessed techniques , tactics and procedures ( TTPs ) are in-line with what we usuallysee in Turla 's operation : a first stage backdoor , such as Skipper , likely delivered through spearphishing followed by the appearance on the compromised system of a second stage backdoor , Gazerin this case . Winnti : hpqhvind.exe . The configuration contains two C2 servers that are prefixed with a protocol identifier .


In addition to the notably overt and large-scale campaigns with CozyDuke and CloudDuke , the Dukes also continued to engage in more covert , surgical campaigns using CosmicDuke .


Suckfly made its malware difficult to analyze to prevent their operations from being detected .


We also registered one episode of mobile malware spreading via a third-party botnet . The main command and control ( C&C ) server used in this attack is hosted on an IP address which belongs to a Ukrainian ISP , specifically to a MikroTik router running a firmware version released in March 2016 . In the case where the parent process is hpqhvind.exe , this sequence of bytes is present at this exact location and the malicious DLL will proceed to patch the parent process in memory . Sometimes this was a high profile , legitimate site such as ‘ diplomacy.pl ’ hosting a ZIP archive .


Neptun is installed on Microsoft Exchange servers and is designed to passively listen for commands from the attackers . Group-IB specialists detected various sites used by criminals to spread the Trojan : mail tracking websites , news portals , electronic books , computer graphics resources , music portals , etc .


These attacks deliver the Spark and Pierogi backdoors for politically-driven cyber espionage operations .


To lure the victims to download the malware , threat actors use SMS phishing – sending a short SMS message containing a malicious URL to the potential victims . Although most malware today either seeks monetary gain or conducts espionage for economic advantage , both of these activity groups appear to seek information about specific individuals . Thanks to this exploit ( Remote Code Execution exploit ) the user interaction is not required , in fact the “ enable macro ” button is not shown . Criminals are also using malvertising via search engines to lure potential victims in .


There is some infrastructure overlap in the C2 servers used by almost all of the FakeM variants , as well other Trojans such as MobileOrder , Psylo , and CallMe . Since at least 2014 , APT32 , also known as the OceanLotus Group , has targeted foreign corporations with investments in Vietnam , foreign governments , journalists , and Vietnamese dissidents .


We determined that this chunk of data contains an array of opcode instructions ready to be interpreted by a custom virtual machine program ( from this point on referenced generically as “ VM ” ) implemented by FinFisher authors . APT threat actors , most likely nation state-sponsored , targeted a diplomat in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a seemingly legitimate invitation to a technology conference in Taiwan . That C&C server served the latest version of the MUI files encrypted with a static RC5 key . A recent report from the United Kingdom ’s National CyberSecurity Center ( NCSC ) highlights how the accessibility of these tools “ lowers the barrier to entry to state and non - state actors in obtaining capability and intelligence . ”


Why would OurMine want to target WikiLeaks . Silence 's successful attacks currently have been limited to the CIS and Eastern European countries .


Code comparison between versions of Ryuk and Hermes ransomware indicates that Ryuk was derived from the Hermes source code and has been under steady development since its release . Next , in an effort to demonstrate it wasn't relegated to China , CrowdStrike exposed Clever Kitten , an actor we track out of Iran who leverages some very distinct TTPs when viewed next to a more visible adversary .


Enforce secure network authentication , where possible .


( Please note this is a different app and not the same as the one being spread by hxxp : //tiny [ . Gamaredon Group primarily makes use of Russian hosting providers in order to distribute its malware . The following is an example Python function to decode these strings . libxselinux.old : 7f4764c6e6dabd262341fd23a9b105a3 dc96d0f02151e702ef764bbc234d1e73d2811416 ae9d6848f33644795a0cc3928a76ea194b99da3c10f802db22034d9f695a0c23 .


The members of the group use a variety of tools , including CCleaner , on a daily basis to effectively remove any evidence of their operations . Additionally , the targeting of a French diplomat based in Taipei , Taiwan aligns with previous targeting by these actors , as does the separate infrastructure .


It indicates perhaps an interesting trend which is exploiting the trust relationships between the two communities . Compared to Patchwork , whose Trojanized documents exploit at least five security flaws , Confucius' backdoors are delivered through Office files exploiting memory corruption vulnerabilities CVE-2015-1641 and CVE-2017-11882 . Attackers using several locations in China have leveraged C&C servers on purchased hosted services in the United States and compromised servers in the Netherlands to wage attacks against global oil , gas , and petrochemical companies , as well as individuals and executives in Kazakhstan , Taiwan , Greece , and the United States to acquire proprietary and highly confidential information .


The malware continues by creating a service named mssecsvc2.0 with a binary path pointing to the running module with the arguments -m security . Symantec also confirmed seeing the Lazarus wiper tool in Poland at one of their customers .


C:\Users\[user name]\Downloads\Telegram Desktop\UnionCryptoTraderSetup.exe .


CTU researchers have observed TG-3390 actors using tools that are favored by multiple threat groups :


Carbanak has its origin in more common financial fraud including theft from consumer and corporate bank accounts in Europe and Russia , using standard banking malware , mainly Carberp . The decoy documents used by the InPage exploits suggest that the targets are likely to be politically or militarily motivated .


FANCY BEAR ( also known as Sofacy or APT 28 ) is a separate Russian-based threat actor , which has been active since mid 2000s , and has been responsible for targeted intrusion campaigns against the Aerospace , Defense , Energy , Government and Media sectors .