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:

  • South Africa’s trade regulator ITAC hit by cyber attack

    April 16, 2024

    According to the organisation, the attack happened in January, leading to the exposure of the personal information of stakeholders. ITAC is an institution dedicated to promoting fair trade in South Africa in order to enhance economic growth and development. The site includes trade and tariff services as well as import and export control services. In a ...

  • MGM files suit against FTC to block cyber attack investigation

    April 16, 2024

    MGM filed the suit yesterday (15 April) in Washington’s federal court against both the FTC and Lina M Khan as FTC chair. The suit refers to the large-scale cyber attack launched against MGM in September last year. MGM was forced to shut down certain systems across its US properties due to the attack. Access to MGM ...

  • Best Practices for Deploying Secure and Resilient AI Systems

    April 15, 2024

    Deploying artificial intelligence (AI) systems securely requires careful setup and configuration that depends on the complexity of the AI system, the resources required (e.g., funding, technical expertise), and the infrastructure used (i.e., on premises, cloud, or hybrid). This report expands upon the ‘secure deployment’ and ‘secure operation and maintenance’ sections of the Guidelines for secure AI ...

  • SteganoAmor campaign: TA558 mass-attacking companies and public institutions all around the world

    April 15, 2024

    Researchers from the Positive Technologies Expert Security Center discovered more than three hundred attacks worldwide, which they confidently attributed to the well-known TA558 group. As originally described by researchers at ProofPoint, TA558 is a relatively small financially motivated cybercrime group that has attacked hospitality and tourism organizations mainly in Latin America, but has also been identified ...

  • Change Healthcare faces another ransomware threat – and it looks credible

    April 12, 2024

    For months, Change Healthcare has faced an immensely messy ransomware debacle that has left hundreds of pharmacies and medical practices across the United States unable to process claims. Now, thanks to an apparent dispute within the ransomware criminal ecosystem, it may have just become far messier still. In March, the ransomware group AlphV, which had claimed ...

  • “Highly capable” hackers root corporate networks by exploiting Palo Alto Networks firewall 0-day

    April 12, 2024

    Highly capable hackers are rooting multiple corporate networks by exploiting a maximum-severity zero-day vulnerability in a firewall product from Palo Alto Networks, researchers said Friday. The vulnerability, which has been under active exploitation for at least two weeks now, allows the hackers with no authentication to execute malicious code with root privileges, the highest possible level ...