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2024-08-20 05:00:25 | Meilleurs plans posés: TA453 cible la figure religieuse avec un faux podcast invite livrant un nouvel ensemble d'outils de logiciel malveillant forgeron Best Laid Plans: TA453 Targets Religious Figure with Fake Podcast Invite Delivering New BlackSmith Malware Toolset (lien direct) |
Key findings Proofpoint identified Iranian threat actor TA453 targeting a prominent religious figure with a fake podcast interview invitation. The initial interaction attempted to lure the target to engage with a benign email to build conversation and trust to then subsequently click on a follow-up malicious link. The attack chain attempted to deliver a new malware toolkit called BlackSmith, which delivered a PowerShell trojan dubbed AnvilEcho by Proofpoint. The malware, which uses encryption and network communication techniques similar to previously observed TA453 samples, is designed to enable intelligence gathering and exfiltration. AnvilEcho contains all of TA453\'s previously identified malware capabilities in a single PowerShell script rather than the modular approach previously observed. Overview Starting 22 July 2024, TA453 contacted multiple email addresses for a prominent Jewish figure while pretending to be the Research Director for the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The lure purported to invite the target to be a guest on a podcast hosted by ISW. After receiving a response from the target (outside of Proofpoint visibility), TA453 replied with a DocSend URL. The DocSend URL was password protected and led to a text file that contained a URL to the legitimate ISW Podcast being impersonated by TA453. It is likely that TA453 was attempting to normalize the target clicking a link and entering a password so the target would do the same when they delivered malware. Initial July 2024 approach from TA453. DocSend contents containing the podcast themed text. Proofpoint first observed TA453 spoofing the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in phishing campaigns targeting other organizations starting in February 2024, almost immediately after registering the domain in late January 2024. The theme of spoofing is consistent with broader TA453 phishing activity reported by Google Threat Intelligence Group in August 2024 TA453 initially sent the fake podcast invitation to the religious figure at multiple email accounts, specifically both the target\'s organizational email address along with their personal email address. Phishing multiple email addresses associated with a target has been observed by a number of state aligned threats, including TA427. TA453 continued to establish their legitimacy by sending emails from understandingthewar[.]org and including a TA453 controlled Hotmail account in the email signature. After another reply from the target, TA453 replied with a GoogleDrive URL leading to a ZIP archive named “Podcast Plan-2024.zip”. The ZIP contained an LNK titled “Podcast Plan 2024.lnk”. The LNK delivered the BlackSmith toolset which eventually loaded TA453\'s AnvilEcho Powershell Trojan. Fake podcast invitation containing a malicious URL. Malware analysis Old habits die screaming, and TA453 sticks to its habits. Our analysis of the malware from this TA453 campaign demonstrates the developers working for TA453 have not given up on using modular PowerShell backdoors. They continue to attempt to evade detections by convoluting the infection chain in order to limit and avoid detection opportunities while collecting intelligence. The toolset observed in this infection chain is likely the successor of GorjolEcho/PowerStar, TAMECURL, MischiefTut, and CharmPower. The first TA453 backdoor was detected by Proofpoint in Fall 2021. Rather than deploy each Powershell module separately, TA453 attempts to bundle the entire framework into a single large PowerShell script dubbed AnvilEcho by Proofpoint. Timeline of TA453 malware. Infection chain The LNK is used to smuggle additional files. It hides behind a decoy PDF as an overlay and extracts the contents of the ZIP folder to %TEMP%. The ZIP folder contains Beautifull.jpg, mary.dll, qemus (the encrypted AnvilEcho PowerShell script), soshi.dll, and toni.dll. A PDB path of E:\FinalS | Malware Threat Studies | APT 35 APT 42 | ★★★ |
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