A recent phishing campaign, attributed to a Russian-speaking threat actor, has been exposed by researchers at Hunt.io. This campaign utilizes Cloudflare services and Telegram for malicious purposes, showcasing a sophisticated and potentially damaging operation that seeks to deceive unsuspecting victims.
The attackers behind this campaign have been employing Cloudflare’s Pages.dev and Workers.dev platforms – typically used for legitimate static website hosting and serverless JavaScript execution – to deliver phishing lures. By impersonating Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices, the phishing pages pressure individuals into downloading files that appear to be harmless PDFs but are, in fact, malicious Windows shortcut (.lnk) files.
Upon execution, these malicious files trigger a malware infection chain, starting with a PowerShell script that downloads additional payloads from a compromised server. These payloads include a ZIP archive containing Python-based malware and a legitimate Python executable. The malware establishes persistence by creating shortcuts in the Windows startup folder and communicates with Pyramid Command-and-Control (C2) servers, exhibiting incremental changes in the delivery mechanism to evade detection.
One notable development in this campaign is the integration of Telegram for enhanced tracking of victims. The malware sends the external IP address of infected hosts to an attacker-controlled Telegram bot, allowing for monitoring and coordination of operations. Despite these advanced tactics, the attackers have shown lapses in operational security, leaving open directories exposed on their servers, which researchers have leveraged to gain insight into their infrastructure and activities.
Over 20 domains utilizing these open directories have been identified, highlighting the scale of this malicious operation. This underscores the abuse of trusted platforms like Cloudflare and Telegram by cybercriminals to disguise their activities and avoid detection. The use of legitimate services not only lends credibility to the phishing pages but also creates challenges in identifying malicious behavior.
Security teams are advised to maintain vigilance against abuse involving Cloudflare domains and protocol handlers, as well as scrutinize Telegram-based communications for signs of malicious activity. As threat actors continuously evolve their tactics, organizations must adapt their defenses to combat the risks posed by increasingly sophisticated phishing campaigns.
In conclusion, this phishing campaign serves as a stark reminder of the ingenuity and persistence of cybercriminals in leveraging legitimate services to carry out malicious activities. It underscores the importance of proactive security measures and the need for organizations to stay ahead of evolving threats in the digital landscape.
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