- Nefilim Ransomware Attack Through a MITRE Att&ck Lens
June 28, 2021
Nefilim is among a new breed of ransomware families that use advanced techniques for a more targeted and virulent attack. It is operated by a group that we track under the intrusion set “Water Roc”. This group combines advanced techniques with legitimate tools to make them significantly harder to detect and respond before it is ...
- Malicious spam campaigns delivering banking Trojans
June 24, 2021
In mid-March 2021, we observed two new spam campaigns. The messages in both cases were written in English and contained ZIP attachments or links to ZIP files. Further research revealed that both campaigns ultimately aimed to distribute banking Trojans. The payload in most cases was IcedID (Trojan-Banker.Win32.IcedID), but we have also seen a few QBot ...
- REvil Ransomware Code Ripped Off by Rivals
June 23, 2021
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: The LV ransomware, a strain that cropped up just this spring, turns out to be based on what is most likely pirated REvil ransomware code, according to researchers. A malware analysis of LV from Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) found that its operators (which it calls Gold ...
- How to confuse antimalware neural networks. Adversarial attacks and protection
June 23, 2021
Nowadays, cybersecurity companies implement a variety of methods to discover new, previously unknown malware files. Machine learning (ML) is a powerful and widely used approach for this task. At Kaspersky we have a number of complex ML models based on different file features, including models for static and dynamic detection, for processing sandbox logs and ...
- NukeSped Copies Fileless Code From Bundlore, Leaves It Unused
June 22, 2021
While investigating samples of NukeSped, a remote access trojan (RAT), Trend Micro came across several Bundlore adware samples using the same fileless routine that was spotted in NukeSped. The backdoor has been attributed to the cybercriminal group Lazarus, which has been active since at least 2014. There are multiple variants of NukeSped, which is designed ...
- ‘Oddball’ Malware Blocks Access to Pirated Software
June 18, 2021
The objective of most malware is some kind of gain — financial or otherwise — for the attackers who use it. However, researchers recently observed a unique malware with a single intent: Blocking the infected computers from visiting websites dedicated to software piracy. The malware (which SophosLabs principal researcher Andrew Brandt called “one of the strangest ...
- Bash Ransomware DarkRadiation Targets Red Hat- and Debian-based Linux Distributions
June 17, 2021
A recently discovered Bash ransomware piqued our interest in multiple ways. Upon investigating, we found that the attack chain is fully implemented as a bash script, but it also seems that the scripts are still under development. Most components of this attack mainly target Red Hat and CentOS Linux distributions; however, in some scripts Debian-based Linux ...
- Matanbuchus: Malware-as-a-Service with Demonic Intentions
June 16, 2021
Unit 42 researchers often spend time investigating what we call non-traditional sources. Non-traditional sources often include underground marketplaces and sites, spanning from forums on the Tor network to Telegram channels and other marketplaces. One such case that we investigated involves a threat actor called BelialDemon, who is a member of several underground forums and marketplaces. In ...
- Ferocious Kitten: 6 years of covert surveillance in Iran
June 16, 2021
Ferocious Kitten is an APT group that since at least 2015 has been targeting Persian-speaking individuals who appear to be based in Iran. Although it has been active for a long time, the group has mostly operated under the radar and has not been covered by security researchers to the best of our knowledge. It ...
- Paradise Ransomware source code released on a hacking forum
June 15, 2021
The complete source code for the Paradise Ransomware has been released on a hacking forum allowing any would-be cyber criminal to develop their own customized ransomware operation. Released on the hacking forum XSS, the link to the source code is only accessible to active users on the site who have previously replied to or reacted to ...

