Earth Koshchei Coopts Red Team Tools in Complex RDP Attacks


Red teaming provides essential tools and testing methodologies for organizations to strengthen their security defenses. Cybercriminals and advanced persistent threat (APT) actors pay close attention to new methods and tools red teams develop, and they may repurpose them with a malicious intent.

In October 2024, an APT group that Trend Micro tracks as Earth Koshchei (also known as APT29 and Midnight Blizzard), likely used a rogue remote desktop protocol (RDP) attack methodology against numerous targets. This methodology was described earlier in 2022 by Black Hills Information Security in detail. The attack technique is called “rogue RDP”, which involves an RDP relay, a rogue RDP server, and a malicious RDP configuration file. A victim of this technique would give partial control of their machine to the attacker, potentially leading to data leakage and malware installation.

Read more…
Source: Trend Micro


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • UK police commissioner threatens to extradite, jail US citizens over online posts

    August 9, 2024

    London’s Metropolitan Police chief warned that officials will not only be cracking down on British citizens for commentary on the riots in the U.K., but on American citizens as well. “We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from ...

  • JG Summit Holdings probing ‘possible’ cyber attack

    August 9, 2024

    Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. is investigating an alleged cybersecurity attack which was claimed to have affected thousands of the company’s computers. RansomHub, which was supposedly responsible for the attack, expressed frustration over being ignored by JG Summit and was threatening to initiate additional attacks if its demands were not met, according to Deep Web ...

  • Royal Ransomware Actors Rebrand as “BlackSuit”

    August 8, 2024

    The FBI and CISA recently published an update to the joint Cybersecurity Advisory “#StopRansomware: Royal Ransomware.” The updated advisory provides network defenders with recent and historically observed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with BlackSuit variants (previously Royal). FBI investigations identified these TTPs and IOCs as recently as July 2024. See ...

  • UK: Woman arrested for ‘sharing inaccurate information about identity of Southport attacker’

    August 8, 2024

    A woman has been arrested in relation to a social media post containing ‘inaccurate information about the identity of the attacker’ in the Southport stabbings. The 55-year-old woman from near Chester, was arrested on Thursday (August 8). She was taken into custody on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications. ...

  • Russia: Massive DDoS attack on Kursk Region repelled

    August 8, 2024

    The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has reported that a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Kursk Region’s local services has been successfully thwarted. “A massive DDoS attack on the regional services of the Kursk Region has been repelled and specialists have already restored all online activity,” the ...

  • Greece leaves spy services unchecked on Predator hacks

    August 7, 2024

    Greece’s 2022 espionage scandal dubbed “Predatorgate” had everything: eavesdropping on politicians, journalists and judges, exports of shady software to dictatorial regimes and high-profile resignations. Fast-forward two years and everyone in government is off the hook. In a 300-page report seen by POLITICO, deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court Achilles Zisis argued that a series of controversial ...