The malware loader referred to as MintsLoader has been used to ship a PowerShell-based distant entry trojan referred to as GhostWeaver.
“MintsLoader operates by means of a multi-stage an infection chain involving obfuscated JavaScript and PowerShell scripts,” Recorded Future’s Insikt Group stated in a report shared with The Hacker Information.
“The malware employs sandbox and digital machine evasion strategies, a site era algorithm (DGA), and HTTP-based command-and-control (C2) communications.”
Phishing and drive-by obtain campaigns distributing MintsLoader have been detected within the wild since early 2023, per Orange Cyberdefense. The loader has been noticed delivering numerous follow-on payloads like StealC and a modified model of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Community Computing (BOINC) consumer.
The malware has additionally been put to make use of by risk actors working e-crime providers like SocGholish (aka FakeUpdates) and LandUpdate808 (aka TAG-124), distributing by way of phishing emails focusing on the economic, authorized, and vitality sectors and faux browser replace prompts.
In a notable twist, latest assault waves have employed the more and more prevalent social engineering tactic referred to as ClickFix to trick website guests into copying and executing malicious JavaScript and PowerShell code. The hyperlinks to ClickFix pages are distributed by way of spam emails.
“Though MintsLoader features solely as a loader with out supplementary capabilities, its main strengths lie in its sandbox and digital machine evasion strategies and a DGA implementation that derives the C2 area based mostly on the day it’s run,” Recorded Future stated.
These options, coupled with obfuscation strategies, allow risk actors to hinder evaluation and complicate detection efforts. The first accountability of the malware is to obtain the next-stage payload from a DGA area over HTTP via a PowerShell script.
GhostWeaver, based on a report from TRAC Labs earlier this February, is designed to keep up persistent communication with its C2 server, generate DGA domains based mostly on a fixed-seed algorithm based mostly on the week quantity and yr, and ship extra payloads within the type of plugins that may steal browser knowledge and manipulate HTML content material.
“Notably, GhostWeaver can deploy MintsLoader as an extra payload by way of its sendPlugin command. Communication between GhostWeaver and its command-and-control (C2) server is secured by means of TLS encryption utilizing an obfuscated, self-signed X.509 certificates embedded instantly inside the PowerShell script, which is leveraged for client-side authentication to the C2 infrastructure,” Recorded Future stated.
The disclosure comes as Kroll revealed makes an attempt made by risk actors to safe preliminary entry by means of an ongoing marketing campaign codenamed CLEARFAKE that leverages ClickFix to lure victims into working MSHTA instructions that in the end deploy the Lumma Stealer malware.
