Attacks on SWIFT Banking System Benefit From Insider Knowledge

ARCHIVED STORY Attacks on SWIFT Banking System Benefit From Insider Knowledge By Trellix · May 20, 2016 In recent months, we’ve seen headlines about the compromise of a bank in Bangladesh from which cybercriminals attempted to steal US$951 million. The malware they used was able to manipulate and...

Attacks on SWIFT Banking System Benefit From Insider Knowledge

ARCHIVED STORY Attacks on SWIFT Banking System Benefit From Insider Knowledge By Trellix · May 20, 2016 In recent months, we’ve seen headlines about the compromise of a bank in Bangladesh from which cybercriminals attempted to steal US$951 million. The malware they used was able to manipulate and...

Technical Deep Dive: The Monero Mining Campaign

Technical Deep Dive: The Monero Mining Campaign By Aswath A · February 17, 2026 Executive summary In the contemporary threat landscape, while ransomware grabs headlines with high-impact disruptions, cryptojacking operations have quietly evolved into sophisticated, persistent threats. This report...

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...

The Coordinated Embassy Hunt: Unmasking the DPRK-linked GitHub C2 Espionage Campaign

The Coordinated Embassy Hunt: Unmasking the DPRK-linked GitHub C2 Espionage Campaign By Pham Duy Phuc and Alex Lanstein · August 18, 2025 The Trellix Advanced Research Center uncovered a sophisticated espionage operation targeting diplomatic missions across several regions in South Korea during...

Critical SharePoint Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation

Critical SharePoint Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation By Jeffrey Sman, Mo Cashman and Marc Bolz Robinson · July 23, 2025 On-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers are currently facing high-impact, ongoing threat activity due to a set of critical vulnerabilities, notably CVE-2025-49704,...

Info Stealing Campaign Uses DLL Sideloading Through Legitimate Cisco Webex’s Binaries for Initial Execution and Defense Evasion

Info Stealing Campaign Uses DLL Sideloading Through Legitimate Cisco Webex’s Binaries for Initial Execution and Defense Evasion By Ale Houspanossian · June 17, 2024 Case Summary It was a quiet Monday morning in March 2024 when the EDR researchers with our Trellix Advanced Research Center identifi...

Supply Chain Security Leaders Collaborate to Help Developers Choose Open-Source

Supply Chain Security Leaders Collaborate to Help Developers Choose Open-Source By Trellix, Checkmarx and Illustria · September 05, 2023 Working together to keep open source safe At the beginning of 2023, top researchers from industry-leading companies established the Supply Chain Attack Research...

AI is the Solution, Not the Problem

AI is the Solution, Not the Problem By Trellix · August 07, 2023 This story was also written by Oded Margalit. AI Artificial Intelligence / ML Machine Learning has recently been painted as the master evil. In this blog I would like to suggest a different view, where we can use it to make a better...

ChatGPT: A tool for offensive cyber operations?! Not so fast!

ChatGPT: A tool for offensive cyber operations?! Not so fast! By Trellix · March 09, 2023 This story was also written by John Rodriguez. To ChatGPT or to not ChatGPT? That is a predominant question in the cyber landscape these days. It’s no surprise that AI bots have taken society by storm. On th...

Trellix HAX 2023 CTF Competition

Trellix HAX 2023 CTF Competition Now Open for Registration! By Mark Bereza · February 17, 2023 This story was also written by John Dunlap. Introduction Trellix’s Advanced Research Center is happy to announce the launch of Trellix HAX 2023, our third annual capture the flag CTF competition! With 1...

No More Macros? Better Watch Your Search Results!

No More Macros? Better Watch Your Search Results! By Pham Duy Phuc and Max Kersten · February 08, 2023 Threat actors often rely on the same techniques until their hand is forced, usually due to defensive changes or chance-based opportunities, to leverage a new technique. Malicious macros in...

LockBit3.0: A Threat that Persists

LockBit3.0: A Threat that Persists By Trellix · November 17, 2022 This blog was written by Alexandre Mundo LockBit is a very well-known family of ransomware that has created havoc worldwide over the last few years. In March 2022, a new variant of the ransomware was discovered. The LockBit3.0...

Wipermania: An All You Can Wipe Buffet

Wipermania: An All You Can Wipe Buffet By Max Kersten · November 15, 2022 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 weapons” within the security...

Get to Know Fred House

Meet Fred House Senior Director, Product Detection and Research By Michael Alicea · July 12, 2022 At Trellix, we celebrate and champion our people. For a long time now, I’ve been looking forward to connecting with Fred House, a Senior Director at Trellix Threat Labs and a consummate and “driven”...

The Sound of Malware

The Sound of Malware By Trellix · June 23, 2022 Do, a debugger, you often use Re, a reverse engineer Mi, a name, I call myself Anyways…. By now, you must be very thankful I reminded you of this famous song; I am sure it will be stuck in your head the rest of the day. You’re welcome! Confused on h...

Get to Know Patrick Flynn

Meet Patrick Flynn Head of Advanced Programs Group at Trellix Threat Labs By Trellix · May 24, 2022 This blog was written by Michael Alicea At Trellix, we celebrate and champion our people. This week, I sat down with Pat Flynn, Head of Advanced Programs Group for Trellix Threat Labs. His job is a...

Get to Know Steve Povolny

Meet Steve Povolny Head of Advanced Threat Research for Trellix Threat Labs By Trellix · May 17, 2022 This blog was written by Michael Alicea At Trellix, we celebrate and champion our people. This week, I sat down with Steve Povolny, Head of Advanced Threat Research for Trellix Threat Labs. As he...

Executive Summary: Organizations and Nation-State Cyber Threats

Executive Summary: Organizations and Nation-State Cyber Threats By John Fokker · March 28, 2022 Traditionally when we talk about threat actors, we first need to make the split between cybercrime and nation-state sponsored operations. Where cybercrime is mostly focused on financial gain,...

PlugX: A Talisman to Behold

PlugX: A Talisman to Behold By Max Kersten, Marc Elias, Leandro Velasco, and Alexandre Mundo Alguacil · March 28, 2022 For over a decade, the PlugX malware has been observed internationally with different variants found around the world. This blog covers a PlugX variant that we have named Talisma...

Cyberattacks Targeting Ukraine and HermeticWiper Protections

Trellix Global Defenders: Cyberattacks Targeting Ukraine and HermeticWiper Protections By Taylor Mullins · February 28, 2022 Trellix is monitoring the ongoing cyberattacks targeting the Ukraine and any threat activity targeting entities outside of the Ukraine. Trellix is continuing to add...

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...

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 Chintan Shah · September 22, 2021 Executive Summary Today, enterprises tend to use multiple layers of security defenses, ranging from perimeter defense on network entry points to host based security solution...

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...

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...

Dopple-Ganging Up on Facial Recognition

ARCHIVED STORY Dopple-ganging up on Facial Recognition Systems By Steve Povolny · August 25, 2020 Co-authored with Jesse Chick, OSU Senior and Former McAfee Intern, Primary Researcher. Special thanks to Dr. Catherine Huang, McAfee Advanced Analytics Team Special thanks to Kyle Baldes, Former McAf...

My Adventures Hacking the iParcelBox

ARCHIVED STORY My Adventures Hacking the iParcelBox By Sam Quinn · June 18, 2020 In 2019, McAfee Advanced Threat Research ATR disclosed a vulnerability in a product called BoxLock. Sometime after this, the CEO of iParcelBox, a U.K. company, reached out to us and offered to send a few of their...

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...

Introduction and Application of Model Hacking

ARCHIVED STORY Introduction and Application of Model Hacking By Steve Povolny · Febraury 19, 2020 Catherine Huang, Ph.D., and Shivangee Trivedi contributed to this blog. The term “Adversarial Machine Learning” AML is a mouthful! The term describes a research field regarding the study and design o...

Spanish MSSP Targeted by BitPaymer Ransomware

ARCHIVED STORY Spanish MSSP Targeted by BitPaymer Ransomware By ATR Operational Intelligence Team · November 08, 2019 Co-authored by Marc RiveroLopez Initial Discovery This week the news hit that several companies in Spain were hit by a ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks themselves are not new...

McAfee ATR Analyzes Sodinokibi aka REvil Ransomware-as-a-Service - Crescendo

McAfee ATR Analyzes Sodinokibi aka REvil Ransomware-as-a-Service – Crescendo By Jessica Saavedra-Morales · October 20, 2019 Episode 4: Crescendo This is the final installment of the McAfee Advanced Threat Research ATR analysis of Sodinokibi and its connections to GandGrab, the most prolific...

McAfee ATR Analyzes Sodinokibi aka REvil Ransomware-as-a-Service - Crescendo

McAfee ATR Analyzes Sodinokibi aka REvil Ransomware-as-a-Service – Crescendo By Jessica Saavedra-Morales · October 20, 2019 Episode 4: Crescendo This is the final installment of the McAfee Advanced Threat Research ATR analysis of Sodinokibi and its connections to GandGrab, the most prolific...

Mr. Coffee with WeMo: Double Roast

ARCHIVED STORY Mr. Coffee with WeMo: Double Roast By Sam Quinn · May 30, 2019 McAfee Advanced Threat Research recently released a blog detailing a vulnerability in the Mr. Coffee Coffee Maker with WeMo. Please refer to the earlier blog to catch up with the processes and techniques I used to...

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...

Turf Wars vs. Supply Chains: The Great Divergence in State Cyber Threats

Turf Wars vs. Supply Chains: The Great Divergence in State Cyber Threats By Ryan Slaney and Emma DeCarli · February 18, 2026 For years, the cybersecurity community has treated advanced persistent threat APT groups as monoliths. We assumed that if we found a specific Russian tool, we were fighting...

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...

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...

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...

Hiding in Plain Sight: Multi-Actor ahost.exe Attacks

Hiding in Plain Sight: Deconstructing the Multi-Actor DLL Sideloading Campaign abusing ahost.exe By Mallikarjun Wali and Mohideen Abdul Khader · January 14, 2026 Executive summary The Trellix Advanced Research Center has uncovered an active malware campaign that exploits a DLL sideloading...

SideWinder's Shifting Sands: Click Once for Espionage

SideWinder's Shifting Sands: Click Once for Espionage By Ernesto Fernández Provecho and Pham Duy Phuc · October 22, 2025 In September 2025, the Trellix Advanced Research Center ARC detected a campaign targeting a European embassy located in New Delhi, India. Further investigation led to the...

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...

The Growing Threat of Vishing: How Cybercriminals Are Using Multimedia to Target You

The Growing Threat of Vishing: How Cybercriminals Are Using Multimedia to Target You By Mark Joseph Marti and Sandra Pagkaliwagan · May 8, 2025 Introduction Imagine being hacked through a phone call, and you can't even complain because you were the one who provided your sensitive information or...

AIOps - Revolutionizing Incident Management with Advanced Automation and LLM Integration

AIOps - Revolutionizing Incident Management with Advanced Automation and LLM Integration By Trellix · November 14, 2024 Contributed by Chalapathy Jampal, Siddhesh Shinde, Alagiri Annadurai, Lakshmi Ram Teja Eluri and Anil Pokhrel Managing infrastructure and applications across a complex IT...

New Stealer Uses Invalid Cert To Compromise Systems

New Stealer Uses Invalid Cert To Compromise Systems By Mohinder Gill, Mallikarjun Wali and Sangram Mohapatro · November 07, 2024 A new Stealer has been making the rounds. Its name: Fickle. Fickle Stealer is a new Rust-based information stealer that spreads through various attack vectors, includin...

Discord, I Want to Play a Game

Discord, I Want to Play a Game By Ernesto Fernández Provecho and David Pastor Sanz Threatray · October 16, 2023 Discord is the first choice for gamers when they want to chat with some friends while playing an online computer game. Moreover, it is also a major choice for users that simply want to...

Read The Manual Locker: A Private RaaS Provider

Read The Manual Locker: A Private RaaS Provider By Trellix · April 13, 2023 This blog was written by Max Kersten The underground intelligence was obtained byN074B07. Another day, another ransomware-as-a-service RaaS provider, or so it seems. We’ve observed the “Read The Manual” RTM Locker gang,...