How APT41 revived the BlackLotus bootkit to attack diplomatic organizations in Central Asia


Back in October 2022, Kaspersky GReAT was looking into a peculiar advertisement on a hacking forum. A cybercriminal had been advertising a UEFI bootkit, dubbed BlackLotus, that could bypass Secure Boot, for $5,000. Given the low price for such powerful capabilities, the cybersecurity community initially took this advertisement with a grain of salt. As no BlackLotus samples were found in the wild, no one could at the time verify the claims made in the forum post.

However, about half a year later, in March 2023, ESET confirmed that the BlackLotus advertisement was genuine. The researchers tracked down samples of this bootkit and confirmed that it can indeed bypass Secure Boot through a vulnerability called Baton Drop (CVE-2022-21894). As this vulnerability was still exploitable in 2023, Microsoft had to release multiple security updates to address it.

Read more…
Source:  Kaspersky


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • ValleyRAT masquerading as adware

    August 31, 2026

    Attackers typically try to pass off malware as legitimate applications or as potentially unwanted programs that users deliberately search for and download, such as cheats or cracks. They often rely on ad and affiliate networks to deliver their creations to victims’ devices. This post examines a less conventional case: a well-known backdoor distributed under the ...

  • TerminalFix campaign deploys a reverse tunnel through multistage intrusion

    August 28, 2026

    Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed a TerminalFix campaign, a variant of ClickFix, targeting organizations across multiple industries. The campaign uses compromised websites to display a fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA verification overlay that tricks users into copying and executing a malicious PowerShell command. While traditional ClickFix campaigns direct victims to the Windows Run dialog, TerminalFix campaigns apply ...

  • PaperCut NG/MF Critical Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild

    August 28, 2026

    On August 27, 2026, PaperCut Software published an urgent security advisory stating that it is investigating active exploitation of a vulnerability affecting PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF. PaperCut has confirmed customer incidents and is treating the issue as a security emergency. At the initial time of disclosure, the vulnerability had not been assigned a CVE identifier, and ...

  • Identity-as-a-Service: Uncovering Dark Web Marketplaces Trading Executive SSNs

    August 27, 2026

    Despite modern verification controls, identity theft remains one of the most pervasive threats to both individuals and enterprise organizations. U.S. Federal Trade Commission statistics show over 1 million identity theft reports annually, with related fraud and imposter scams accounting for billions in financial losses each year. While stolen credit cards enable rapid, short-term monetization, Social ...

  • An open letter for a global surge in cyber defense

    August 27, 2026

    We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses. In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable. The companies and public services our communities depend on—from hospitals to water treatment plants to the infrastructure that powers the internet—are at risk. Today’s AI advances ...

  • Millions of UK airport customer details accessed in major cyberattack

    August 27, 2026

    A cyber security breach targeting three major UK airports has led to the personal data of around 8.7 million customers being accessed, operator Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has confirmed. The group, which oversees Manchester Airport, London Stansted and East Midlands Airport, assured the public that “at no point has passenger safety or aviation security been compromised”, adding that no payment or banking details ...