Cybersecurity researchers have found a brand new malware loader codenamed CountLoader that has been put to make use of by Russian ransomware gangs to ship post-exploitation instruments like Cobalt Strike and AdaptixC2, and a distant entry trojan often called PureHVNC RAT.
“CountLoader is getting used both as a part of an Preliminary Entry Dealer’s (IAB) toolset or by a ransomware affiliate with ties to the LockBit, Black Basta, and Qilin ransomware teams,” Silent Push mentioned in an evaluation.
Showing in three completely different variations – .NET, PowerShell, and JavaScript – the rising menace has been noticed in a marketing campaign concentrating on people in Ukraine utilizing PDF-based phishing lures and impersonating the Nationwide Police of Ukraine.
It is value noting that the PowerShell model of the malware was beforehand flagged by Kaspersky as being distributed utilizing DeepSeek-related decoys to trick customers into putting in it.
The assaults, per the Russian cybersecurity vendor, led to the deployment of an implant named BrowserVenom that may reconfigure all looking cases to pressure visitors by a proxy managed by the menace actors, enabling the attackers to control community visitors and gather knowledge.
Silent Push’s investigation has discovered the JavaScript model is probably the most fleshed out implementation of the loader, providing six completely different strategies for file downloading, three completely different strategies for executing varied malware binaries, and a predefined perform to determine a sufferer’s machine primarily based on Home windows area info.
The malware can also be able to gathering system info, establishing persistence on the host by making a scheduled job that impersonates a Google replace job for the Chrome internet browser, and connecting to a distant server to await additional directions.
This consists of the power to obtain and run DLL and MSI installer payloads utilizing rundll32.exe and msiexec.exe, transmit system metadata, and delete the created scheduled job. The six strategies used to obtain information contain using curl, PowerShell, MSXML2.XMLHTTP, WinHTTP.WinHttpRequest.5.1, bitsadmin, and certutil.exe.
“By utilizing LOLBins like ‘certutil’ and ‘bitsadmin,’ and by implementing an ‘on the fly’ command encryption PowerShell generator, CountLoader’s builders exhibit right here a complicated understanding of the Home windows working system and malware improvement,” Silent Push mentioned.
A notable facet of CountLoader is its use of the sufferer’s Music folder as a staging floor for malware. The .NET taste shares a point of useful crossover with its JavaScript counterpart, however helps solely two various kinds of instructions (UpdateType.Zip or UpdateType.Exe), indicating a decreased, stripped-down model.
CountLoader is supported by an infrastructure comprising over 20 distinctive domains, with the malware serving as a conduit for Cobalt Strike, AdaptixC2, and PureHVNC RAT, the final of which is a business providing from a menace actor often called PureCoder. It is value declaring that PureHVNC RAT is a predecessor to PureRAT, which can also be known as ResolverRAT.
Latest campaigns distributing PureHVNC RAT have leveraged the tried-and-tested ClickFix social engineering tactic as a supply vector, with victims lured to the ClickFix phishing web page by faux job gives, per Examine Level. The trojan is deployed via a Rust-based loader.
“The attacker lured the sufferer by faux job ads, permitting the attacker to execute malicious PowerShell code by the ClickFix phishing method,” the cybersecurity firm mentioned, describing PureCoder as utilizing a revolving set of GitHub accounts to host information that help the performance of PureRAT.
Evaluation of the GitHub commits has revealed that exercise was carried out from the timezone UTC+03:00, which corresponds to many nations, together with Russia, amongst others.
The event comes because the DomainTools Investigations workforce has uncovered the interconnected nature of the Russian ransomware panorama, figuring out menace actor actions throughout teams and using instruments like AnyDesk and Fast Help, suggesting operational overlaps.
“Model allegiance amongst these operators is weak, and human capital seems to be the first asset, somewhat than particular malware strains,” DomainTools mentioned. “Operators adapt to market circumstances, reorganize in response to takedowns, and belief relationships are important. These people will select to work with folks they know, whatever the identify of the group.”
