In a recently documented incident, the threat actors demonstrated their evolving tactics by leveraging the Atexec and WmiExec modules from the Impacket penetration testing toolkit to establish persistence and conduct lateral movement within compromised networks. The notorious Chinese-speaking cyberespionage group APT41 has expanded its operations into new territories, launching sophisticated attacks against government IT services across Africa using advanced Windows administration modules. Following their initial compromise, APT41 operators conducted extensive reconnaissance using built-in Windows utilities to map the target network and identify security solutions. The researchers noted that Africa had previously experienced minimal activity from this particular advanced persistent threat group, making this incident particularly significant for understanding the group’s expanding global reach. Cyber Security News is a Dedicated News Platform For Cyber News, Cyber Attack News, Hacking News & Vulnerability Analysis. The attackers exploited compromised domain accounts with administrative privileges to distribute their toolkit across multiple hosts via SMB protocol, placing malicious files in strategic locations including C:\Windows\Tasks\ and C:\ProgramData\ directories. With years of experience under his belt in Cyber Security, he is covering Cyber Security News, technology and other news. Most notably, the group compromised and weaponized a SharePoint server within the victim’s own infrastructure to serve as a command and control (C2) center, demonstrating their capability to turn organizational assets against their owners. This represents a significant geographical expansion for the group, which has previously concentrated its efforts on organizations across 42 countries in various sectors including telecommunications, energy, healthcare, and education. The attackers’ lateral movement strategy revealed sophisticated understanding of Windows environments and administrative protocols. Tushar is a Cyber security content editor with a passion for creating captivating and informative content. This execution flow served as a key indicator of the attackers’ presence and provided security teams with early warning signs of the compromise. This methodical approach enabled them to establish persistent access while maintaining operational security throughout their campaign. The attack showcased APT41’s ability to adapt their methodologies to specific target environments while maintaining their characteristic stealth and persistence. The campaign’s sophistication became apparent through the attackers’ use of hardcoded internal service names, IP addresses, and proxy server configurations embedded directly within their malware. Securelist analysts identified the threat actor through distinctive tactical patterns and infrastructure similarities with previous APT41 campaigns. Their reconnaissance phase included systematic enumeration commands such as cmd.exe /c netstat -ano > C:\Windows\temp\temp_log.log and cmd.exe /c tasklist /v > C:\Windows\temp\temp_log.log, which provided comprehensive network and process visibility.
This Cyber News was published on cybersecuritynews.com. Publication date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:45:15 +0000