This campaign represents a significant evolution in the tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by cybercriminals.
They are leveraging social engineering and advanced evasion techniques to deploy malicious code.
The attackers meticulously crafted email messages that appeared to originate from a legitimate accounting service.
Alert Fatigue that helps no one as security teams need to triage 100s of vulnerabilities.
The emails included detailed instructions for accessing the password-protected document, exploiting human curiosity and trust to initiate the attack chain.
This step cleverly exploited a legitimate Windows feature, OLE, to execute malicious code discreetly.
The PhantomBlu campaign utilized a technique known as OLE template manipulation, marking the first recorded instance of this TTP being used to deliver the NetSupport RAT via email.
This method exploits document templates to execute malicious code without detection, bypassing traditional security measures by hiding the payload outside the document, which only executes upon user interaction.
Perception Point security researchers have recently identified a newly surfaced campaign targeting US-based organizations.
Zip file containing an LNK file was opened, leading to the next phase of the attack.
A forensic analysis of the LNK file revealed it as a PowerShell dropper designed to retrieve and execute a script from a specified URL. The script was heavily obfuscated to conceal its true intentions, which included downloading a secondary ZIP file, unpacking it, and executing the NetSupport RAT. The de-obfuscation of the PowerShell script provided insights into the malware's operations, including creating a new registry key to ensure the malware's persistence on the victim's machine.
Further investigation into the secondary URL used by the attackers revealed a user-agent gated payload delivery, which was bypassed to obtain the payload, mirroring the attackers' approach.
The secondary PowerShell script's execution resulted in the deployment of the NetSupport RAT. Its configuration files revealed the command and control servers, highlighting PhantomBlu's communication backbone and operational directives.
The PhantomBlu campaign represents a departure from conventional TTPs associated with NetSupport RAT deployments, blending sophisticated evasion tactics with social engineering.
Perception Point's proprietary anti-evasion model, the Recursive Unpacker, played a crucial role in deconstructing the multi-layered obfuscation and evasion techniques employed by the PhantomBlu threat actors.
Stay updated on Cybersecurity news, Whitepapers, and Infographics.
This Cyber News was published on gbhackers.com. Publication date: Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:13:07 +0000