All news with #dll sideloading tag

APT24 Pivot to BADAUDIO Multi-Vector Attacks in Taiwan

🔍 Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) details a three-year espionage campaign by APT24 deploying the obfuscated BADAUDIO downloader to deliver AES-encrypted payloads, including Cobalt Strike beacons. The actor evolved from broad strategic web compromises to targeted supply-chain abuse of a Taiwanese digital marketing firm and spear-phishing lures. BADAUDIO uses DLL search order hijacking, control-flow flattening, and cookie-based beaconing to retrieve decrypted payloads in memory. GTIG added related domains and files to Safe Browsing, issued victim notifications, and published IOCs and YARA rules to support detection and mitigation.

Dragon Breath Deploys RONINGLOADER to Deliver Gh0st RAT

🔒 Elastic Security Labs and Unit 42 describe a China‑focused campaign in which the actor Dragon Breath uses a multi‑stage loader named RONINGLOADER to deliver a modified Gh0st RAT. The attack leverages trojanized NSIS installers that drop two embedded packages—one benign and one stealthy—to load a DLL and an encrypted tp.png file containing shellcode. The loader employs signed drivers, WDAC tampering, and Protected Process Light abuse to neutralise endpoint protections popular in the Chinese market before injecting a persistent high‑privilege backdoor.

Large-Scale Impersonation Campaigns Deliver Gh0st RAT

🔐 Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 identified two interconnected 2025 campaigns that used large-scale brand impersonation to deliver variants of the Gh0st remote access Trojan to Chinese-speaking users globally. The adversary evolved from simple droppers (Campaign Trio, Feb–Mar 2025) to sophisticated, multi-stage MSI-based chains abusing signed binaries, VBScript droppers and public cloud storage (Campaign Chorus, May 2025 onward). The report includes representative IoCs and mitigation guidance for Advanced WildFire, Cortex XDR and allied protections.

China-Linked 'Bronze Butler' Exploits Lanscope Zero-Day

🔒 Sophos researchers discovered China-linked espionage group Bronze Butler exploiting a zero-day in Motex Lanscope Endpoint Manager (CVE-2025-61932) to deploy an updated Gokcpdoor backdoor. The flaw enabled unauthenticated remote code execution as SYSTEM on affected versions (<=9.4.7.2), and attackers used OAED Loader, DLL sideloading, and multiplexed C2 channels to evade detection. Motex released patches on October 20, 2025, and CISA added the vulnerability to its KEV list; organizations are advised to upgrade immediately since no mitigations exist.

China-linked Tick exploits Lanscope flaw to deploy backdoor

⚠️ Sophos and JPCERT/CC have linked active exploitation of a critical Motex Lanscope Endpoint Manager vulnerability (CVE-2025-61932, CVSS 9.3) to the China-aligned Tick group. Attackers leveraged the flaw to execute SYSTEM-level commands and drop a Gokcpdoor backdoor, observed in both server and client variants that create covert C2 channels. The campaign used DLL side-loading to run an OAED Loader, deployed the Havoc post-exploitation framework on select hosts, and used tools like goddi and tunneled Remote Desktop for lateral movement. Organizations are advised to upgrade or isolate internet-facing LANSCOPE servers and review deployments of the MR and DA agents.

Chinese-Linked Hackers Exploit Windows Shortcut Flaw

🔎 Researchers at Arctic Wolf Labs uncovered a September–October 2025 cyber-espionage campaign that used a Windows shortcut vulnerability to target Belgian and Hungarian diplomatic entities. The operation, attributed to UNC6384 and likely tied to Mustang Panda (TEMP.Hex), combined spear phishing with malicious .LNK files exploiting ZDI-CAN-25373 and deployed a multi-stage chain ending in the PlugX RAT. Attackers used DLL side-loading, signed Canon utilities and obfuscated PowerShell to extract and execute an encrypted payload while displaying decoy diplomatic PDFs.

Lazarus Targets European Drone Makers in Espionage

📡 ESET researchers have uncovered a new Lazarus Group espionage campaign targeting European defense contractors, with a focus on companies involved in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development since March 2025. The attackers used spear-phishing with fake job offers and trojanized open-source tools such as WinMerge and Notepad++ to deliver loaders and the custom RAT ScoringMathTea. The intrusion chain relied on DLL side-loading, reflective loading, and process injection to maintain persistence and exfiltrate design and supply-chain data. ESET has published IoCs and MITRE ATT&CK mappings to help defenders respond.

Lazarus Operation DreamJob Targets European Defense

🔍 North Korean-linked Lazarus actors ran an Operation DreamJob campaign in late March that targeted three European defense companies involved in UAV technology. Using fake recruitment lures, victims were tricked into installing trojanized open-source applications and plugins which loaded malicious payloads via DLL sideloading. Final-stage malware included the ScoringMathTea RAT, while an alternate chain used the BinMergeLoader (MISTPEN) to abuse Microsoft Graph API tokens. ESET published extensive IoCs to aid detection.

Lazarus Targets UAV Sector with Operation DreamJob

🛩️ ESET researchers observed a renewed Operation DreamJob campaign that targeted European defense and UAV-related companies and has been linked to the North Korea-aligned Lazarus group. Attackers used social-engineering lures and trojanized open-source projects on GitHub to deliver loaders and the ScoringMathTea RAT. Techniques included DLL side-loading, reflective in-memory loading and encrypted C2 channels. The apparent objective was theft of proprietary UAV designs and manufacturing know-how.

Chinese Groups Exploit ToolShell SharePoint Flaw Widespread

🔒 Symantec reports that China-linked threat actors exploited the ToolShell vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint (CVE-2025-53770) weeks after Microsoft issued a July 2025 patch, compromising a Middle Eastern telecom and multiple government and corporate targets across regions. Attackers used loaders and backdoors such as KrustyLoader, ShadowPad and Zingdoor, and in several incidents employed DLL side-loading and privilege escalation via CVE-2021-36942. Symantec notes the operations aimed at credential theft, stealthy persistence, and likely espionage, with activity linked to groups including Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, Storm-2603 and Salt Typhoon.

VirusTotal Success: SEQRITE APT Hunting Case Studies

🔎 SEQRITE's APT-Team describes how they used VirusTotal to pivot from isolated clues to comprehensive campaign mapping, tracking UNG0002, Silent Lynx, and DRAGONCLONE between May 2024 and May 2025. Their work combined malware configuration extraction, LNK metadata, code-sign certificate pivots, YARA and Sigma rules, and Livehunt queries to surface related samples and previously unreported implants. The post highlights practical hunting queries and pivots — public key and LNK-ID searches, submitter geofilters, and malware_config values — that enabled attribution and expanded detection across multiple Asian geographies.

Salt Typhoon Exploits Citrix NetScaler in Global Attacks

🔒In a global intrusion tracked by Darktrace, the China-linked group Salt Typhoon exploited a Citrix NetScaler Gateway vulnerability to gain access and maintain persistence. Attackers employed DLL sideloading to deploy the SNAPPYBEE (Deed RAT) backdoor alongside legitimate antivirus executables, then moved laterally to Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent hosts while obscuring origin via SoftEther VPN infrastructure. C2 channels used HTTP (with Internet Explorer user-agent headers and URIs like "/17ABE7F017ABE7F0") and unidentified TCP protocols; the domain aar.gandhibludtric[.]com has prior links to the group. Darktrace emphasised the need for anomaly-based behavioural detection to surface such stealthy activity early.

From HealthKick to GOVERSHELL: UTA0388's Malware Evolution

🔎 Volexity attributes a series of tailored spear‑phishing campaigns to a China‑aligned actor tracked as UTA0388, which delivers a Go-based implant named GOVERSHELL. The waves used multilingual, persona-driven lures and legitimate cloud hosting (Netlify, Sync, OneDrive) to stage ZIP/RAR archives that deploy DLL side‑loading and a persistent backdoor. As many as five GOVERSHELL variants emerged between April and September 2025, succeeding an earlier C++ family called HealthKick. Volexity also observed the actor abusing LLMs such as ChatGPT to craft phishing content and automate workflows.

From Infostealer to PureRAT: Dissecting an Escalating Attack

🔍 Huntress Labs analyzed a multi-stage intrusion that began with a phishing ZIP and DLL sideloading and escalated to deployment of the commercial PureRAT backdoor. The operator combined bespoke Python loaders and a Python-based infostealer with compiled .NET loaders, process hollowing, AMSI/ETW tampering, and reflective DLL injection to evade detection. Final-stage configuration revealed a Vietnam-hosted C2 (157.66.26.209) and Telegram infrastructure linked to PXA Stealer, underscoring a shift from custom theft to a professional RAT.

Confucius Targets Pakistan with WooperStealer and Anondoor

🔒 Fortinet researchers attribute a renewed phishing campaign to Confucius, which has repeatedly targeted Pakistani government, military, and defense industry recipients using spear‑phishing and malicious documents. Attack chains observed from December 2024 through August 2025 delivered WooperStealer via DLL side‑loading using .PPSX and .LNK lures, and later introduced a Python implant, Anondoor. The group layered obfuscation and swapped tools and infrastructure to sustain credential theft, screenshot capture, file enumeration, and persistent exfiltration while evading detection.

Confucius Shifts to Python Backdoors Targeting Windows

🛡️ FortiGuard Labs reports that the long-running cyber-espionage group Confucius has shifted tactics against Microsoft Windows users, moving from document stealers like WooperStealer to Python-based backdoors such as AnonDoor. The change, observed between December 2024 and August 2025, favors persistent access and command execution over simple data exfiltration. Researchers describe layered evasion and persistence techniques including DLL side-loading, obfuscated PowerShell, scheduled tasks and stealthy exfiltration to minimize detection. Targeting remains focused in South Asia, particularly Pakistan.

Confucius Espionage: Evolution from Stealer to Backdoor

🔐 FortiGuard Labs documents the Confucius espionage group’s shift from document-stealing malware to a stealthy Python-based backdoor targeting Microsoft Windows. Recent campaigns used spear-phishing with weaponized Office PPSX files, malicious LNK loaders, and staged PowerShell installers to deploy runtimes and execute AnonDoor modules. The actor leveraged DLL side-loading, scheduled tasks, and HKCU registry Load persistence to maintain stealth and periodic execution. Fortinet urges layered defenses, updated signatures, and user training to mitigate these threats.

Credential ZIP Lures Use Malicious LNKs to Deploy DLLs

📎 BlackPoint researchers tracked a campaign that distributes credential-themed ZIP archives containing malicious Windows shortcut (.lnk) files. When opened, the shortcuts launch minimized, obfuscated PowerShell that downloads DLL payloads disguised as .ppt files, saves them to the user profile and invokes them via rundll32.exe. The dropper assembles commands from byte arrays, probes for antivirus processes and uses quiet flags to minimize visible indicators. Recommended mitigations include blocking LNKs in archives, enforcing Mark of the Web, denying execution from user-writable locations, and enabling PowerShell script block logging and AMSI.

China-linked PlugX and Bookworm Target Asian Telecoms

🔍 Cisco Talos and Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 describe concurrent campaigns distributing a revised PlugX variant and the long‑running Bookworm RAT against telecommunications and manufacturing organizations across Central and South Asia and ASEAN countries. Talos found that the PlugX sample borrows RainyDay and Turian techniques — DLL side‑loading of a Mobile Popup Application, XOR‑RC4‑RtlDecompressBuffer payload processing and reuse of RC4 keys — and includes an embedded keylogger. Researchers note the PlugX configuration now mirrors RainyDay’s structure, suggesting links to Lotus Panda/Naikon or shared tooling, while Unit 42 highlights Bookworm’s modular leader/DLL architecture, UUID-encoded shellcode variants, and use of legitimate-looking C2 domains to blend with normal traffic.

Phishing-to-PureRAT: Vietnamese Actor Upgrades Stealer

🛡️ Huntress researchers uncovered a multi-stage phishing operation that began with a Python-based infostealer and culminated in the deployment of PureRAT. The campaign used a ZIP lure containing a signed PDF reader and a malicious version.dll to achieve DLL sideloading, then progressed through ten staged loaders that shifted from obfuscated Python to compiled .NET binaries. Attackers used process hollowing against RegAsm.exe, patched Windows defenses (AMSI and ETW), and ultimately unpacked PureRAT, which communicates over encrypted C2 channels and can load additional modules. Metadata linking the activity to the handle @LoneNone and to the PXA Stealer family, plus a C2 server traced to Vietnam, supports attribution to Vietnamese threat actors.