Woburn, MA – May 19, 2023 – Kaspersky researchers have offered additional particulars on the CommonMagic marketing campaign, which was first noticed in March concentrating on firms within the Russo-Ukrainian battle space. The new analysis reveals extra subtle malicious actions from the identical risk actor. The investigation recognized that the newly-discovered framework has expanded its victimology to incorporate organizations in Central and Western Ukraine. Kaspersky consultants have additionally linked the unknown actor to earlier APT campaigns, reminiscent of Operation BugDrop and Operation Groundbai (Prikormka).
In March 2023, Kaspersky reported a brand new APT marketing campaign within the Russo-Ukrainian battle space. This marketing campaign, named CommonMagic, makes use of PowerMagic and CommonMagic implants to conduct espionage actions. Active since September 2021, it employs a beforehand unidentified malware to gather knowledge from focused entities. Although the risk actor answerable for this assault remained unknown on the time, Kaspersky consultants have continued with their investigation, tracing the unknown exercise again to forgotten campaigns with a purpose to collect additional insights.
The just lately uncovered marketing campaign utilized a modular framework known as CloudWizard. Kaspersky’s analysis recognized a complete of 9 modules inside this framework, every answerable for distinct malicious actions reminiscent of gathering recordsdata, keylogging, capturing screenshots, recording microphone enter, and stealing passwords. Notably, one of many modules focuses on exfiltrating knowledge from Gmail accounts. By extracting Gmail cookies from browser databases, this module can entry and smuggle exercise logs, contact lists, and all electronic mail messages related to the focused accounts.
Furthermore, the researchers have uncovered an expanded sufferer distribution within the marketing campaign. While the earlier targets have been primarily situated within the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea areas, the scope has now widened to incorporate people, diplomatic entities, and analysis organizations in Western and Central Ukraine.
After intensive analysis into CloudWizard, Kaspersky consultants have made vital progress in attributing it to a recognized risk actor. They have noticed notable similarities between CloudWizard and two beforehand documented campaigns: Operation Groundbait and Operation BugDrop. These similarities embrace code similarities, file naming and itemizing patterns, internet hosting by Ukrainian internet hosting companies, and shared sufferer profiles in Western and Central Ukraine, in addition to the battle space in Eastern Europe.
Moreover, CloudWizard additionally reveals resemblances to the just lately reported marketing campaign CommonMagic. Some sections of the code are similar, they make use of the identical encryption library, comply with an analogous file naming format, and share sufferer areas throughout the Eastern European battle space.
Based on these findings, Kaspersky consultants have concluded that the malicious campaigns of Prikormka, Operation Groundbait, Operation BugDrop, CommonMagic, and CloudWizard might all be attributed to the identical lively risk actor.
“The risk actor answerable for these operations has demonstrated a persistent and ongoing dedication to cyberespionage, repeatedly enhancing their toolset and concentrating on organizations of curiosity for over fifteen years,” mentioned Georgy Kucherin, safety researcher at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team. “Geopolitical elements proceed to be a major motivator for APT assaults and, given the prevailing stress within the Russo-Ukrainian battle space, we anticipate that this actor will stick with its operations for the foreseeable future.”
Read the total report in regards to the CloudWizard marketing campaign on Securelist.
In order to keep away from falling sufferer to a focused assault by a recognized or unknown risk actor, Kaspersky researchers suggest implementing the next measures:
- Provide your SOC crew with entry to the newest risk intelligence (TI). The Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal is a single level of entry for the corporate’s TI, offering it with cyberattack knowledge and insights gathered by Kaspersky spanning over 20 years.
- Upskill your cybersecurity crew to deal with the newest focused threats with Kaspersky on-line coaching developed by GReAT consultants
- For endpoint stage detection, investigation, and well timed remediation of incidents, implement EDR options reminiscent of Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response
- In addition to adopting important endpoint safety, implement a corporate-grade safety answer that detects superior threats on the community stage at an early stage, reminiscent of Kaspersky Anti Targeted Attack Platform
- As many focused assaults begin with phishing or different social engineering methods, introduce safety consciousness coaching and educate sensible abilities to your crew – for instance, via the Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform