EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cisco Talos has discovered a new Android malware based on a leak of the DenDroid malware family . Finally , this geo-location supports the likely theory that the attackers behind Kimsuky are based in North Korea . The IXESHE campaign makes use of targeted emails with malicious attachments to compromise victims ’ systems . A more granular future direction for strengthening CSP direction to consider as part of the CSP standard is XHR proxy enforcement .


That communication is an Achilles heel for any botnet – it may raise suspicion and , cutting the bots off is always lethal to the botnet ’ s functioning . This activity ceased in February 2016 , likely because the men who made up Scattered Canary began to focus on honing their BEC skills . Symantec also confirmed seeing the Lazarus wiper tool in Poland at one of their customers .


These services appear to be running on all network interfaces and are therefore accessible to anyone sharing a local network with an infected device . The certificates Blackfly stole were also from South Korean companies , primarily in the video game and software development industry . Describes a resolution by the Asian Parliamentary Assembly ( APA ) held in Anatalya , announcing unlimited support for the Palestinian people 7b4c736b92ce702fb584845380e237aa55ddb4ef693ea65a766c9d9890b3852c . jalsa.rar : The attackers behind Earth Vetala use features of remote access software to steal sensitive information or download malware for additional cyber operations , leveraging spearphishing emails and lure documents containing embedded links to a legitimate filesharing service Onehub to distribute archives containing the ScreenConnect remote administrator tool and RemoteUtilities software .


We believe that this method is engineered to avoid trivial detection of process injection using the well-detected CreateRemoteThread or ZwQueueApcThread API . The Rocket Kitten attacker group 's main attack vector is spear-phishing . The shellcode is obfuscated using OceanLotus ’s standard approach of flattening the control flow and inserting junk opcodes ( as described in the ESET white paper on OceanLotus ) . For example , analysts need to consider during analysis whether the appliance is recording the true client IP addresses ( opposed to network address translation [ NAT ] addresses ) , and what normal user behavior looks like ( do users shift IP addresses frequently ) .


Notably , all of the content text is accessible to the victim even before macros are enabled .


Sofacy ’s August 2015 attack wave .


App Icon Figure 1 : App icon and fake notification . The ShooterAudio module uses PulseAudio to capture audio from the user's microphone . Winnti ver.1 , these values were designated as ‘ tag ’ and ‘ group ’ .


Both publications happened before the second wave took place and received notable publicity .


The Android permissions requested by HenBox , as defined in the apps ’ AndroidManifest.xml files , range from accessing location and network settings to messages , call , and contact data . Beginning in July 2018 , APT41 appeared to have directly targeted several East and Southeast Asia-based video game developers and distributors to inject legitimate executables with the CRACKSHOT backdoor . Compared to other backdoor tools associated with the Sofacy group , the use of Zebrocy in attack campaigns is far more widespread .


What lied beneath this facade was a well-engineered campaign of phishing attacks designed to steal credentials and spy on the activity of dozens of journalists , human rights defenders , trade unions and labour rights activists , many of whom are seemingly involved in the issue of migrants’ rights in Qatar and Nepal . Similar to the Bisonal variant targeting the Russian organization , this sample was also disguised as PDF document .


These differences include a new hashing algorithm to resolve API functions and to find running browser processes for injection , as well as changes to the C2 communication mechanisms .


Immediately when the File Manager window is opened by the attacker , the Quasar serve sends two commands to the RAT : GetDrives and listDirectory ( to populate the list of the victim ’s files in the RAT Server GUI ) .


The PinchDuke toolset consists of multiple loaders and a core information stealer Trojan .


Malicious APK Like its previous versions , XLoader 6.0 abuses social media user profiles to hide its real C & C addresses , but this time its threat actors chose the social media platform Twitter , which was never used in previous attacks . Similar to RIPTIDE campaigns , APT12 infects target systems with HIGHTIDE using a Microsoft Word ( .doc ) document that exploits CVE-2012-0158 . This function takes several parameters, most of which are represented in the subdomain label(s) of the query . In addition , Hack520 ’s tweets always show photos of the same animal , which is likely his pet pig .


Because the domain had been sinkholed , this activity could not be completed .


We can not say for sure if Wolf Research and Coralco Tech are linked , but this panel name , their offerings and the panel layout would suggest it should be considered suspiciously linked . which they launched targeted attacks against Russian banks , businesses and media companies . It makes use of a custom Base64 alphabet . 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 ) .


TABLE OF CONTENTS Key Findings Introduction Threat Analysis Fakespy Code Analysis Dynamic Library Loading Stealing Sensitive Information Anti-Emulator Techniques Under Active Development Who is Behind Fakespy 's Smishing Campaigns ? CTU researchers conclude that COBALT GYPSY created the persona to gain unauthorized access to targeted computer networks via social engineering . Without Symantec 's advanced AI-based capabilities , Gallmaker 's activities may well have remained undetected .


Talos reported that these DNS hijacks also paved the way for the attackers to obtain SSL encryption certificates for the targeted domains ( e.g.webmail.finance.gov.lb ) , which allowed them to decrypt the intercepted email and VPN credentials and view them in plain text . TG-3390 is capable of using a C2 infrastructure that spans multiple networks and registrars .


These hooks are created using the root access and a custom native code called Lmt_INJECT , although the algorithm for this is well known . Nitro 's campaign focused on the chemical sector with the goal of obtaining sensitive documents such as proprietary designs , formulas , and manufacturing processes . The use of BLACKCOFFEE demonstrates threat actors ’ evolving use of public websites to hide in plain sight . Once the system is exploited , a very small downloader is dropped onto the victim - s disc that - s only 20 KB in size .


Additionally , since it does not execute any other functionality autonomously , it would no longer be a direct threat .


In the future , it will be invoked by malicious SDK during banner ads display . Corkow provided remote access to the ITS-Broker system terminal by 《 Platforma soft 》 Ltd , which enabled the fraud to be committed . The group has been active since 2015 , but increased its attacks in 2019 . These are also highly targeted emails with ( relatively speaking ) convincing lures , so whoever is behind these is not to be ignored .


To assess attribution , CTU researchers analyze observed activity , third-party reporting , and contextual intelligence .


From an external analysts ’ point of view , the wonder is , which is superior to the other? And my answer for this is : neither is perfect , but both are useful – depending upon your goals and objectives .


Discovered for the first time in Mexico back in 2013 , Ploutus enabled criminals to empty ATMs using either an external keyboard attached to the machine or via SMS message , a technique that had never been seen before . MXI Player appears to be a version of the Bahamut agent , designed to record the phone calls and collect other information about the user ( com.mxi.videoplay ) .


Shellcode is passed to the exploit from HTML in flashvars .


However , many organizations fail to use these basic security measures , leaving their systems open to compromise :


The threat group's systemic long-term targeting of NGO and political networks does not align with patriotic or criminal threat groups .


] net , which was also used as a Poison Ivy C2 in the Arbor Networks blog . This shift , however , has not affected the group's consistent interest in targeting the video game industry for financially motivated reasons . Based on incident response investigations , product detections , and intelligence observations along with additional publications on the same operators , FireEye assesses that APT32 is a cyber espionage group aligned with Vietnamese government interests .


Politically-motivated APT : Cybereason suspects that the objective of the threat actor is to obtain sensitive information from the victims and leverage it for political purposes .


Droppers Per Device Avg . During the months that followed in which we tracked Confucius' activities , we found that they were still aiming for Pakistani targets . However , the MSI packages hosted at each URL are frequently changed or updated . We observed that in at least two cases , the threat actors subsequently issued the following command against the Exchange web server : This command attempts to delete the administrator user from the Exchange Organizations administrators group , beginning with the Domain Controller in the current domain .


Sometimes the attackers send an MS PowerPoint document instead , which exploits CVE-2014-6352 . If the DoublePulsar backdoor does not exist , then the SMB worm attempts to compromise the target using the Eternalblue SMBv1 exploit .


One outlier SPLM target profile within our visibility includes an audit and consulting firm in Bosnia and Herzegovina .


Attackers know that rooting devices via malware exploits is an effective means to control devices and gather information from them . TinyZBot is a bot written in C# and developed by the Cleaver team . used in the microcode . While we can not validate these claims , there are indications that some of these documents are legitimate , which would demonstrate another significant increase in capability for the group .


The remainder of this section describes at a high-level what HenBox is capable of , and how it operates . Since 2013 , APT41 has targeted organizations involved in the research , development , and sale of computer components used for machine-learning , autonomous vehicles , medical imaging , and the consumer market . The targets were similar to a 2015 TG-4127 campaign — individuals in Russia and the former Soviet states , current and former military and government personnel in the U.S. and Europe , individuals working in the defense and government supply chain , and authors and journalists — but also included email accounts linked to the November 2016 United States presidential election .


When executed the second time by clicking on the app on the physical device , FakeSpy redirects to the app settings . This activity cluster , which Kaspersky Lab has followed for a few years , uses various implants for targeting mainly banks , and developers of banking and money processing software solutions . The MyWeb sample that FireEye analyzed has a compile date of 1/20/2011 .


The author of Dumpert describes the tool as an LSASS dumping tool that uses direct system calls and API unhooking to evade antivirus and EDR solutions .


This means that , unless victims lock their devices via the hardware button , the timer provides plenty of time for the malware to remotely perform malicious , in-app operations . The malicious email contains a highly suspicious sample which triggered the ZLAB team to investigate its capabilities and its possible attribution , discovering a potential expansion of the TA505 operation . This campaign is tailored to identifying those who are running Bitcoin related software through specific system scans .


Note : DLL side loading is a prevalent persistence technique that is used to launch a multitude of backdoors .


The Russian government views the U.S. as a strategic rival and is known to task its intelligence agencies with gathering confidential information about individuals and organizations close to the center of power in the U.S. Individuals working for the Hillary for America campaign could have information about proposed policies for a Clinton presidency , including foreign-policy positions , which would be valuable to the Russian government .


com.xapo com.airbitz com.kibou.bitcoin com.qcan.mobile.bitcoin.wallet me.cryptopay.android com.bitcoin.wallet lt.spectrofinance.spectrocoin.android.wallet com.kryptokit.jaxx com.wirex bcn.org.freewallet.app com.hashengineering.bitcoincash.wallet bcc.org.freewallet.app com.coinspace.app btg.org.freewallet.app net.bither In early May 2016 , both PROMETHIUM and NEODYMIUM started conducting attack campaigns against specific individuals in Europe . Threat : Gamaredon Pteranodon weaponized document . The threat actor cleared Windows Event Logs on affected backend Exchange servers so further information was not available regarding the PowerShell commands leveraged by the threat actors .


It is worth noting that this server also seems to be operated by CrookServers , since among other domains , 454-reverse.crookservers.net resolved to the same IP address .


The threat actors may be able to keep this session alive and maintain persistent access .


Since the class does not exist at startup , the application does not run on the debugger . Moafee and DragonOK both use a well-known proxy tool – HUC Packet Transmit Tool ( HTRAN ) – to disguise their geographical locations . Download an archive with the tool ( .exe ) . 8.15 Logging & 8.16 Monitoring activities – determining the system information to log , store and query allows malicious behavior to be uncovered , if threat intelligence is applied to understand how threats may manifest themselves within log data .


In mid-August 2018 , a modified version of Hermes , dubbed Ryuk , started appearing in a public malware repository . 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 malware has been dubbed ‘ SimBad ’ due to the fact that a large portion of the infected applications are simulator games . Targeting data supports the belief that APT39 's key mission is to track or monitor targets of interest , collect personal information , including travel itineraries , and gather customer data from telecommunications firms . In 2015 , Suckfly conducted a multistage attack .


It first attracted our attention in April of this year when we observed an actor customizing the malware for use in highly targeted campaigns .


AutoFocus customers can track these tools with the Sofacy , SofacyMacro and SofacyCarberp .


We believe that the Carbanak campaign is a clear indicator of a new era in cybercrime in which criminals use APT techniques directly against the financial industry instead of through its customers . The decoy slideshows all contain photos from very meaningful events to individuals in Thailand , suggesting that the actors continually look for impactful events to use to disguise their attacks .


One of the obfuscation tricks included by the malware authors in a VM opcode dispatcher Even armed with the knowledge we have described so far , it still took us many hours to write a full-fledged opcode interpreter that ’ s able to reconstruct the real code executed by FinFisher . The MPK bot is not publicly available and had previously been attributed to an adversary group called " Rocket Kitten " which has often been thought to be a state sponsored adversary operating in the Middle East region . Winnti : Dropper delivered by api.goallbandungtravel.com . Sandworm potentially developed the disruptive capability as early as three weeks prior to the OT event , suggesting the attacker may have been waiting for a specific moment to deploy the capability .


The main payload is usually Imminent Monitor RAT ; however , at the beginning of 2018 , we also observed the use of LuminosityLink RAT , NetWire RAT , and NjRAT . Even an experienced user can be fooled by downloading a malicious file that is apparently from adobe.com , since the URL and the IP address correspond to Adobe 's legitimate infrastructure .


What makes this function more suspicious is the two strings written in Chinese characters : ===状态=== ( ===Status=== ) - Checks whether the device is connected to a network ===类型=== ( ===Type=== ) - Checks whether the device sees available nearby Wifi networks isNetworkAvailable function used for monitoring network connectivity status . The FIN7 intrusion set continued its tailored spear phishing campaigns throughout last year . All of the CnC communications are performed over the HTTP protocol .


After the installation , an application named “ Conference ” appears on the desktop : If the victim launches this app , he will see text which “ enlightens ” the information about the upcoming event : The full text reads follows . NEODYMIUM also used the exact same CVE-2016-4117 exploit code that PROMETHIUM used , prior to public knowledge of the vulnerability 's existence . Operator X also took advantage of cultural idiosyncrasies in its target countries , for example , the regular and widely accepted use of personal Gmail accounts for work .


The newsnstat.com domain was used earlier in 2015 for previous HANGOVER campaigns , and was then repurposed in December 2015 for the MONSOON campaign . In late September 2015 Mofang used the website of Myanmar 's national airline hosted at www.flymna.com for an attack against an organization in Myanmar .


Both WERDLOD and OSX_DOK.C are designed to kill the browser process before installing fake certificates .


] 230 [ . The Dukes are known to employ a vast arsenal of malware toolsets , which we identify as MiniDuke , CosmicDuke , OnionDuke , CozyDuke , CloudDuke , SeaDuke , HammerDuke , PinchDuke , and GeminiDuke . Additional Analysis of the downloaded string is provided in the Gandcrab cradle section below . The “ -do ” flag specifies a SCIL program file to execute ( Figure 8) .


The plugins are stored in its resource section and can be protected by the same VM . menuPass typically makes use of a mix of DDNS and actor-registered domains in their attack campaigns . Resource P1/1 contains config values , including port number and a registry path . This includes hosting C&C domains that were used by Winnti such as mtrue.com , shenqi[.]kr and zhu[.]kr .


Our sample communicates with app.progsupdate.com , which resolved to 185.141.25.68 , over TCP port 4664 .


Certificate information The Android package is named " verReznov.Coampany . The tool investigates the Local Security Authority Subsystem memory space in order to find , decrypt and display retrieved passwords . In 2017 , APT37 expanded its targeting beyond the Korean peninsula to include Japan , Vietnam and the Middle East , and to a wider range of industry verticals , including chemicals , electronics , manufacturing , aerospace , automotive and healthcare entities .


] 172 cdncool [ . In some instances , APT41 leveraged POISONPLUG as a first-stage backdoor to deploy the HIGHNOON backdoor in the targeted environment . The Dukes could have ceased all use of CosmicDuke ( at least until they had developed a new loader ) or retired it entirely , since they still had other toolsets available .


Containment provided by enclaving also makes incident cleanup significantly less costly .


It has the added benefit of installing a nearly unlimited number of fraudulent apps without overloading the infected device . The naming scheme used by Novetta for the malware identified during Operation Blockbuster consists of at least two identifiers which each identifier coming from the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO ) 's phonetic alphabet ,2 commonly referred to as the NATO phonetic alphabet . In addition to its custom malware , Elfin has also used a number of commodity malware tools , available for purchase on the cyber underground . In the sample analyzed , PIEHOP ’s entry point c018c54eff8fd0b9be50b5d419d80f21 ( r3_iec104_control.py ) calls PIEHOP ’s main function , supplying the argument .


This threat group uses a first-stage malware known as Backdoor.APT.Pgift ( aka Troj/ReRol.A ) , which is dropped via malicious documents and connects back to a C2 server . The attachments exploited CVE-2017-8759 which was discovered and documented only five days prior to the campaign .


Also in 2014 , APT32 carried out an intrusion against a Western country’s national legislature . Group-IB specialists determined that the email addresses of IT bank employees were among the recipients of these emails .


Let ’ s compare examples of traffic from Smaps and Asacub — an initializing request to the C & C server with information about the infected device and a response from the server with a command for execution : Smaps request Asacub request Decrypted data from Asacub traffic : { “ id ” : ” 532bf15a-b784-47e5-92fa-72198a2929f5″ , ” type ” : ” get ” , ” info ” : ” imei:365548770159066 , country : PL , cell : Tele2 TG-3390 can quickly leverage compromised network infrastructure during an operation and can conduct simultaneous intrusions into multiple environments . While previous routines took advantage of competing miners ’ activities and unrelated components to hijack the profit , the latest version of the code attempts to remove all related files and codes from previous infections ( including their own to make sure the running components are updated , as well as those from other cybercriminals to maximize the resources of the zombie host ) and creates a new working directory /tmp/.X19-unix to move the kit and extract the files . After Kaspersky ’s reports of these attacks , the rest of 2013 saw reduced intensity of the campaign .


Using other individuals names for C2 communication has also been done by the two other Gaza Cybergang groups :


In some attacks , Whitefly has used a second piece of custom malware , Trojan.Nibatad . A well-funded , highly active group of Middle Eastern hackers was caught , yet again , using a lucrative zero-day exploit in the wild to break into computers and infect them with powerful spyware developed by an infamous cyberweapons dealer named Gamma Group .


Both toolsets were originally spotted being deployed by CozyDuke to its victims .


Targeting Postal and Transportation Services Companies One of the most significant findings is that new versions of FakeSpy target not only Korean and Japanese speakers , but also almost any postal service company around the world . Western and Saudi organizations in industries that have been historically targeted by APT33 should be monitoring geopolitical developments and increasing the scrutiny of operational security controls focusing on detection and remediation of initial unauthorized access , specifically from phishing campaigns , webshells . Once inside the network , the GCMAN group uses legitimate and penetration testing tools such as Putty , VNC , and Meterpreter for lateral movement .


init2 .


In the 2015-early 2016 versions examined in this article , C & C instructions in JSON format contained the name of the command in text form ( “ get_sms ” , “ block_phone ” ) . The adversaries have used this technique to allow PlugX and HTTPBrowser to persist on a system . We also found traces of Android Package Kits- ( APK- ) and Android Debug Bridge ( ADB )-based commands that enable cryptocurrency mining activities in Android-based TVs . The US Justice Department thinks he 's been deploying LockBit ransomware on victim networks both in the States and overseas , with the investigation having run from August 2020 through March 2023 .


As explained in their whitepaper , the researchers observed the surprisingly small MiniDuke backdoor being spread via the same exploit that was being used by a malware that they had already named ItaDuke ; the “ Duke ” part of this malware ’s name had in turn come about because it reminded the researchers of the notable Duqu threat .


EventBot requests permissions to always run in the background . A significantly improved variant of the Bemstour exploit tool was rolled out in September 2016 , when it was used in an attack against an educational institution in Hong Kong . We were ultimately able to identify multiple organizations in the government , energy , and technology sectors targeted by Magic Hound .


] us domain : the phone number registered with this domain is the same as the phone number appearing on the Facebook page . From our trend analysis seen in Figure 3 , Locky ransomware started being delivered via DOCM format email attachments more extensively beginning in August . Lazarus used watering hole attacks to compromise legitimate and trusted websites frequently visited by their targets .


This activity resembles previous campaigns such as Gooligan , HummingBad and CopyCat . Although the developers of Bookworm have included only keylogging functionality in Bookworm as a core ability , as suggested in Table 1 , several of the embedded DLLs provide Leader with cryptographic and hashing functions , while others support Leader 's ability to communicate with its C2 server . This includes prominent figures in the United Nations , opposition bloggers and activists , and regional news correspondents , ” a blogpost about Kaspersky ’s findings reads . PingPull can use HTTPS over port 8080 for C2.[28 ]


On December 29 , 2016 , the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) released a Joint Analysis Report confirming FireEye ’s long held public assessment that the Russian Government sponsors APT28 .


Then the app finds a process id value for the process it wants to inject with code . These have been highly active in the Middle East region and unveiled ongoing targeted attacks in multiple regions . Now , threat actors are using well-known websites—that they do not need to compromise to host C2 IP addresses . When loaded at system boot , the downloader uses a set of mathematical calculations to determine the computer - s unique fingerprint , and in turn uses this data to uniquely encrypt its communications later .


Two binder tools — used to disguise custom executables as legitimate Microsoft implants — were discovered by Falcon Intelligence and linked to MYTHIC LEOPARD in July 2017 . 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 .


This malware is responsible for decrypting the Adobe.icx file in the same folder .


Lieutenant Captain Nikolay Kozacheck ( who used the hacker monikers " kazak " and " blablabla1234465 " ) was the primary developer and maintainer of X-Agent , according to the indictment , and he was assisted by another officer , Pavel Yershov , in preparing it for deployment .


Beginning in August 2016 , a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers began releasing tools it claimed to have originated from the Equation Group . Once inside a network , APT40 uses credential-harvesting tools to gain usernames and passwords , allowing it to expand its reach across the network and move laterally through an environment as it moves to towards the ultimate goal of stealing data .


We ’ve seen quite a few versions of these implants and they were relatively widespread for a time .


] net : Nam Phrik Num Somtum [ . A timeline of new activity can be scoped out for the group , with the greatest number of related downloaders created by the developers in December 2011 , Feb and March of 2012 , followed by June of 2012 . Instead , the attackers manually cut and pasted older versions after altering some parts . These restrictions are specified by a list of allowed URIs .


The same user posted multiple similar posts most of them containing similar base64 encoded content ( probably used by the malwares in other campaigns to decode and drop malware executable ) , these posts were made between July 21st , 2016 to September 30 , 2016 .


The initial indicator of the attack was a malicious web shell that was detected on an IIS server , coming out of the w3wp.exe process . Barium specializes in targeting high value organizations holding sensitive data , by gathering extensive information about their employees through publicly available information and social media , using that information to fashion phishing attacks intended to trickthose employees into compromising their computers and networks .


Google Play has removed the apps and they stated that " thanks to enhanced detection models , Google Play Protect will now be able to better detect future variants of these applications '' . The June 2017 sample of Clayslide contained the same OfficeServicesStatus.vbs file found in the ISMAgent Clayslide document , but instead of having the payload embedded in the macro as segregated base64 strings that would be concatenated , this variant obtained its payload from multiple cells within the " Incompatible " worksheet . The attacker put a couple of tricks in place to avoid execution on virtual machines ( sandbox ) . Budworm has targeted victims in many countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East , among other locations , including the U.S. Symantecs Threat Hunter Team published a blog in October 2022 detailing how Budworm activity was seen on the network of a U.S. state legislature .


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 . During the same time period , we also observed the actor using the Browser Exploitation Framework ( BeEF ) to compromise victim hosts and download Cobalt Strike .


( Researchers have been aware of this suite as early as 2014 . Several xxmm samples analyzed by CTU researchers incorporate Mimikatz , allowing BRONZE BUTLER to issue Mimikatz commands directly from xxmm . Rolles previously explained the unflattening algorithm in a Hex-Rays blog . Then , users were prompted to download a malicious trojan .


Triada : organized crime on Android Second , it substitutes the system functions and conceals its modules from the list of the running processes and installed apps . The other one , ScarCruft 's Operation Erebus employs an older exploit , for CVE-2016-4117 and leverages watering holes . The email address edmundj@chmail.ir and the geolocation of Tehran , Iran , being of note .


Many top providers in Russia offer cheap prices for their shared hosting services , and some even provide free 30-day trial periods . On November 15 , 2016 , an actor related to the OilRig campaign began testing the Clayslide delivery documents . In this case , the SFX archive contains 8 ﬁles : ﬁve of them are legit DLLs used by the “ 6323 ” executable to interoperate with the OLE format deﬁned and used by Microsoft Ofﬁce . The group 's 91 attacks come not long after their extensive GoAnywhere campaign in March , when they hit over 100 organizations using a nasty zero - day .


] it Cosenza server1ct.exodus.connexxa [ . In this blog post we provide additional information linking TEMP.Veles and their activity surrounding the TRITON intrusion to a Russian government-owned research institute . This file is created in the same folder as the binary of the backdoor To learn more about how ThreatConnect can help you prepare for the potential of a ransomware attack , check out the ThreatConnect Platform .


The decoy documents used by the InPage exploits suggest that the targets are likely to be politically or militarily motivated . We assess with high confidence that the attackers discussed here are associated with the Chinese state intelligence apparatus .


] 26/html2/new-inj-135-3-white.html hxxp : //facebook-photos-au [ . It came in the form of a " Tran Duy Linh " CVE-2012-0158 exploit kit document MD5 : de8a242af3794a8be921df0cfa51885f61 and was observed on April 10 , 2014 . Rancor : 0EB1D6541688B5C87F620E76219EC5DB8A6F05732E028A9EC36195D7B4F5E707 . SecretsDump A publicly available tool that can perform various techniques to dump secrets from the remote machine without executing any agent .


Interestingly , one unused feature of the app is its ability to manipulate data in the Android package manager to add and remove permissions and components as well as hide the app icon . At certain times , Mesri has been a member of an Iran-based hacking group called the Turk Black Hat security team " . caused additional problems . While COSMICENERGY ’s capabilities are not significantly different from previous OT malware families ’ , its discovery highlights several notable developments in the OT threat landscape .


We collectively refer to this package and related activity as “ Zebrocy ” and had written a few reports on its usage and development by June 2017 – Sofacy developers modified and redeployed incremented versions of the malware .


HTTP Communication In addition to the MQTT communication , the app also uses plain text HTTP communication in order to download the .dex file and upload collected data . From mid-2016 through early 2017 , APT33 compromised organizations located in Saudi Arabia and U.S. in the aerospace sector . The malware utilizes several persistence mechanisms including scheduled tasks, Userinit and Run registry keys in the HKLM . Composition of the KillNet Collective


Rapid7 again observed APT10 dropping payloads named ccSEUPDT.exe . For example , in September 2016 , Sowbug infiltrated an organization in Asia , deploying the Felismus backdoor on one of its computers , Computer A , using the file name adobecms.exe in CSIDL_WINDOWS\debug .


To help disrupt this tactic , it is important that organizations implement two-factor authentication for all remote access solutions and consider doing the same for internal , high-value assets like their internal system management consoles .


The CosmicDuke toolset is designed around a main information stealer component .


In March 2017 , in response to active targeting of FireEye clients , the team launched a Community Protection Event (CPE) – a coordinated effort between Mandiant incident responders , FireEye as a Service (FaaS) , FireEye iSight Intelligence , and FireEye product engineering – to protect all clients from APT32 activity . Through our continuous monitoring of threats during 2018 , we observed a new wave of attacks by Gaza Cybergang Group1 targeting embassies and political personnel .


EventBot Listening to TYPE_VIEW_TEXT_CHANGED accessibility event Listening to TYPE_VIEW_TEXT_CHANGED accessibility event . We identified two methods to deliver the KerrDown downloader to targets . Further analysis revealed a well-established collection of fake social media profiles that appear intended to build trust and rapport with potential victims .


At that time i got the source code from github , so i tried the code to find that the core of the c2 which is powershell payload is messing ( the leaker didn’t include the payload in order to by all the tools ) . so i didn’t have time to reverse engineer the source code and i left it . last week i got 3 days off from my work ( working in SOC will keep you for ever busy ) so i started analyzing the code which will be discussed below and i was able to understand how it works in order to create the messing powershell payload and make the c2 come to life .


A backdoor that communicates with a single command and control (C2) server using HTTP GET and POST requests , TONEDEAF supports collecting system information , uploading and downloading of files , and arbitrary shell command execution . One of the first botnets specializing in targeting the trading software called Quik was " Ranbyus " , created in 2012 .


The Command & Control ( CC ) of the analysed sample is myinvestgroup[.]com .


GET_TASKS - Allows the application to get information about current or recently run tasks . The same group is believed to have also been using the Cobalt Strike framework to run sophisticated campaigns , plotting and performing financial heists of financial institutions . Similar to that of their targeted attacks , Gorgon Group leveraged Bitly for distribution and shortening of C2 domains .


The overall purpose of Cannon is to use several email accounts to send system data ( system information and screenshot ) to the threat actors and to ultimately obtain a payload from an email from the actors .


Afterwards , the installer malware creates a downloader and a configuration file from its resource and executes it . A Clever Kitten attack starts with the use of a web vulnerability scanner to conduct reconnaissance .


While some of the legitimate apps HenBox use as decoys can be found on Google Play , HenBox apps themselves have only been found on third-party ( non-Google Play ) app stores . Our telemetry indicates that the actors maintained access in the ICS-Forth network through at least April 24 , five days after the statement was publicly released . The admin@338 , active since 2008 , has been seen targeting organizations in the financial services , telecoms , government , and defense sectors .


Sending the command sh to TCP port 6200 results in a full terminal being dropped : Sending the command cmd followed by a proper terminal command will execute it and print the output ( in the example we use id which displays the identity of the system user running the issued commands ) : Doing the same as above but with command sucmd will run the terminal command as root : Other commands supported by rootdaemon on TCP port 6200 are su ( which in our tests did n't properly work ) , loadsocketpolicy , loadfilepolicy , remount and removeroot There is no evidence that Suckfly gained any benefits from attacking the government organizations , but someone else may have benefited from these attacks . Resume of a woman from Abu-Dis , Palestinian Authority 4a6d1b686873158a1eb088a2756daf2882bef4f5ffc7af370859b6f87c08840f . The targeting of a telecommunications company and government also point to the motivation behind the campaign being intelligence gathering , which is the motivation that generally drives Budworm activity .


They seem to have specialized knowledge about military operations , as they are focused on stealing specific files such as those that describe navigation routes . At first look , it pretends to be a Java related application but after a quick analysis , it was obvious this was something more than just a simple Java file .


By manipulating a SQLite database , Exodus is able to keep itself running even when the screen goes off and the application would otherwise be suspended to reduce battery consumption . Sowbug 's next move was to list any remote shared drives and then attempt to access remote shares owned by the specific government office they were targeting , again attempting to extract all Word documents . JhoneRAT : https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1LVdv4bjcQegPdKrc5WLb4W7ad6Zt80zl . The campaigns we discovered also involve malicious files intended for users in Poland .


Google Play Protect is constantly updating detection engines and warning users of malicious apps installed on their device . The malware tools used by BLACKGEAR can be categorized into three categories : binders , downloaders and backdoors . Knowing the obfuscation routines for this data we wrote a script to extract the URLs / IPs and ports stored . • Unauthorized network connections to MSSQL servers ( TCP/1433 ) and irregular or unauthorized authentication .


This happens all the time in regular Android apps , as Activity is one of the fundamental Android UI elements . The next sample was another Spindest variant and had the same timestamp as the aforementioned PcClient sample . The suspected APT16 targeting of the Taiwanese government agency – in addition to the Taiwanese media organizations – further supports this possibility . They have named it Industroyer – the biggest threat to Industrial Control Systems ( ICS ) since Stuxnet .


Never forget to update your system . The second Windows vulnerability (CVE-2017-0143) was patched in March 2017 after it was discovered to have been used by two exploit tools—EternalRomance and EternalSynergy—that were also released as part of the Shadow Brokers leak . In May 2016 , we published a blog detailing a spear phishing campaign targeting banks in the Middle East region that used macro-enabled attachments to distribute POWBAT malware .


In addition , we discovered evidence of a completely different payload in Koadic being delivered as well .


Their operational security is good .


The numbering seems to have started anew after the version 9 . Analysis of TG-3390 's operations , targeting , and tools led CTU researchers to assess with moderate confidence the group is located in the People's Republic of China . While they have been quiet since our June analysis , we observed an increase in the group ’s activities in December , with updates on the kits ’ capabilities reminiscent of their previous attacks . They claim to have compromised the company and are willing to help resolve the issue .


was somewhat pared down compared to the Russian one . Researchers at Symantec suspect that Turla used the hijacked network to attack a Middle Eastern government . Moreover the C2 infrastructure evolved too , more .php files are available through the web hosting: <c2-domain>/login.php <c2-domain>/upload.php <c2-domain>/download.php .


new_url : to change the URL of the C2 server in the app preference . We assess that APT34 works on behalf of the Iranian government based on infrastructure details that contain references to Iran , use of Iranian infrastructure , and targeting that aligns with nation-state interests . Based on the analysed sample , JhoneRAT targets Saudi Arabia , Iraq , Egypt , Libya , Algeria , Morocco , Tunisia , Oman , Yemen , Syria , UAE , Kuwait , Bahrain and Lebanon . We urge asset owners to review and implement the following recommendations to mitigate and detect this activity .


Certificate Used The apps themselves pretended to be carrier assistance apps which instructed the user to “ keep the app installed on your device and stay under Wi-Fi coverage to be contacted by one of our operators ” . Symantec also observed attempts by Leafminer to scan for the Heartbleed vulnerability ( CVE-2014-0160 ) from an attacker-controlled IP address . Observed Seedworm victims were located primarily in Pakistan and Turkey , but also in Russia , Saudi Arabia , Afghanistan , Jordan , and elsewhere .


Starting with 195.154.110.237 , the IP address which is hosting the command and control domain windowsnewupdates.com , we found that the host is on a dedicated server .


EVENTBOT THREAT ACTORS As a part of this investigation , the Cybereason Nocturnus team has attempted to identify the threat actors behind the development of EventBot . This full-blown spying framework consists of two packages named ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Yokohama’ . After learning of an active attack incident from the Rocket Kitten group on a customer network , Check Point researchers decided to actively join the investigation .


Care and concern both for using a mobile device and for securing a mobile device is critical , especially for those organizations that allow bring-your-own-devices . As early as March 4 , 2017 , malicious documents exploiting CVE-2017-0199 were used to deliver the LATENTBOT malware . APT10 primarily used PlugX malware from 2014 to 2016 , progressively improving and deploying newer versions , while simultaneously standardising their command and control function .


The company uses a type of software from Adups that 's nicknamed FOTA , short for firmware over-the-air . Rapid7 then provided a breach notification to Visma to alert them to this compromise in September 2018 . Invader : 57e1d3122e6dc88d9eb2989f081de88a0e6864e767281d509ff58834928895fb . 9002 S-MAL:933d66b43b3ce9a572ee3127b255b4baf69d6fdd7cb24da609b52ee277baa76e . 9002 S-MAL:2bec20540d200758a223a7e8f7b2f98cd4949e106c1907d3f194216208c5b2fe . 9002 S-MAL:055fe8002de293401852310ae76cb730c570f2037c3c832a52a79b70e2cb7831 .


Mobile implant evolution timeline However , some facts indicate that the APK samples from stage two can also be used separately as the first step of the infection . These APT attacks and adopting confrontation measures will exist for a long time . Though both this group and Winnti Group use the malware Winnti , the two groups appear to be distinct based on differences in reporting on the groups' TTPs and targeting .


- SpyNote RAT was also collecting the device ’ s location to identify the exact location of the victim . As we described in Silence: Moving into the darkside report , Silence has experience with theft using compromised card processing systems . The Cobalt started its high-tech criminal activities in late 2013 by launching the Anunak malware campaign that targeted financial transfers and ATM networks of financial institutions around the world .


While it can be used anywhere and target any bank or region , at this time , we are seeing it deployed specifically in Germany . Upon opening of the MS Word document , our embedded file exploits CVE-2017-11882 to drop a malicious fake Norton Security Shell Extension module , 'NavShExt.dll' , which is then injected into iexplore.exe to install the backdoor , begin collection , and activate command and control . A closer examination revealed the obfuscation used by the OilRig group in these QUADAGENT samples were likely the result of using an open-source toolkit called Invoke-Obfuscation .


This means that the only thing possible in this case is to replace its DEX file . Our experts have found that cybercriminals are actively focusing on SMBs , and giving particular attention to accountants . Later , Windows Defender Antivirus was added to the checklist . In fact , this chain also leads to NetSupport RAT .


So far , researchers have seen around 100 victims of Slingshot and its related modules , located in Kenya , Yemen , Afghanistan , Libya , Congo , Jordan , Turkey , Iraq , Sudan , Somalia and Tanzania . This focus on training aligns with LYCEUM’s targeting of executives , HR staff , and IT personnel .


This information can be used to facilitate future spam campaigns by the perpetrator or may be sold to other actors .


However , this scenario is highly unlikely .


Gaza Cybergang Group 3: This group is believed to be behind Operation Parliament .


] net app store showing the current DroidVPN app Virtual Private Network ( VPN ) tools allow connections to remote private networks , increasing the security and privacy of the user ’ s communications . These campaign-related VPSs are located in South Africa . Since the release of the Arbor blog post , FireEye has observed APT12 use a modified backdoor that we call HIGHTIDE .


] com www5.zyns [ . APT41 sent spear-phishing emails to multiple HR employees three days after the compromise had been remediated and systems were brought back online . Firstly , as with the MiniDuke campaigns of February 2013 and CosmicDuke campaigns in the summer of 2014 , again the group clearly prioritized the continuation of their operations over maintaining stealth .


SHA256 Package Name App Name First Seen 07994c9f2eeeede199dd6b4e760fce3 71f03f3cc4307e6551c18d2fbd024a24f com.android.henbox 备份 ( Backup ) January 3rd 2018 Table 6 contains an updated list of targeted apps from which this newer variant of HenBox is capable of harvesting data . At least two of these malware families , HIGHNOON.CLI and GEARSHIFT , have been used by APT17 and another suspected Chinese espionage group . The Dukes are a well-resourced , highly dedicated and organized cyberespionage group that we believe has been working for the Russian Federation since at least 2008 to collect intelligence in support of foreign and security policy decision-making .


The usefulness of flare-qdb can be seen in cases such as loops dealing with strings . Beginning in 2017 , the Lazarus group heavily targeted individuals with spear phishing emails impersonating job recruiters which contained malicious documents .


The group did change the contents of the spear-phishing emails they sent , but they didn’t switch to a new email format ; instead , they reverted to the same efaxthemed format that they had previously employed , even to the point of reusing the exact same decoy document that they had used in the CozyDuke campaign a year earlier ( July 2014 ) .


While the machine is in isolation , SOC personnel can direct the infected machine to collect live investigation data , such as the DNS cache or security event logs , which they can use to verify alerts , assess the state of the intrusion , and support follow-up actions . One archive sample analyzed by CTU researchers contained a legitimate PDF file , a benign image of interest to targets ( see Figure 8 ) , and an HTTPBrowser installer disguised as an image file .


Instead of Flash exploits , older Wild Neutron exploitation and watering holes used what was a Java zero-day at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 , detected by Kaspersky Lab products as Exploit.Java.CVE-2012-3213.b . Over the summer they compromised several sites , including a well-known Uyghur website written in that native language .


In theory , Shun Wang Technologies could have collected a third of China’s population names and contact numbers if not more . ined in the archive is called DriverInstallerU.exe” but its metadata shows that its original name is Interenet Assistant.exe” .


Initial victim communication with the INDRIK SPIDER operator , using one of the email addresses provided , results in the operator providing key pieces of information up front , such as the BTC address and the ransom amount . We will publish more details about the attack once Adobe patches the vulnerability , which should be on June 16 .


In recent years , some malicious Android applications abused these accessibility services in various attack scenarios . The members of the group use a variety of tools , including CCleaner , on a daily basis to effectively remove any evidence of their operations . The OilRig group continues to target organizations in the Middle East , in this instance targeting the government of the United Arab Emirates .


Mimikatz is a post-exploitation tool that allows attackers to extract credentials from volatile memory . Once the docx file included in the phishing email is clicked , a warning window will pop up .


Conclusion Due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices and the widespread use of Android , it is very easy for attackers to victimize Android users . Today , this malware is still actively being used against the Philippines . APT18 : TG-0416 , Dynamite Panda , Threat Group-0416 .


The OceanLotus , an APT group said to have a Vietnamese background , was first exposed and named by QiAnXin in May 2015 . The DeepSight Managed Adversary and Threat Intelligence team co-authored this blog and its customers have received intelligence with additional details about these campaigns , the characteristics of the Waterbug ( aka Turla ) Cyber Espionage group , and methods of detecting and thwarting activities of this adversary . The DeepSight MATI team authored this blog and its customers have received intelligence with additional details about these campaigns , the characteristics of the Waterbug Cyber Espionage group , and methods of detecting and thwarting activities of this adversary . While reviewing a 2015 report⁵ of a Winnti intrusion at a Vietnamese gaming company , we identified a small cluster of Winnti⁶ samples designed specifically for Linux⁷ . Following these reports , Chronicle researchers doubled down on efforts to try to unravel the various campaigns where Winnti was leveraged . Distinct changes to Azazel by the Winnti developers include the addition of a function named ‘Decrypt2’ , which is used to decode an embedded configuration similar to the core implant . Zebrocy activity initiates with spearphishing operations delivering various target profilers and downloaders without the use of any 0day exploits . We will see more from Zebrocy into 2019 on government and military related organizations . The PowerShell script will look at the architecture of the system to check which malicious DLL files should be downloaded . In the same year , Silence conducted DDoS attacks using the Perl IRC bot and public IRC chats to control Trojans . The FBI issued a rare bulletin admitting that a group named APT6 hacked into US government computer systems as far back as 2011 and for years stole sensitive data . FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence believes that APT37 is aligned with the activity publicly reported as Scarcruft and Group123 . Trend Micro attributes this activity to MuddyWater , an Iran-nexus actor that has been active since at least May 2017 . FireEye assess that the actors employing this latest Flash zero-day are a suspected North Korean group we track as TEMP.Reaper . FireEye has observed other suspected North Korean threat groups such as TEMP.Hermit employ wiper malware in disruptive attacks . On Nov14 , 2017 , FireEye observed APT34 using an exploit for the Microsoft Office vulnerability to target a government organization in the Middle East . Kaspersky reveals that APT33 is a capable group that has carried out Cyber Espionage operations since at least 2013 . APT33 is the only group that Kaspersky has observed use the DROPSHOT dropper . The Cyber Espionage group APT32 heavily obfuscates their backdoors and scripts , and Mandiant consultants observed APT32 implement additional command argument obfuscation in April 2017 . In all Mandiant investigations to date where the CARBANAK backdoor has been discovered , the activity has been attributed to the FIN7 threat group . Kaspersky released a similar report about the same group under the name Carbanak in February 2015 . FireEye assesses that APT32 leverages a unique suite of fully-featured malware . FireEye has observed APT32 targeting foreign corporations with a vested interest in Vietnam’s manufacturing , consumer products , and hospitality sectors . The FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence MySIGHT Portal contains additional information on these backdoor families based on Mandiant investigations of APT32 intrusions . FireEye assesses that APT32 is a Cyber Espionage group aligned with Vietnamese government interests . In May and June 2017 , FireEye has associated this campaign with APT19 , a group that we assess is composed of freelancers , with some degree of sponsorship by the Chinese government . APT10 is a Chinese Cyber Espionage group that FireEye has tracked since 2009 . In addition to the spear phishes , FireEye ISIGHT Intelligence has observed APT10 accessing victims through global service providers . FireEye’s visibility into the operations of APT28 – a group we believe the Russian government sponsors – has given us insight into some of the government’s targets , as well as its objectives and the activities designed to further them . FireEye has tracked and profiled APT28 group through multiple investigations , endpoint and network detections , and continuous monitoring . In April 2015 , FireEye uncovered the malicious efforts of APT30 , a suspected China-based threat group . FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence has been tracking a pair of cybercriminals that we refer to as the Vendetta Brothers . Google and Microsoft have already confirmed the Russian hacker group APT28 used a Flash vulnerability CVE-2016-7855 along with this kernel privilege escalation flaw to perform a targeted attack .


FIN7 is a financially motivated intrusion set that selectively targets victims and uses spear phishing to distribute its malware . Microsoft Analytics shows that Winnti has been used in intrusions carried out throughout Asia , Europe , Oceania , the Middle East , and the United States in the last six months ( Figure 1 ) .


In some other cases , LEAD gains access to a target by brute-forcing remote access login credentials , performing SQL injection , or exploiting unpatched web servers , and then they copy the Winnti installer directly to compromised machines .


WAKE_LOCK - prevent the processor from sleeping and dimming the screen . Furthermore , it has similar code logic as previous ones wuaupdt.exe in this attack appears in previous Donot attack , and C2 addresses are same to previous ones . Our evidence suggests that malware authors created Emissary as early as 2009 , which suggests that threat actors have relied on this tool as a payload in cyber-espionage attacks for many years .


One of India 's largest financial organizations A large e-commerce company The e-commerce company 's primary shipping vendor One of India 's top five IT firms A United States healthcare provider 's Indian business unit Two government organizations .


] net – C & C servers NG SuperShell – string from the reverse shell payload ngg – prefix in commands names of the implant for Windows Signature with specific issuer Whois records and IP relationships provide many interesting insights as well . One is called XAgent detected as IOS_XAGENT.A and the other one uses the name of a legitimate iOS game , MadCap detected as IOS_ XAGENT.B . Once the LOWBALL malware calls back to the Dropbox account , the admin@338 will create a file called upload.bat which contains commands to be executed on the compromised computer .


The supposed purpose of that app is to obtain and use a required “ security code ” to log in to their online banking site . Mimikatz is a post-exploitation tool that allows attackers to extract credentials from volatile memory . However , the attack on January 16 did not involve ThreeDollars at all .


ESET researchers have dissected some of the latest additions to the malicious toolkit of the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group known as OceanLotus , also dubbed APT32 and APT-C-00 . Most of these data-stealing capabilities were present in the oldest variants of CARBANAK that we have seen and some were added over time .


These events can be based on time , charging or battery status , location , connectivity , running apps , focused app , SIM card status , SMS received with keywords , and screen turning on . 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 OilRig and CopyKittens . Once the opaque predicates are broken , Sandworm was first observed in the victim ’s environment in June 2022 , when the actor deployed the Neo - REGEORG webshell on an internet - facing server .


Today this malware shows unwanted ads , tomorrow it could steal sensitive information ; from private messages to banking credentials and much more . Considering the Trojan delivery method and through our analysis of infections on banks' networks , we can confirm that all infections were conducted on a random basis . By checking the sender information , it ’s possible to determine whether the company actually exists . Apple had to roll back and then re - release a security update that addressed an actively exploited vulnerability in WebKit .


We suggest that APT41 sought to target in-game currency but found they could not monetize the specific targeted game , so the group resorted to ransomware to attempt to salvage their efforts and profit from the compromise . The techniques and modules employed by EvilGnome — that is the use of SFX , persistence with task scheduler and the deployment of information stealing tools—remind us of Gamaredon Group’s Windows tools .


At that time , the actor used a fake website : wfcwallet.com .


Shifu is relatively common in Japan but was a new addition to TA505 ’s toolbox .


This discovery indicates the actor ’ s ambition in expanding operations into Google Play store with previous success experience from the main “ Agent Smith ” campaign . The Android version , for instance , can steal SMS messages , accounts , contacts , and files , as well as record audio . RevengeHotels : cybercrime targeting hotel front desks worldwide . Say these arguments extend through the 2024 election — what happens if control of the White House or Congress switches between parties ?


Dridex operations became more targeted , resulting in less distribution and Dridex sub-botnets in operation , and BitPaymer ransomware operations began in July 2017 . Cisco Talos assess with high confidence that these operations are distinctly different and independent from the operations performed by DNSpionage , which we reported on in November 2018 .


Scarlet Mimic also uses the infamous HTRAN tool on at least some of their C2 servers . The Magic Hound has repeatedly used social media to identify and interact with employees at targeted organizations and then used weaponized Excel documents .


Based on emails leaked in the dump , a number of Czech firms appear to be in business with the Hacking team , including a major IT partner in the Olympic Games . Sensitive bank documents have be found on the servers that were controlling Carbanak . with an immediate value . In most cases , the file is an Excel spreadsheet containing a VBA macro , but we also found four instances where a malicious PowerPoint OLE2 ( PPT ) file was used , possibly indicating the actor 's readiness to use file formats less commonly used in attacks .


In addition , FANCY BEAR ’s X-Tunnel network tunneling tool , which facilitates connections to NAT-ed environments , was used to also execute remote commands .


The emails then contained an attachment that was either an executable that appeared to be a text file based on the file name and icon , or a password-protected archive containing an executable file with the password provided in the email .


These apps would remain available on the Play Store for months and would eventually be re-uploaded . The OilRig group continues to target organizations in the Middle East , in this instance targeting the government of the United Arab Emirates . The remaining commands send feedback by posting data into Google Forms . There are also many examples of nation - state actors leveraging contractors to develop offensive capabilities , as shown most recently in contracts between Russia ’s Ministry of Defense and NTC Vulkan .


Failed login activity can be indicative of failed intrusion activity .


Leafminer has developed exploit payloads for this framework ( Table 2 ) that deliver custom malware through attacks against SMB vulnerabilities described by Microsoft . Like previous Turla activity , WhiteBear leverages compromised websites and hijacked satellite connections for command and control ( C2 ) infrastructure .


This implies they have made considerable investments . the US had data stolen by members of Emissary Panda . This means that the function responsible for decrypting and executing the payload is executed directly after the load of the malicious DLL . LIGHTWORK utilizes positional command line arguments for target device , port , and IEC-104 command .


At the time of writing , a reverse image search for the favicon on Shodan using the query http.favicon.hash:990643579 returned around 40 web servers which use the same favicon . Data from the early part of this year shows that the Taidoor attackers rampantly used malicious.DOC files to exploit a Microsoft Common Controls vulnerability , CVE-2012-0158 . The commands used to communicate with the C2 servers and other strings in the binary are written in Ukrainian . Analyzing the code and data from the C2 , Ryan Sherstobitoff and Asheer Malhotra from McAfee , along with the company 's Advanced Threat Research Team ( ATR ) , discovered new variants of the Rising Sun backdoor that were used since at least 2016 .


Figure 8 . This vulnerability was found in a document named Trump's_Attack_on_Syria_English.docx” . Filename: C:\Windows\beauty.jpg .


Kill / start processes .


As we ’ ve mentioned earlier , Triada is downloaded by smaller Trojans that have leveraged the access privileges . Prior to that report , we published detail analysis on malware exploiting CVE-2018-8414 vulnerability (remote code execution in SettingContent-ms) , which is believed a work of DarkHydrus . This threat group has conducted broad targeting across a variety of industries , including financial , government , energy , chemical , and telecommunications , and has largely focused its operations within the Middle East .


Versions 5.X.X-8.X.X were active in 2016 , and versions 9.X.X-1.X.X in 2017 . 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 . We analyzed the kits , which were designed to steal information from the automotive and finance industries , launch subsequent attacks on already compromised systems , and ( possibly ) sell stolen information . In some campaigns , the random names are generated by a specific function in the VBA code .


Malicious app com.qualcmm.timeservices As I mentioned before , in the “ initial phase ” , the Trojan will install the “ com.qualcmm.timeservices ” app . This APT group usually carries out target attacks against government agencies to steal sensitive information . The details we have analyzed during hundreds of investigations convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese Government is aware of them . This model is flexible and enables the operators to constantly change how their backdoors retrieve further commands or malcode as needed .


It creates an ID and it downloads a new , interesting backdoor , ( this time ) written in Delphi .


In a similar vein with past CyberBerkut activity , attackers hid behind anonymous activist groups like “ anonpoland ” , and data from victimized organizations were similarly leaked and “ weaponized ” .


In 2018 , we have already observed a small but consistent number of samples . The earliest step in any possible attack(s) involving this variant of KopiLuwak of which Proofpoint researchers are currently aware begin with the MSIL dropper . FireEye analysts documented the admin@338 group 's activities in a previous paper titled Poison Ivy : Assessing Damage and Extracting Intelligence paper .


Then it will ask for the accessibility service privilege as visible in the following screenshot : After the user grants the requested privilege , Cerberus starts to abuse it by granting itself additional permissions , such as permissions needed to send messages and make calls , without requiring any user interaction . The SectorJ04 group has maintained the scope of its existing hacking activities while expanding its hacking activities to companies in various industrial sectors located in East Asia and Southeast Asia . The APT39 were using an improved version of Remexi in what the victimology suggests might be a domestic cyber-espionage operation .


The intricate anti-analysis methods reveal how much effort the FinFisher authors exerted to keep the malware hidden and difficult to analyze . The Spring Dragon appears to have rolled out a steady mix of exploits against government-related organizations in VN , TW , PH , and other locations over the past few years . The last one is perhaps less obvious . Although COSMICENERGY does not directly overlap with any previously observed malware families , its capabilities are comparable to those employed in previous incidents and malware .


There are a lot of small Trojans for Android capable of leveraging access privileges , in other words — gaining root access . This sample was also found to be deployed using the CVE-2012-0158 vulnerability . This realization suggests that the OilRig threat group will continue to use their delivery documents for extended periods with subtle modifications to remain effective .


These attacks are primarily targeting private industry in search of key intellectual property for competitive advantage , military institutions , and governmental organizations often in search of documents related to current political events and human rights organizations .


2016 freedns.website streamout.space 2017–2018 : streamout.space sky-sync.pw gms-service.info EventBot : A New Mobile Banking Trojan is Born April 30 , 2020 KEY FINDINGS The Cybereason Nocturnus team is investigating EventBot , a new type of Android mobile malware that emerged around March 2020 . The documents that exploit CVE2017-11882 download another payload — an HTML Application ( HTA ) file toting a malicious Visual Basic ( VBS ) script — from the server , which is executed accordingly by the command-line tool mshta.exe . We assess with moderate confidence that APT40 is a state-sponsored Chinese Cyber Espionage operation .


However , CTU analysis indicates that GOLD LOWELL is motivated by financial gain , and there is no evidence of the threat actors using network access for espionage or data theft . Syncopate is a well-known Russian company that is best known as the developer and operator of the ' GameNet ' platform .


The type of data corresponding to the value coded in GolfSpy Figure 5 shows the code snippets that are involved in monitoring and recording the device ’ s phone call . The downloader malware uses the configuration file and connects to the C2 server to fetch the next payload . Interestingly , more than 20 artifacts are retrieved from the system by this implant during the reconnaissance stage , from the date and time of operating system installation and membership in a Windows domain to a list of and the resolutions of the workstation’s monitors . When they pay for someone else ’s malware kit , whether it be ransomware or a phishing bot , they do n’t have to invest time , money or labor to write their own malicious code or tools and instead can hop right into deploying the malware .


Windows Defender ATP helps network security professionals deal with intrusions from activity groups like LEAD and BARIUM in several ways .


SHA256 : 4dcf5bd2c7a5822831d9f22f46bd2369c4c9df17cc99eb29975b5e8ae7e88606 .


Downeks can also be instructed to execute binaries that already exist on the victim machine .


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 . 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 .


The sample used in this attack ( MD5 A96F4B8AC7AA9DBF4624424B7602D4F7 , compiled July 29th , 2015 ) was a pretty standard Sofacy x64 AZZY implant , which has the internal name “ advshellstore.dll ” .


GAMEFISH :


Delivering a backdoor and spyware , Desert Falcons 's campaign was designed to steal information from infected systems using a malware client capable of filtering out " uninteresting " files , and spread primarily via a targeted phishing email usually promising a pornographic video . CTU researchers have not observed TG-3390 actors performing reconnaissance prior to compromising organizations .


The new miner employed by Pacha Group , named Linux.GreedyAntd , has shown to be more sophisticated than the average Linux threat , using evasion techniques rarely seen in Linux malware . The intelligence we have collected shows that Silence is part of a more extensive operation , still focused on financial institutions operating mainly on Russian territory .


In early May , the phishing lures leveraged RTF attachments that exploited the Microsoft Windows vulnerability described in CVE-2017-0199 . Emissary Panda has used many ACTs with the most notable being the exploits from the Hacking Team leak .


Gooligan then downloads a rootkit from the C & C server that takes advantage of multiple Android 4 and 5 exploits including the well-known VROOT ( CVE-2013-6282 ) and Towelroot ( CVE-2014-3153 ) . A well-funded , highly active group of Middle Eastern hackers was caught , yet again , using a lucrative zero-day exploit in the wild to break into computers and infect them with powerful spyware developed by an infamous cyberweapons dealer named Gamma Group . where the immediate constant can be different . PIEHOP expects its main function to be called via another Python file , supplying either the argument or .


Other infection vectors include pornographic websites serving apps called Adobe Flash or YouPorn . Shrouded Crossbow employs three BIFROST-derived backdoors : BIFROSE , KIVARS , and XBOW . A similar service , vicp.net , is also seen in many of the domains . CSP can define a list of domains that the browser should be allowed to interact with for the visited URL .


Attackers also used the name of the top-ranking official associated with Minister of Home affairs in the signature of the email , this is to make it look like the email was sent by a high-ranking Government official associated with Ministry of Home Affairs ( MHA ) .


Notably , APT41 was observed using proof-of-concept exploit code for CVE-2019-3396 within 23 days after the Confluence . Our prior publication also failed to acknowledge immensely valuable input from a number of colleagues , including Nadim Kobeissi 's feedback on how the API endpoints on the Android malware were encrypted .


Stick to Google Play and use VPN software from reputable vendors . 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 . If you aren’t familiar with those structures ( e.g , The sample of PIEHOP we obtained contains programming logic errors that prevent it from successfully performing its IEC-104 control capabilities , but we believe these errors can be easily corrected .


It appears that the attackers are somewhat familiar with the language and mountain-trekking culture of the targets – the meaning of “ chuli ” is “ summit ” : The command-and-control server and parameters can be easily seen in the decompiled source code : Command and control server interaction code Throughout the code , the attackers log all important actions , which include various messages in Chinese . Execute a command through exploits for CVE-2018-0802 . FinSpy , a final-stage payload that allows for an attacker to covertly learn what a target is talking about and who they are communicating with , is associated with Gamma Group — which goes by other names , including FinFisher and Lench IT Solutions .


However , many of these loader samples embed CosmicDuke variants that exploit the CVE-2010- 0232 privilege escalation vulnerability thus making it impossible for the compilation timestamps to be authentic .


Emergency SMS commands . Documents with the Flash exploit managed to evade static defenses and remain undetected as an exploit on VirusTotal . APT33 : af41e9e058e0a5656f457ad4425a299481916b6cf5e443091c7a6b15ea5b3db3 S-SHA2 DarkComet . Checking the transcript log file created to see the full session .


Indian organizations targeted in Suckfly attacks .


APT41 has executed multiple software supply chain compromises , gaining access to software companies to inject malicious code into legitimate files before distributing updates . Furthermore , it has similar code logic as previous ones wuaupdt.exe in this attack appears in previous Donot attack , and C2 addresses are same to previous ones .


While these industries may appear to be unrelated , we found them to have multiple links to healthcare , such as large manufacturers that produce medical imaging devices sold directly into healthcare firms , IT organizations that provide support services to medical clinics , and logistical organizations that deliver healthcare products . Between June 2008 and March 2009 the Information Warfare Monitor conducted an extensive and exhaustive two-phase investigation focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community .


The threat actors retrieved the NTDS.dit file from the volume shadow copy .


Sometimes , both malware have used the same C&C server , but in other cases , even the servers have been different .


In particular , these apps try to add an additional method called statistics ( ) into the Activity class . In July , Nitro compromised a South Korean clothing and accessories manufacturer 's website to serve malware commonly referred to as " Spindest " . The difference in sponsorship could be the result of tasking systems that allocate targeting responsibility to different groups based on their targets ’ geographic location . Local investigators later confirmed that the energy outage was caused by a cyberattack .


Zebrocy activity initiates with spearphishing operations delivering various target profilers and downloaders without the use of any 0day exploits . Filensfer is a family of malware that has been used in targeted attacks since at least 2013 .


For example , the botnet Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.Opfake.a , in addition to its own activity , also spread Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a by sending spam containing a link to the malware to the victim ’ s list of contacts . Even when we observed LuckyMouse using weaponized documents with CVE-2017-11882 ( Microsoft Office Equation Editor , widely used by Chinese-speaking actors since December 2017 ) , we can′t prove they were related to this particular attack . About the “ Winnti Group ” naming : After gaining access to a victim network , UNC2452 has a light malware footprint , often using legitimate credentials to access data and move laterally .


Some FinFisher variants incorporate an MBR rootkit , the exact purpose of which is not clear . A paper from FireEye in 2013 on several campaigns using PIVY included menuPass as one of them . Finally , the launcher passes control to the main backdoor routine . Iranian APT group Siamesekitten PDF was identified as responsible for a supply chain attack campaign that targeted IT and communication companies in Israel .


It mentions closing the Fatah headquarters and houses that were identified as meeting places as well as the arrest of some members of the party .


CYBEREASON MOBILE Cybereason Mobile detects EventBot and immediately takes remediation actions to protect the end user . FireEye believes that two actors – Turla and an unknown financially motivated actor – were using the first EPS zero-day CVE-2017-0261 , and APT28 was using the second EPS zero-day CVE-2017-0262 along with a new Escalation of Privilege (EOP) zero-day CVE-2017-0263 . PwC UK and BAE Systems assess it is highly likely that APT10 is a China-based threat actor with a focus on espionage and wide ranging information collection .


The OceanLotus group was first revealed and named by QiAnXin in May 2015 . It also reconfigures the Microsoft Sysinternals registry to prevent pop-ups when running the PsExec tool . Waterbug also used an older version of PowerShell , likely to avoid logging . In one of these campaigns , Waterbug used a USB stealer that scans removable storage devices to identify and collect files of interest . The malware then uses WebDAV to upload the RAR archive to a Box account .


The agroup targeting Hong Kong media outlets is called admin@338 and is known to researchers for using publicly available remote access Trojans such as Poison Ivy to attack government and financial firms specializing in global economic policy . When we last heard from the Trojan , its operators were seen launching redirection attacks on four large , U.S. banks in June .


Finally , the Ashas adware family has its code hidden under the com.google.xxx package name . In their current campaign , APT32 has leveraged ActiveMime files that employ social engineering methods to entice the victim into enabling macros . Email Security can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign .


It means the phone can be unblocked in some cases when it has been blocked by one of the above HTML pages . The executable would install the real Ammyy product , but would also launch a file called either AmmyyService.exe or AmmyySvc.exe which contained the malicious payload . The Leviathan , whose espionage activities primarily focus on targets in the US and Western Europe with military ties , has been active since at least 2014 .


ProGuard Obfuscation As with many other Android applications , EventBot is now using obfuscation . After app installation , whenever SWAnalytics senses victims opening up infected applications or rebooting their phones , it silently uploads their entire contacts list to Hangzhou Shun Wang Technologies controlled servers . By compromising a user account that has administrative or elevated access , Magic Hound can quickly access a targeted environment to achieve their objectives .


It is worth noting that if the source file location contains the string “ System Volume Information\S-1-5-21-1315235578-283289242\ ” , then the file is deleted after copying to the “ stash ” directory .


Along with the executable , two binary files , inject.bin (malicious function code) and imain.bin (malicious control logic) , were deployed as the controller’s payload . WannaCry appends encrypted data files with the .WCRY extension , drops and executes a decryptor tool , and demands $300 or $600 USD ( via Bitcoin ) to decrypt the data .


update.exe module and Keylogger by ‘ El3ct71k ’ code comparison Xenotix Python Keylogger including specified mutex ‘ mutex_var_xboz ’ . To make this data harvesting operation flexible , SWAnalytics equips the ability to receive and process configuration files from a remote Command-and-Control . admin@338 is a China based cyber threat group .


This naming decision was founded upon the underlying methodology described in the Diamond Model of intrusion analysis .


The SMS message with a link to a banker looked as follows : “ % USERNAME % , i send you prepayment gumtree [ . In the same year , Silence conducted DDoS attacks using the Perl IRC bot and public IRC chats to control Trojans . Based on the compilation date of the two binaries , this campaign took place in September 2014 .


The “ core ” module contacts the C & C server , trying to get a fresh list of applications to search for , or if that fails , use a default app list : whatsapp lenovo.anyshare.gps mxtech.videoplayer.ad jio.jioplay.tv jio.media.jiobeats jiochat.jiochatapp jio.join good.gamecollection opera.mini.native startv.hotstar meitu.beautyplusme domobile.applock touchtype.swiftkey flipkart.android cn.xender It is worth noting that attackers used the same compromised websites to spread Buhtrap as those that had been used for the Corkow Trojan . In later stages , Dexphot targets a few other system processes for process hollowing : svchost.exe , tracert.exe , and setup.exe . Enterprise T1078 Valid Accounts APT29 has used a compromised account to access an organization 's VPN infrastructure .


It appears the attackers sent malicious executables though phishing campaigns impersonating individuals associated with the Palestinian Security Services , the General Directorate of Civil Defence - Ministry of the Interior , and the 7th Fateh Conference of the Palestinian National Liberation Front ( held in late 2016 ) . In addition to these , we also identified " Macfog " , a native Mac OS X implementation of Icefog that infected several hundred victims worldwide . They likely generate the encoded commands on their own systems before pasting them in to an HTML file hosted by the hop point . • Bad actors who want to get into the cyber attack business need little to no technical skills to get started .


We can respond to those commands by instead sending two files of our choice to the Quasar serve .


] com ) that prompts the user to install a malicious iOS configuration profile to solve a network issue preventing the site to load . APT1 is a China-based cyber-espionage group , active since mid-2006 . In text mode, Glimpse manually builds a DNS query to be transmitted over a UDP socket . The CozyDuke malware utilizes a backdoor and dropper , and exfiltrates data to a C2 server .


We examine their use malware such as Jaff , Bart , and Rockloader that appear to be exclusive to this group as well as more widely distributed malware like Dridex and Pony .


Accessibility Service is long known to be the Achilles ’ heel of the Android operating system . On July 9 , we discovered a new version of SLUB delivered via another unique watering hole website . The IndiaBravo-PapaAlfa installer is responsible for installing the service DLL variant .


Scarlet Mimic primarily deploys spear-phishing e-mails to infect its targets , but was also responsible for a watering hole attack in 2013 . The May 2014 ' Operation Saffron Rose ' publication identifies an Iranian hacking group formerly named ' Ajax Security ' ( code-named ' Flying Kitten ' by CrowdStrike ) engaged in active spear phishing attacks on Iranian dissidents ( those attempting to circumvent government traffic monitoring ) .


The domain name , language of the site and app content hosted suggest this site is a third-party app store for whom the intended users are the Uyghurs . Despite the added capabilities , we still agree with Kaspersky that this backdoor is likely used as an initial reconnaissance tool and would probably be used as a staging point to deploy one of Turla’s more fully featured implants . These data sets show that APT1 is either operating in China during normal Chinese business hours or that APT1 is intentionally going to painstaking lengths to look like they are .


Back in April 2019 , we first observed the Emissary Panda threat group exploiting CVE-2019-0604 to install webshells on SharePoint servers at government organizations in two Middle Eastern countries .


It is behind a large number of cyberattacks targeting global aerospace and defense contractors , military units , political parties , the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) , anti-doping agencies , government departments and various other verticals .


Upon execution , it will communicate with an attacker-controller website to download a variant of the Pony malware , pm.dll” along with a standard Vawtrak trojan . The first method , described in Part D.l , below , involves the " Barlaiy " and " PlugXL " malware , which the Barium Defendants propagate using phishing techniques .


The initial Flash object must contact the same C2 server to download a secondary payload ;


Some recent campaigns against other bank customers also used “ .gdn ” TLDs . The threat actors behind the Sea Turtle campaign were successful in compromising entities by manipulating and falsifying DNS records at various levels in the domain name space . Patchwork has been seen targeting industries related to diplomatic and government agencies .


When installed on a device , apps containing adware may , among other things : Annoy users with intrusive advertisements , including scam ads Waste the device ’ s battery resources Generate increased network traffic Gather users ’ personal information Hide their presence on the affected device to achieve persistence Generate revenue for their operator without any user interaction Conclusion Based solely on open source intelligence , we were able to trace the developer of the Ashas adware and establish his identity and discover additional related adware-infected apps . Ordnance will be able to immediately generate shellcode after users provide the IP and Port that the shellcode should connect to or listen on . We have found what may be an early data-gathering stage for future possible heists from financial organizations in Turkey ( and possibly other countries ) .


Once this malware has successfully installed , it will collect personal data , passwords , keystrokes , banking information , and more . Additional capabilities of the More_eggs malware include the download and execution of files and scripts and running commands using cmd.exe . Just recently , PIVY was the payload of a zero-day exploit in Internet Explorer used in what is known as a " strategic web compromise " attack against visitors to a U.S. government website and a variety of others .


Research presented in this report shows that the PUTTER PANDA operators are likely members of the 12th Bureau , 3rd General Staff Department ( GSD ) of the People 's Liberation Army ( PLA ) , operating from the unit 's headquarters in Shanghai with MUCD 61486 . Desert Falcons is 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 .


Since at least 2014 , FireEye has observed APT32 targeting foreign corporations with a vested interest in Vietnama's manufacturing , consumer products , and hospitality sectors . Examples as early as 2008 document malware operations against Tibetan non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ) that also targeted Falun Gong and Uyghur groups .


Package names for infected apps typically contain a common naming structure that includes com.XXXXXXXXX.camera , for example com.bird.sky.whale.camera ( app name : Whale Camera ) , com.color.rainbow.camera ( Rainbow Camera ) , and com.fishing.when.orangecamera ( Orange Camera ) . The Lazarus Group employs a variety of RATs and staging malware to conduct cyber operations , many of which contain significant code overlap that points to at least a shared development environment . It may also download additional potentially malicious files . The command and control ( C2 ) server must be configured from either the command line or a configuration file .


The GCMAN group used an MS SQL injection in commercial software running on one of bank 's public web services , and about a year and a half later , they came back to cash out . In order to understand SWAnalytics’ impact , we turned to public download volume data available on Chandashi , one of the app store optimization vendors specialized in Chinese mobile application markets .


The architecture is quite similar to the one described previously , but the opcodes are slightly different . Since at least 2014 , an Iranian threat group tracked by FireEye as APT34 has conducted reconnaissance aligned with the strategic interests of Iran . To extract the payload , the malware will first initialize the GDI+ API and get the image width and height values . New variants based on leaked code are becoming more common We have continued seeing various malicious campaigns since the start of 2023 , where the threat actors have used new ransomware variants based on leaked source code or builders .


However , the group is content leaving some malware on the network , likely to provide a contingency if other access channels are removed .


8f5d5d8419a4832d175a6028c9e7d445f1e99fdc12170db257df79831c69ae4e a5ebcdaf5fd10ec9de85d62e48cc97a4e08c699a7ebdeab0351b86ab1370557d 84578b9b2c3cc1c7bbfcf4038a6c76ae91dfc82eef5e4c6815627eaf6b4ae6f6 The oil and gas infrastructure nexus observed in connection with greensky27.vicp.net and other Unit 78020 ( Naikon ) infrastructure suggests targeting patterns supportive of the PRC 's strategic interests over energy resources within the South China Sea and Southeast Asia . Rancor : DB982B256843D8B6429AF24F766636BB0BF781B471922902D8DCF08D0C58511E . Then , it is called passing reused allocated memory and not a pointer to structure .


The attacks targeted high-profile targets , including government and commercial organizations .


Related or not , one thing is certain : the actor ( s ) using these customized BlackEnergy malware are intent on stealing information from the targets . The targets were similar to a 2015 TG-4127 campaign — individuals in Russia and the former Soviet states , current and former military and government personnel in the U.S. and Europe , individuals working in the defense and government supply chain , and authors and journalists — but also included email accounts linked to the November 2016 United States presidential election .


Cannon opens the email with the correct subject and decodes the hexadecimal data in the body of the message to obtain the file path that it will use to move the downloaded auddevc.txt file .


Anomali Researchers were able to identify multiple samples of malicious RTF documents ITW using the same exploit for CVE-2018-0798 . After the publication of the original report , these sites were taken offline despite the fact that one agent was even updated a six days prior to our post ( the " Khuai " application ) .


How Judy operates : To bypass Bouncer , Google Play ’ s protection , the hackers create a seemingly benign bridgehead app , meant to establish connection to the victim ’ s device , and insert it into the app store . In this campaign , the attackers experimented with publicly available tooling for attack operations . If the list does not contain any item , or if the verification has failed , the ZxShell sample tries to connect to a hardcoded host Budworm is a longrunning APT group that is believed to have been active since at least 2013 .


The most recent series of attacks observed was in December 2016 .


Dragos does not publicly describe ICS activity group technical details except in extraordinary circumstances in order to limit tradecraft proliferation .


SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit ( CTU ) researchers track the activities of Threat Group-4127 , which targets governments , military , and international non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ) .


Code snippet showing GolfSpy generating UUID The value of % is in the range of 1-9 or a-j . This malware uses the public privilege escalation exploit code CVE-2018-8120 or UACME which is normally used by legitimate red teams . The first module downloaded by the GRIFFON malware to the victim’s computer is an information-gathering JScript , which allows the cybercriminals to understand the context of the infected workstation . But other bad actors have since adopted this businesses model , offering every from command and control servers to phishing bots - as - a - service .


We will refer to this IP address as Command & Control ( or C&C ) .


The backdoor was delivered via a malicious .rtf file that exploited CVE-2017-0199 . The diagram below illustrates how we believe the actors behind the Sea Turtle campaign used DNS hijacking to achieve their end goals .


The Trojan displays the extortion page ( extortionist.html ) that blocks the device and demands a ransom for unblocking it . According to Deepen , APT6 has been using spear phishing in tandem with malicious PDF and ZIP attachments or links to malware infected websites that contains a malicious SCR file . RASPITE overlaps significantly with Symantec 's Leafminer , which recently released a report on the group 's activity in the Middle East .


Numerous targeted attack campaigns are occurring every week .


This ransomware family is known for being hosted on arbitrary websites and circulated on online forums using various social engineering lures , including masquerading as popular apps , cracked games , or video players . Similar to that of their targeted attacks , Gorgon Group leveraged Bitly for distribution and shortening of C2 domains . The failure examples are : From what we ’ve seen in Hack520 ’s blog , as well as the infrastructure deployed around it , it is quite safe to say that Hack520 is involved in aspects of the VPS service activity provided to groups like Winnti and other cybercriminals or threat actors .


The group 's spearphish toolset includes PDF exploits , Adobe Flash Player exploits , and the common CVE-2012-0158 Word exploits including those generated from the infamous " Tran Duy Linh " kit . It mainly targets Microsoft Outlook , a widely used mail client , but also targets The Bat! , a mail client very popular in Eastern Europe .


It comes as no surprise then that many SMS-Trojans include bot functionality . Thrip was attempting to remotely install a previously unknown piece of malware ( Infostealer.Catchamas ) on computers within the victim 's network . One might also note that the number of modules embedded in this variant is much higher ( 17 ) than the number of modules embedded in the variants previously documented in our white paper ( 8 to 10 modules ) . Ransomware attacks have shown no signs of slowing down in 2023 .


Examples of the overlays available to the malware Above , you can see examples of the injections that distributed to the malware as part of this specific campaign . In line with commonly used APT actor methodologies , the threat actor aligns its decoy documents to a topic of interest relevant to the recipient . While the investigation is still in progress and full results and technical paper will be published during SAS 2019 conference in Singapore , we would like to share some important details about the attack . In several cases , the threat actor used 7 - zip to create an encrypted segmented archive to compress the reconnaissance results .


The initial beacon to index.php changed to index.txt but ZeroT still expects an RC4 encrypted response using a static key : “ (*^GF (9042&* ” .


One possibility is that PLATINUM might have obtained compromised credentials from victim networks . The attackers first researched desired targets and then sent an email specifically to the target .


Figure 1 : ‘ Agent Smith ’ s modular structure Technical Analysis – Loader Module The “ loader ” module , as stated above , extracts and runs the “ core ” module . Buhtrap has been active since 2014 , however their first attacks against financial institutions were only detected in August 2015 . 4 、A loader DLL , which is extracted from the archive ; APT29 also created a scheduled task to maintain SUNSPOT persistence when the host booted .


In addition to that , API function names are reversed , presumably to avoid detection in memory .


Originally targeting Western European banks , Emotet 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 . We also started monitoring the malware and , using Kaspersky Attribution Engine based on similarity algorithms , discovered that Octopus is related to DustSquad , something we reported in April 2018 .


However , using valid code-signing certificates stolen from organizations with a positive reputation can allow attackers to piggyback on that company ’s trust , making it easier to slip by these defenses and gain access to targeted computers .


Audit ISAPI filters and search for web shells on Microsoft Exchange servers .