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...

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...

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...

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...

Genesis Market No Longer Feeds The Evil Cookie Monster

Genesis Market No Longer Feeds The Evil Cookie Monster By John Fokker, Ernesto Fernández Provecho and Max Kersten · April 05, 2023 We would like to thank Steen Pedersen and Mo Cashman for their remediation advice. On the 4th and the 5th of April, a law enforcement taskforce spanning agencies acro...

Trellix HAX 2023 Capture the Flag Results!

Trellix HAX 2023 Capture the Flag Results! By Mark Bereza · March 17, 2023 This story was also written by Jesse Chick. All good things must come to an end, and our annual CTF is unfortunately no exception. When this competition began, we asked each of you to try your hand at 12 new challenges –...

Email Cyberattacks on Arab Countries Rise in Lead to Global Football Tournament

Email Cyberattacks on Arab Countries Rise in Lead to Global Football Tournament By Daksh Kapur · November 17, 2022 This story was also written by Sparsh Jain. Figure 1 Global eyes are soon to be turned to the first global football tournament to be held in the Arab world kicking off on November 20...

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...

Breaking the Security Barrier of a Globally Deployed Infusion Pump

ARCHIVED STORY Overmedicated: Breaking the Security Barrier of a Globally Deployed Infusion Pump By Douglas McKee, Steve Povolny and Philippe Laulheret · August 24, 2021 Cyberattacks on medical centers are one of the most despicable forms of cyber threat there is. For instance, on October 28th,...

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...

Tales From the Trenches; a Lockbit Ransomware Story

ARCHIVED STORY Tales From the Trenches; a Lockbit Ransomware Story By ATR Operational Intelligence Team · APR 30, 2020 Co-authored by Marc RiveroLopez. In collaboration with Northwave As we highlighted previously across two blogs, targeted ransomware attacks have increased massively over the past...

CSI Evidence Indicators for Targeted Ransomware Attacks

ARCHIVED STORY CSI: Evidence Indicators for Targeted Ransomware Attacks – Part I By Trellix · Febraury 12, 2020 For many years now I have been working and teaching in the field of digital forensics, malware analysis and threat intelligence. During one of the classes we always talk about Lockard’s...

McAfee ATR Analyzes Sodinokibi aka REvil Ransomware-as-a-Service – Follow The Money

ARCHIVED STORY McAfee ATR Analyzes Sodinokibi aka REvil Ransomware-as-a-Service – Follow The Money By John Fokker · October 14, 2019 Episode 3: Follow the Money This is the third installment of the McAfee Advanced Threat Research ATR analysis of Sodinokibi and its connections to GandCrab, the mos...

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...

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...

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...

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...

From the Shadows to the Headlines: A Decade of State-Sponsored Cyber Leaks

From the Shadows to the Headlines: A Decade of State-Sponsored Cyber Leaks By Ryan Slaney and Emma DeCarli · January 20, 2026 Executive summary The December 2, 2025, publication of a massive leak revealing the inner workings of the IRGC-linked Department 40 a.k.a. APT35, Charming Kitten, and Fres...

Dark Web Roast - September 2025 Edition

Dark Web Roast - September 2025 Edition By Trellix Advanced Research Center · October 14, 2025 Executive Summary September 2025 brought us a delightful buffet of underground incompetence that makes one wonder if cybercriminals are actively competing for the "Most Spectacular Failure" award. From...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

Wipermania: An All You Can Wipe Buffet

Wipermania: An All You Can Wipe Buffet By Trellix · November 15, 2022 This blog was written by Max Kersten In early 2022, Ukrainian companies were struck by multiple destructive wipers, attacking various organizations across sectors. This raised questions about the usage and impact of “digital...

DotDumper: Automatically Unpacking DotNet based Malware

DotDumper: Automatically Unpacking DotNet Based Malware By Max Kersten · August 11, 2022 The automatic detection and classification of any given file in a reliable manner is often considered the holy grail of malware analysis. The trials and tribulations to get there are plenty, which is why the...

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...

5G: The Final Frontier

5G: The Final Frontier This story was written by Kevin Mcgrath · April 7th, 2022 Today Trellix Threat Labs is excited to announce the release of a whitepaper dedicated to 5G and its potential security concerns. As we look at the potential of 5G, we foresee it impacting nearly every facet of digit...

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...

Nation States Will Weaponize Social and Recruit Bad Guys with Benefits in 2022

ARCHIVED STORY Nation States Will Weaponize Social and Recruit Bad Guys with Benefits in 2022 By Raj Samani · October 31, 2021 McAfee Enterprise and FireEye recently released its 2022 Threat Predictions. In this blog, we take a deeper dive into the continuingly aggressive role Nation States will...

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...

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...

APT28’s Stealthy Multi-Stage Campaign Leveraging CVE‑2026‑21509 and Cloud C2 Infrastructure

APT28’s Stealthy Multi-Stage Campaign Leveraging CVE‑2026‑21509 and Cloud C2 Infrastructure By Pham Duy Phuc and Alex Lanstein · February 4, 2026 Updated February 9, 2026: This analysis has been updated to clarify malware naming conventions. Introduction Russian state-sponsored threat group APT28...

The Crown Jewels of Active Directory: How Trellix Helix Detects NTDS.dit Theft

The Crown Jewels of Active Directory: How Trellix Helix Detects NTDS.dit Theft By Adithya Chandra and Maulik Maheta · February 2, 2026 Executive summary Active Directory serves as the central repository for an organization's authentication infrastructure. Malicious actors frequently focus on...

Phobos: Stealthy Ransomware That Operated Under the Radar - Until Now

Phobos: Stealthy Ransomware That Operated Under the Radar - Until Now By Jambul Tologonov, John Fokker and Duy-Phuc Pham · November 20, 2024 On November 18th, the US Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Russian national for allegedly administering the sale, distribution, and...

MacOS Malware Surges as Corporate Usage Grows

MacOS Malware Surges as Corporate Usage Grows By Ilya Kolmanovich, Prashant Kadam and Duy-Phuc Pham · October 30, 2024 This blog was also written by Joe Malenfant and Max Kersten An apple a day keeps the doctor away, While the age-old expression does have its merits, the malware landscape on...

Uncover the Hidden Story of Ransomware Victims – They’re Not Who You Think

Uncover the Hidden Story of Ransomware Victims – They’re Not Who You Think By Trellix Advanced Research Center · July 31, 2023 Ransomware attacks against large corporations often dominate headlines. High-profile attacks against organizations like Kaseya, Colonial Pipeline, and MOVEit might make y...

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”...

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...

2022 Threat Predictions

Trellix 2022 Threat Predictions By Trellix · January 19, 2022 Ransomware, nation states, social media, and a shifting reliance on a remote workforce made headlines in 2021, proving that bad actors only continue to rise to the challenge. Defiantly, they thwart solution stacks and gain momentum eac...

McAfee ATR Thinks in Graphs | McAfee Blogs

ARCHIVED STORY McAfee ATR Thinks in Graphs By Valentine Mairet · MAR 08, 2021 · 19 MIN READ 0. Introduction John Lambert, a distinguished researcher specializing in threat intelligence at Microsoft, once said these words that changed perspectives: “Defenders think in lists. Attackers think in...

Robot Character Analysis Reveals Trust Issues

ARCHIVED STORY Robot Character Analysis Reveals Trust Issues By Douglas McKee · August 05, 2020 Retired Marine fighter pilot and Top Gun instructor Dave Berke said “Every single thing you do in your life, every decision you make, is an OODA Loop.” OODA Loop? Observe–Orient–Decide–Act, the “OODA...

Our Experiences Participating in Microsoft’s Azure Sphere Bounty Program | 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...

Shamoon Attackers Employ New Tool Kit to Wipe Infected Systems

ARCHIVED STORY Shamoon Attackers Employ New Tool Kit to Wipe Infected Systems By Thomas Roccia · December 19, 2018 Last week the McAfee Advanced Threat Research team posted an analysis of a new wave of Shamoon “wiper” malware attacks that struck several companies in the Middle East and Europe. In...

Dark Web Roast - January 2026 Edition

Dark Web Roast - January 2026 Edition By Trellix Advanced Research Center · February 11, 2026 Executive Summary Welcome to January 2026's underground intelligence roundup, where criminal masterminds continue to demonstrate that the phrase "honour among thieves" remains the greatest oxymoron in...

The Bug Report - July 2025 Edition

The Bug Report – July 2025 Edition By Jonathan Omakun and Tola Olawale · August 6, 2025 Why am I here? July usually means barbecues, fireworks and pool parties—but this year, it brought something far more explosive: unauthenticated remote code execution, deserialization chaos, and an old-school...

The Ongoing Saga of Job-Themed Attacks

The Ongoing Saga of Job-Themed Attacks By Daksh Kapur and Alfred Alvarado · January 23, 2024 Figure 1 - Job Themed Cyberattacks Attribution at the Bottom In late 2023, Trellix Security Researchers identified an ongoing trend where cybercriminals exploit job-themed attack vectors to target both jo...

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...

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...

Evolution of BazarCall Social Engineering Tactics

Evolution of BazarCall Social Engineering Tactics By Daksh Kapur · October 6, 2022 What is BazarCall? As nicely defined in this article by Microsoft: BazarCall campaigns forgo malicious links or attachments in email messages in favor of phone numbers that recipients are misled into calling. It’s ...