No symbols? No problem!

No symbols? No problem! By Trellix · August 9, 2024 This blog was written by Max Kersten Malware analysts know it all too well: the ominous feeling that washes over you when opening an unknown file in your favorite analysis tool and being greeted with hundreds or thousands of unknown functions,...

OneDrive Pastejacking

OneDrive Pastejacking: The crafty phishing and downloader campaign By Rafael Pena · July 29, 2024 Over the past few weeks, the Trellix Advanced Research Center has observed a sophisticated Phishing/downloader campaign targeting Microsoft OneDrive users. This campaign heavily relies on social...

Saints Turned Evil

Saints Turned Evil By Sushant Kumar Arya, Daksh Kapur and Rohan Shah · January 02, 2024 Attribution at the Bottom As technology advances, attackers are constantly developing new evasion mechanisms to bypass security products and stay one step ahead of security vendors and their products. We have...

Industrial and Manufacturing CVEs: Addressing the SCADA in the Room

Industrial and Manufacturing CVEs: Addressing the SCADA in the Room By Trellix · May 22, 2023 This blog was written by Charles McFarland The industrial and manufacturing spaces are critical to the global economy. They produce the goods and services we rely on every day, from food and clothing to...

GuLoader: The NSIS Vantage Point

GuLoader: The NSIS Vantage Point By Nico Paulo Yturriaga · January 24, 2023 GuLoader is an advanced shellcode downloader infamous for using anti-analysis tricks to evade detection and obstruct reverse engineering. As of this writing, the GuLoader campaign is aggressively ongoing. Trellix’s...

A Door Isn’t a Door When It’s Ajar - Part 3

A Door Isn’t a Door When It’s Ajar - Part III By Trellix · August 25, 2022 This story was also written by Steve Povolny and Sam Quinn Contents Installing OnGuard by Third Party Vendor Exploitation and Hacking the Planet! Putting it all Together Building the Final Demo System The Demo Lessons and...

Nation-State Crosshairs: Australia, India & Japan

In The Nation-State Crosshairs: Australia, India & Japan By Trellix · March 28, 2022 Today Trellix and the Center for Strategic and International Studies CSIS released a global report, In the Crosshairs: Organizations and Nation-State Cyber Threats, examining security professionals’ mindsets...

Suspected DarkHotel APT Activity Update

Suspected DarkHotel APT activity update One Hotel to rule them all, One Hotel to find them, One Hotel to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. By John Fokker · March 17, 2022 This story was also written by Thibault Seret Introduction: Our advanced threat research team has discovered a...

Beyond Clubhouse: Vulnerable Agora SDKs Still in Widespread Use | McAfee Blogs

Beyond Clubhouse: Vulnerable Agora SDKs Still in Widespread Use Steve Povolny · FEB 18, 2021 On February 17th, 2021, McAfee disclosed findings based on a 10-month long disclosure process with major video conferencing vendor Agora, Inc. As we disclosed the findings to Agora in April 2020, this...

Triton Malware Spearheads Latest Attacks on Industrial Systems | McAfee Blogs

ARCHIVED STORY Triton Malware Spearheads Latest Attacks on Industrial Systems Alexandre Mundo · MAR 26, 2020 Malware that attacks industrial control systems ICS, such as the Stuxnet campaign in 2010, is a serious threat. This class of cyber sabotage can spy on, disrupt, or destroy systems that...

Ransomware Maze

ARCHIVED STORY Ransomware Maze Alexandre Mundo · MAR 26, 2020 Overview The Maze ransomware, previously known in the community as “ChaCha ransomware”, was discovered on May the 29th 2019 by Jerome Segura1. The main goal of the ransomware is to crypt all files that it can in an infected system and...

HVACking: Understanding the Delta Between Security and Reality

ARCHIVED STORY HVACking: Understanding the Delta Between Security and Reality By Douglas McKee · August 09, 2019 The McAfee Labs Advanced Threat Research team is committed to uncovering security issues in both software and hardware to help developers provide safer products for businesses and...

Avaya Deskphone: Decade-Old Vulnerability Found in Phone's Firmware

ARCHIVED STORY Avaya Deskphone: Decade-Old Vulnerability Found in Phone’s Firmware By Philippe Laulheret · August 08, 2019 Avaya is the second largest VOIP solution provider source with an install base covering 90% of the Fortune 100 companies source, with products targeting a wide spectrum of...

LockerGoga Ransomware Family Used in Targeted Attacks

ARCHIVED STORY LockerGoga Ransomware Family Used in Targeted Attacks By ATR Operational Intelligence Team · April 29, 2019 Co-authored by Marc RiveroLopez. Initial discovery Once again, we have seen a significant new ransomware family in the news. LockerGoga, which adds new features to the tried...

How A Simple Misconfiguration Can Fuel Offline Attacker Tools

How A Simple Misconfiguration Can Fuel Offline Attacker Tools By Grant McDonald · April 9, 2026 It’s no secret that misconfigurations are a gateway for attackers. But that doesn’t mean misconfigurations won’t happen or that attackers won’t attempt to exploit them. In the latest research from our...

The Ghost SPN Attack: Catching Stealthy Kerberoasting Before It's Too Late Using Trellix NDR

The Ghost SPN Attack: Catching Stealthy Kerberoasting Before It's Too Late Using Trellix NDR By Maulik Maheta and Henry Bernabe · March 23, 2026 Executive summary As organizations adopt an identity-first security posture, adversaries are increasingly exploiting the "identity fabric” using...

The Iranian Cyber Capability 2026

The Iranian Cyber Capability 2026 By John Fokker and Ernesto Fernández Provecho · March 5, 2026 Introduction In 2024, we published an assessment of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s cyber capabilities, outlining the structure, tradecraft, and strategic intent of Iranian-aligned threat actors. The co...

XWorm V6: Exploring Pivotal Plugins

XWorm V6: Exploring Pivotal Plugins By Niranjan Hegde and Sijo Jacob · October 2, 2025 Introduction In the constantly evolving world of cyber threats, staying informed is not just an advantage; it's a necessity. First observed in 2022, XWorm quickly gained notoriety as a highly effective malware,...

The Silent, Fileless Threat of VShell

The Silent, Fileless Threat of VShell By Sagar Bade · August 21, 2025 Introduction Linux environments are often seen as bastions of security, favored by developers, sysadmins, and security professionals for their stability, transparency, and resistance to malware. Compared to Windows, the attack...

Hacktivist Groups: The Shadowy Links to Nation-State Agendas

Hacktivist Groups: The Shadowy Links to Nation-State Agendas By Ernesto Fernández Provecho · December 16, 2024 Introduction Hacktivism, the intersection of hacking and activism, has emerged as a potent force in the digital age. It involves using technology to achieve social or political goals,...

Exploring New Techniques of Fake Browser Updates Leading to NetSupport RAT

Exploring New Techniques of Fake Browser Updates Leading to NetSupport RAT By Jonell Baltazar · August 10, 2023 This blog was also written by Antonio Ribeiro Trellix detected an ongoing campaign using fake Chrome browser updates to lure victims to install a remote administration software tool...

Exploring New Techniques of Fake Browser Updates Leading to NetSupport RAT

Exploring New Techniques of Fake Browser Updates Leading to NetSupport RAT By Jonell Baltazar and Antonio Ribeiro · August 10, 2023 Trellix detected an ongoing campaign using fake Chrome browser updates to lure victims to install a remote administration software tool called NetSupport Manager...

Trucking on with DotDumper

Trucking on with DotDumper By Max Kersten · May 11, 2023 On the 11th of August 2022, the initial public version of DotDumper was released. A brief refresh: DotDumper is an open-source automatic unpacker for DotNet Framework targeting files. This blog marks a public update which supports unmanaged...

Dismantling a Prolific Cybercriminal Empire: REvil Arrests and Reemergence

Dismantling a Prolific Cybercriminal Empire: REvil Arrests and Reemergence By John Fokker · September 29, 2022 We’ve recently seen reports that the REvil ransomware gang is back online after the January 2022 arrests of several its members by Russian authorities claiming to dismantle the group and...

Get to Know Anne An

Meet Anne An Senior Security Researcher By Trellix · August 25, 2022 This blog was written by Michael Alicea At Trellix, we celebrate and champion our people. I’ve been hearing a lot recently about one of my colleagues, Anne An. My sources tell me she is a highly technical and “intuitive”...

A Door Isn’t a Door When It’s Ajar - Part 2

A Door Isn’t a Door When It’s Ajar - Part II By Trellix · August 18, 2022 This story was also written by Steve Povolny and Sam Quinn Contents Introduction Software Hacking Software Hacking Shopping List Vulnerabilities Discovered CVE-2022-31479: Command injection via the web interface Vulnerable...

Get To Know John Fokker

Meet John Fokker Head of Cyber Investigations for Trellix Threat Labs By Michael Alicea · April 28, 2022 At Trellix, we celebrate and champion our people. This week, I sat down with John Fokker, Head of Cyber Investigations for Trellix Threat Labs and one of the leading cybersecurity experts in t...

Keeping A Critical Eye on IoT Devices

Keeping a Critical Eye on IoT Devices By Sam Quinn · April 21, 2022 Trellix Labs is excited to announce the beginning of a new video series which captures one of our senior vulnerability researchers work on hacking an IoT device from beginning to end. This will conclude with the releasing of a ne...

Trellix Global Defenders: BlackCat Ransomware as a Service - The Cat is certainly out of the bag!

Trellix Global Defenders: BlackCat Ransomware as a Service - The Cat is certainly out of the bag! By Trellix · February 8, 2022 Research Contributions and Analysis: Filippo Sitzia This story was written by Arnab Roy Threat Summary Blackcat also known as ALPHV/Noberus is a Ransomware as a Service...

BlackMatter Ransomware Analysis; The Dark Side Returns

ARCHIVED STORY BlackMatter Ransomware Analysis; The Dark Side Returns By Alexandre Mundo and Marc Elias · September 22, 2021 BlackMatter is a new ransomware threat discovered at the end of July 2021. This malware started with a strong group of attacks and some advertising from its developers that...

Detecting Credential Stealing Attacks Through Active In-Network Defense

ARCHIVED STORY Detecting Credential Stealing Attacks Through Active In-Network Defense By Trellix · September 22, 2021 This blog was written by Chintan Shah Executive Summary Today, enterprises tend to use multiple layers of security defenses, ranging from perimeter defense on network entry point...

Operation North Star: Behind The Scenes | McAfee Blogs

ARCHIVED STORY Operation North Star: Behind The Scenes Christiaan Beek · NOV 05, 2020 Executive Summary It is rare to be provided an inside view on how major cyber espionage campaigns are conducted within the digital realm. The only transparency afforded is a limited view of victims, a malware...

Securing Space 4.0 – One Small Step or a Giant Leap? - Part 2

ARCHIVED STORY Securing Space 4.0 – One Small Step or a Giant Leap? Part 2 By Eoin Carroll · September 30, 2020 McAfee Advanced Threat Research ATR is collaborating with Cork Institute of Technology CIT and its Blackrock Castle Observatory BCO and the National Space Center in Cork, Ireland. In th...

CSI: Evidence Indicators for Targeted Ransomware Attacks - Part II | McAfee Blogs

CSI: Evidence Indicators for Targeted Ransomware Attacks – Part II Christiaan Beek · FEB 20, 2020 In our first article we discussed the growing pattern of targeted ransomware attacks where the first infection stage is often an info-stealer kind of malware used to gain credentials/access to...

We Be Jammin’ – Bypassing Chamberlain myQ Garage Doors

ARCHIVED STORY We Be Jammin’ – Bypassing Chamberlain myQ Garage Doors Sam Quinn · JAN 06, 2020 The idea of controlling your garage door remotely and verifying that everything is secure at home, or having packages delivered directly into your garage is enticing for many people. The convenience tha...

IoT Zero-Days – Is Belkin WeMo Smart Plug the Next Malware Target?

ARCHIVED STORY IoT Zero-Days – Is Belkin WeMo Smart Plug the Next Malware Target? By Steve Povolny · April 18, 2019 Effective malware is typically developed with intention, targeting specific victims using either known or unknown vulnerabilities to achieve its primary functions. In this blog, we...

Introducing pywintrace: A Python Wrapper for ETW

ARCHIVED STORY Introducing pywintrace: A Python Wrapper for ETW By Anthony Berglund, Kevin Boyd · September 19, 2017 Introduction Event tracing for Windows ETW is a lightweight logging facility first introduced with Windows 2000. Originally intended as a software diagnostic, troubleshooting and...

‘Popcorn Time’ Ransomware Sure to Cause Indigestion

ARCHIVED STORY ‘Popcorn Time’ Ransomware Sure to Cause Indigestion By Tim Hux · December 19, 2016 In early December the new ransomware “Popcorn Time” was discovered. It gives the victim the option of paying the ransom or infecting two other individuals and getting them to pay. “Popcorn Time” is a...

PureRAT: A Multi-Stage, Fileless RAT Utilizing Image Steganography and Process Hollowing

PureRAT: A Multi-Stage, Fileless RAT Utilizing Image Steganography and Process Hollowing By Prashanth A N and Mallikarjun Wali · April 20, 2026 PureRAT is an advanced remote access trojan RAT characterized by its complex infection stages. The intrusion sequence is initiated by a malicious .LNK fi...

Masjesu Rising: The Commercial IoT Botnet Built for Stealth, DDoS, and IoT Evasion

Masjesu Rising: The Commercial IoT Botnet Built for Stealth, DDoS, and IoT Evasion By Mohideen Abdul Khader F · April 7, 2026 Botnet overview The Masjesu botnet, a sophisticated, commercially-run Internet of Things IoT threat, has been operational and evolving since early 2023, continuing into...

The Bug Report - January 2026 Edition

The Bug Report – January 2026 Edition By Jonathan Omakun · February 12, 2026 Why am I here? Welcome back to The Bug Report, the post-holiday edition, where we realize that while our resolutions to "go to the gym" have already failed, hackers’ resolutions to "break everything" are going strong. Fo...

How Trellix Helix detects AS-REP Roasting in Active Directory

How Trellix Helix detects AS-REP Roasting in Active Directory By Adithya Chandra and Maulik Maheta · November 13, 2025 Executive Summary Adversaries use AS-REP Roasting to extract and crack password hashes from Active Directory AD accounts with Kerberos preauthentication disabled, a...

Dark Web Roast - August 2025 Edition

Dark Web Roast - August 2025 Edition By Trellix Advanced Research Center · September 18, 2025 Executive Summary August 2025 delivered a masterclass in cybercriminal incompetence that would make amateur hour look professional. From racist social engineering recruiters who prioritize race over actu...

Trellix 2024 Threat Predictions

Trellix 2024 Threat Predictions By Trellix · October 30, 2023 Introduction This last year we have seen upheaval across the cybersecurity landscape. The need for effective, worldwide threat intelligence continues to grow as geopolitical and economic developments create an increasingly complicated...

Rhysida Ransomware

Rhysida Ransomware By Leandro Velasco · October 9, 2023 This blog was also written by Alexandre Mundo and Max Kersten New ransomware victims are made every day by ransom gangs with a variety of ransomware malware families, one of which is the Rhysida ransomware family. Within this blog, an...

ICYMI: Emotet Reappeared Early This Year, Unfortunately

ICYMI: Emotet Reappeared Early This Year, Unfortunately By Adithya Chandra, Joao Marques, and Raghav Kapoor · September 1, 2023 Executive Summary Emotet first appeared in 2014 and continues to be a dangerous and resilient malware, despite attempts by law enforcement agencies to take it down in...

The Hermit Kingdom’s Ransomware Play

The Hermit Kingdom’s Ransomware play By Trellix · May 3, 2022 With a special thanks to @ValidHorizon who helped and shared information In February 2016, news broke about what is now known as the ‘Bangladesh Bank Heist’. Hackers attempted to transfer nearly one billion USD through the SWIFT system...

Trellix Launches Annual CTF Competition – Catmen Sanfrancisco!

Trellix Launches Annual CTF Competition – Catmen Sanfrancisco! By Trellix · February 1, 2022 This story was written by Steve Povolny. The Advanced Threat Research team, now with Trellix, is pleased to announce the return of our second annual Capture the Flag contest featuring 12 new challenges of...

Trellix Launches Annual CTF Competition – Catmen Sanfrancisco!

Trellix Launches Annual CTF Competition – Catmen Sanfrancisco! By Trellix · February 1, 2022 This story was written by Steve Povolny. The Advanced Threat Research team, now with Trellix, is pleased to announce the return of our second annual Capture the Flag contest featuring 12 new challenges of...

Is There Really Such a Thing as a Low-Paid Ransomware Operator?

ARCHIVED STORY Is There Really Such a Thing as a Low-Paid Ransomware Operator? By Thibault Seret · October 18, 2021 Introduction Going by recent headlines you could be forgiven for thinking all ransomware operators are raking in millions of ill-gotten dollars each year from their nefarious...