DeathStalker is a threat actor who has been active starting 2012 at least, and we exposed most of his past activities in a previous article, as well as during a GREAT Ideas conference in August 2020. The actor draught our attention in 2018, because of distinctive attacks characteristics that did not fit the usual cybercrime or state-sponsored activities, making us believe that DeathStalker is a “hack-for-hire” company.
DeathStalker leveraged several malware strains and delivery chains across years, from the Python and VisualBasic-based Janicab, to the PowerShell-based Powersing, passing by the JavaScript-based Evilnum. The actor consistently used what we call “dead-drop resolvers” (DDRs), which are some obfuscated content hosted on major public Web services like YouTube, Twitter or Reddit; and which once decoded by a malware would reveal a command-and-control (C2) server address. DeathStalker also consistently leveraged anti-detection and antivirus evasion techniques, as well as intricated delivery chains, that would drop lots of files on target’s filesystems. To kick-start an infection, DeathStalker usually relies on spear-phishing emails with attachments, or links to public file-sharing services, as well as Windows shortcuts-based script execution. We have identified DeathStalker’s malware compromises within clusters or varied targets in all parts of the world, with a possible focus on law and consultancy offices, as well as FINTECH companies, but without any clear or stable visible interest. The targeting does not seem to be politically or strategically defined and does not fit in usual financially motived crime. As so, we concluded that DeathStalker is a cyber-mercenaries organization.
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Source: Kaspersky