Kaspersky experts
have uncovered a rare, wide-scale advanced persistent threat (APT) campaign against
users in Southeast Asia, most notably Myanmar and the Philippines. Kaspersky
identified approximately 100 victims in Myanmar and 1,400 in the Philippines,
some of which were government entities. Initial infection occurs via
spear-phishing emails containing a malicious Word document. Once downloaded on
one system, the malware can then spread to other hosts through removable USB
drives.
By nature, APT campaigns are typically highly targeted,
often with no more than a few dozen users targeted with surgical-like
precision. However, Kaspersky recently uncovered a rare, widespread threat
campaign in Southeast Asia.
This cluster of activity,
dubbed LuminousMoth, has been conducting cyberespionage attacks against
government entities since at least October 2020. While initially focusing their
attention on Myanmar, the attackers have since shifted their focus to the
Philippines. The attackers typically gain an initial foothold in the system
through a spear-phishing email with a Dropbox download link. Once clicked, this
link downloads a RAR archive disguised as a Word document that contains the
malicious payload.
Once downloaded on a system, the malware attempts to infect
other hosts by spreading through removable USB drives. If a drive is found, the
malware creates hidden directories on the drive where it then moves all of the
victim's files, along with the malicious executables.
The malware also has two post-exploitation tools that can in
turn be used for lateral movement. One consists of a signed, fake version of
Zoom and another steals cookies from the Chrome browser. Once on the device,
LuminousMoth proceeds to exfiltrate data to the command and control (C2)
server. For the targets in Myanmar, these C2 servers were often domains that
impersonated known news outlets.
Kaspersky experts attribute LuminousMoth to the HoneyMyte threat
group, a well-known, long-standing, Chinese-speaking threat actor, with medium
to high confidence. HoneyMyte is primarily interested in gathering geopolitical
and economic intelligence in Asia and Africa.
"This new cluster of activity might once again point to a
trend we've been witnessing over the course of this year: Chinese-speaking
threat actors re-tooling and producing new and unknown malware implants,"
comments Mark Lechtik, senior security researcher with Kaspersky's Global
Research and Analysis Team (GReAT).
"The massive scale of the attack is quite rare. It's also
interesting that we've seen far more attacks in the Philippines than in
Myanmar. This could be due to the use of USB drives as a spreading mechanism or
there could be yet another infection vector that we're not yet aware of being
used in the Philippines," adds Aseel Kayal, security researcher with
Kaspersky GReAT.
"We're seeing increased activity by Chinese-speaking
threat actors this past year, and this most likely won't be the last of
LuminousMoth. In addition, there's a high chance the group will begin to
further sharpen its toolset. We'll be keeping an eye out for any future
developments," comments Paul Rascagneres, also a senior security researcher
with Kaspersky GReAT.
For more information about LuminousMoth, please visit Securelist.
To stay safe from advanced threat campaigns like
LuminousMoth, Kaspersky experts recommend:
- Providing your staff
with basic cybersecurity hygiene training, as many targeted attacks
start with phishing or other social engineering techniques.
- Carrying out a
cybersecurity audit of your networks and remediate any weaknesses
discovered in the perimeter or inside the network.
- Installing anti-APT and
EDR solutions, enabling threat discovery and detection, investigation and
timely remediation of incidents capabilities. Provide your SOC team with
access to the latest threat intelligence and regularly upskill them with
professional training. All of the above is available within Kaspersky
Expert Security framework.
- That along with proper
endpoint protection, dedicated services can help against high-profile
attacks. The Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response service
can help identify and stop attacks in their early stages, before the
attackers achieve their goals.