In mid-2025, Kaspersky researchers identified a malicious driver file on computer systems in Asia. The driver file is signed with an old, stolen, or leaked digital certificate and registers as a mini-filter driver on infected machines. Its end-goal is to inject a backdoor Trojan into the system processes and provide protection for malicious files, user-mode processes, and registry keys.
Kaspersky analysis indicates that the final payload injected by the driver is a new sample of the ToneShell backdoor, which connects to the attacker’s servers and provides a reverse shell, along with other capabilities. The ToneShell backdoor is a tool known to be used exclusively by the HoneyMyte (aka Mustang Panda or Bronze President) APT actor and is often used in cyberespionage campaigns targeting government organizations, particularly in Southeast and East Asia.
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:
- Apple shares fall after China reportedly bans iPhone use by government officials
September 7, 2023
Apple stocks fell after China reportedly banned officials at central government agencies from using or bringing iPhones and other foreign-branded devices into the office. In recent weeks, Chinese officials were given the instructions by their superiors in workplace chat groups or meetings, the Wall Street Journal reported, adding that it wasn’t clear how widely the orders ...
- Cybercriminals target graphic designers with GPU miners
September 7, 2023
Cybercriminals are abusing Advanced Installer, a legitimate Windows tool used for creating software packages, to drop cryptocurrency-mining malware on infected machines. This activity has been ongoing since at least November 2021. The attacker uses Advanced Installer to package other legitimate software installers, such as Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max and SketchUp Pro, with malicious scripts and ...
- CISA Releases Update to Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519 to Implant Webshells
September 6, 2023
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released an update to a previously published Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519 to Implant Webshells. The CSA—originally released to warn network defenders of critical infrastructure organizations about threat actors exploiting CVE-2023-3519, an unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting NetScaler (formerly Citrix) Application Delivery ...
- CISA Releases Capacity Enhancement Guide to Strengthen Agency Resilience to DDoS Attack
September 6, 2023
CISA has released actionable guidance for Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to help them evaluate and mitigate the risk of volumetric distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against their websites and related web services. The Capacity Enhancement Guide: Volumetric DDoS Against Web Services Technical Guidance: Helps agencies prioritize DDoS mitigations based on mission and reputational impact. Describes DDoS ...
- Analyzing a Facebook Profile Stealer Written in Node.js
September 5, 2023
During previous analysis of a campaign involving a Facebook stealer, Trend Micro researchers discovered another interesting stealer. It was written in Node.js, packaged into an executable, exfiltrated stolen data via both Telegram bot API and a command-and-control (C&C) server, and employed GraphQL as a channel for C&C communication. This blog entry investigates this new stealer ...
- New Agent Tesla Variant Being Spread by Crafted Excel Document
September 5, 2023
FortiGuard Labs captured a phishing campaign that spreads a new Agent Tesla variant. This well-known malware family uses a .Net-based Remote Access Trojan (RAT) and data stealer to gain initial access. It is often used for Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS). FortiGuard Labs researcher Xiaopeng Zhang performed an in-depth analysis of this campaign, from the initial phishing email to ...