August 9, 2024 at 12:14AM
Earth Baku (associated with APT41) has expanded its reach from the Indo-Pacific to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa since late 2022. This advanced threat actor targets countries such as Italy, Germany, UAE, and Qatar, using public-facing applications like IIS servers for initial access and deploying advanced malware toolsets such as StealthVector, StealthReacher, and SneakCross for command and control. Their victims include government, media, telecom, technology, healthcare, and education sectors. Notably, Earth Baku has developed updated tools and tactics for more recent campaigns, posing a significant challenge for cybersecurity defenses.
Summary of APT & Targeted Attacks Meeting Notes:
Earth Baku, previously associated with APT41, has expanded its activities from the Indo-Pacific region to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The group’s latest operations involve sophisticated techniques, such as leveraging IIS servers for initial access and deploying advanced malware toolsets including Godzilla webshell, StealthVector, StealthReacher, and the new modular backdoor SneakCross.
Victimology:
The targeted sectors include government, media and communications, telecom, technology, healthcare, and education.
Infection Vector:
Earth Baku’s recent attacks exploited public-facing applications like IIS servers as an entry point. The group deployed the Godzilla webshell and used StealthVector, StealthReacher, Cobalt Strike, and the new SneakCross backdoor.
Technical Analysis:
StealthVector and StealthReacher are customized loaders that deploy backdoor components using techniques such as obfuscation and encryption. SneakCross is a new modular backdoor using Google services for command-and-control with various functionalities.
Post-Exploitation:
Tools like a customized iox tool, Rakshasa, Tailscale, and MEGAcmd are used for maintaining persistence, exfiltration, and evasion techniques such as DLL Hollowing.
Conclusion:
Earth Baku’s expansion into Europe and MEA since late 2022 showcases advanced threat techniques, posing significant challenges for cybersecurity defenses.
Recommendations:
Best practices to defend against cyberespionage tactics such as implementing the principle of least privilege, addressing security gaps, developing a proactive incident response strategy, and following the 3-2-1 backup rule are recommended.
Trend Solutions:
Organizations can consider implementing advanced security technologies like Trend Vision One™ to continuously identify attack surfaces and enhance overall security posture.
Indicators of Compromise:
The indicators of compromise for these activities can be found in the meeting notes.
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