New Cross-Platform Malware KTLVdoor Discovered in Attack on Chinese Trading Firm

The Chinese-speaking threat actor known as Earth Lusca has been observed using a new backdoor dubbed KTLVdoor as part of a cyber attack targeting an unnamed trading company based in China. The previously unreported malware is written in Golang, and thus is a cross-platform weapon capable of...

Earth Lusca Uses KTLVdoor Backdoor for Multiplatform Intrusion

While monitoring Earth Lusca, we discovered the threat group’s use of KTLVdoor, a highly obfuscated multiplatform backdoor, as part of a large-scale attack campaign...

Earth Lusca Uses Geopolitical Lure to Target Taiwan Before Elections

During our monitoring of Earth Lusca, we noticed a new campaign that used Chinese-Taiwanese relations as a social engineering lure to infect selected targets...

Chinese Hackers Target Semiconductor Firms in East Asia with Cobalt Strike

Threat actors have been observed targeting semiconductor companies in East Asia with lures masquerading as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company TSMC that are designed to deliver Cobalt Strike beacons. The intrusion set, per EclecticIQ, leverages a backdoor called HyperBro, which is then use...

Attacks, Vulnerabilities and Actors 18 September to 24 September 2023

For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Summary HiveForce Labs has recently made several significant discoveries related to cybersecurity threats. Over the past week, we identified a total of eight executed attacks, five instance of adversary activity, and eleven vulnerabilities...

Earth Lusca's New SprySOCKS Linux Backdoor Targets Government Entities

The China-linked threat actor known as Earth Lusca has been observed targeting government entities using a never-before-seen Linux backdoor called SprySOCKS. Earth Lusca was first documented by Trend Micro in January 2022, detailing the adversary's attacks against public and private sector entiti...

Earth Lusca Employs New Linux Backdoor, Uses Cobalt Strike for Lateral Movement

While monitoring Earth Lusca, we discovered an intriguing, encrypted file on the threat actor's server — a Linux-based malware, which appears to originate from the open-source Windows backdoor Trochilus, which we've dubbed SprySOCKS due to its swift behavior and SOCKS implementation...

Chinese Hackers Target Taiwanese Financial Institutions with a new Stealthy Backdoor

A Chinese advanced persistent threat APT group has been targeting Taiwanese financial institutions as part of a "persistent campaign" that lasted for at least 18 months. The intrusions, whose primary intent was espionage, resulted in the deployment of a backdoor called xPack, granting the adversa...

Earth Lusca Hackers Aimed at High-Value Targets in Government and Private Sectors

An elusive threat actor called Earth Lusca has been observed striking organizations across the world as part of what appears to be simultaneously an espionage campaign and an attempt to reap monetary profits. "The list of its victims includes high-value targets such as government and educational...

Earth Lusca Employs Sophisticated Infrastructure, Varied Tools and Techniques

Our technical brief provides an in-depth look at Earth Lusca’s activities, the tools it employs in attacks, and the infrastructure it uses...