Microsoft has identified a new North Korean threat actor, now tracked as Moonstone Sleet (formerly Storm-1789), that uses both a combination of many tried-and-true techniques used by other North Korean threat actors and unique attack methodologies to target companies for its financial and cyberespionage objectives.
Moonstone Sleet is observed to set up fake companies and job opportunities to engage with potential targets, employ trojanized versions of legitimate tools, create a malicious game, and deliver a new custom ransomware. While Moonstone Sleet initially had overlaps with Diamond Sleet, the threat actor has since shifted to its own infrastructure and attacks, establishing itself as a distinct, well-resourced North Korean threat actor.
Read more…
Source: Microsoft
Related:
- Over the Kazuar’s nest: Cracking down on a freshly hatched backdoor used by Pensive Ursa
October 31, 2023
While tracking the evolution of Pensive Ursa (aka Turla, Uroburos), Unit 42 researchers came across a new, upgraded variant of Kazuar. Not only is Kazuar another name for the enormous and dangerous cassowary bird, Kazuar is an advanced and stealthy .NET backdoor that Pensive Ursa usually uses as a second stage payload. Pensive Ursa is a ...
- From Albania to the Middle East: The Scarred Manticore is listening
October 31, 2023
Check Point Research, in collaboration with Sygnia’s Incident Response Team, has been tracking and responding to the activities of Scarred Manticore, an Iranian nation-state threat actor that primarily targets government and telecommunication sectors in the Middle East. Scarred Manticore, linked to the prolific Iranian actor OilRig (a.k.a APT34, EUROPIUM, Hazel Sandstorm), has persistently pursued high-profile organizations, ...
- A cascade of compromise: unveiling Lazarus’ new campaign
October 27, 2023
Earlier this year, a software vendor was compromised by the Lazarus malware delivered through unpatched legitimate software. What’s remarkable is that these software vulnerabilities were not new, and despite warnings and patches from the vendor, many of the vendor’s systems continued to use the flawed software, allowing the threat actor to exploit them. Upon further investigation, ...
- Crambus: New Campaign Targets Middle Eastern Government
October 19, 2023
The Iranian Crambus espionage group (aka OilRig, APT34) staged an eight-month-long intrusion against a government in the Middle East between February and September 2023. During the compromise, the attackers stole files and passwords and, in one case, installed a PowerShell backdoor (dubbed PowerExchange) that was used to monitor incoming mails sent from an Exchange Server ...
- Multiple North Korean threat actors exploiting the TeamCity CVE-2023-42793 vulnerability
October 18, 2023
Since early October 2023, Microsoft has observed two North Korean nation-state threat actors – Diamond Sleet and Onyx Sleet – exploiting CVE-2023-42793, a remote-code execution vulnerability affecting multiple versions of JetBrains TeamCity server. TeamCity is a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) application used by organizations for DevOps and other software development activities. In past operations, Diamond ...
- Analyzing cyber activity surrounding the conflict in the Middle East
October 17, 2023
In light of the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, Group-IB’s Threat Intelligence unit has been monitoring the activity of different threat actors involved in the conflict in cyber space. As they noted in the Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2022/2023 report, any rise in political tensions or the outbreak of hostilities is almost always accompanied by ...