Google: Brickstorm malware stole data from U.S. orgs
🔒 Google researchers warn that the Go-based Brickstorm backdoor was used in prolonged espionage against U.S. technology, legal, SaaS, and BPO organizations, averaging a 393-day dwell time. Suspected activity from the UNC5221 cluster involved deploying the malware on appliances lacking EDR protection such as VMware vCenter/ESXi, where it acted as a web server, SOCKS proxy, file dropper, and remote shell. Operators used techniques like a malicious Java Servlet Filter (Bricksteal), VM cloning, and startup-script modifications to capture credentials and move laterally, then tunneled to exfiltrate emails via Microsoft Entra ID Enterprise Apps. Mandiant published a scanner and YARA rules to aid detection but cautions it may not catch all variants or persistence.
