Cybersecurity researchers have found a brand new malware loader codenamed CountLoader that has been put to make use of by Russian ransomware gangs to ship post-exploitation instruments like Cobalt Strike and AdaptixC2, and a distant entry trojan often called PureHVNC RAT.
“CountLoader is getting used both as a part of an Preliminary Entry Dealer’s (IAB) toolset or by a ransomware affiliate with ties to the LockBit, Black Basta, and Qilin ransomware teams,” Silent Push stated in an evaluation.
Showing in three totally different variations – .NET, PowerShell, and JavaScript – the rising risk has been noticed in a marketing campaign concentrating on people in Ukraine utilizing PDF-based phishing lures and impersonating the Nationwide Police of Ukraine.
It is price noting that the PowerShell model of the malware was beforehand flagged by Kaspersky as being distributed utilizing DeepSeek-related decoys to trick customers into putting in it.
The assaults, per the Russian cybersecurity vendor, led to the deployment of an implant named BrowserVenom that may reconfigure all searching cases to drive visitors by way of a proxy managed by the risk actors, enabling the attackers to control community visitors and gather information.
Silent Push’s investigation has discovered the JavaScript model is essentially the most fleshed out implementation of the loader, providing six totally different strategies for file downloading, three totally different strategies for executing varied malware binaries, and a predefined perform to establish a sufferer’s machine primarily based on Home windows area info.
The malware can also be able to gathering system info, establishing persistence on the host by making a scheduled job that impersonates a Google replace job for the Chrome net browser, and connecting to a distant server to await additional directions.
This consists of the flexibility to obtain and run DLL and MSI installer payloads utilizing rundll32.exe and msiexec.exe, transmit system metadata, and delete the created scheduled job. The six strategies used to obtain information contain the usage of curl, PowerShell, MSXML2.XMLHTTP, WinHTTP.WinHttpRequest.5.1, bitsadmin, and certutil.exe.
“Through the use of LOLBins like ‘certutil’ and ‘bitsadmin,’ and by implementing an ‘on the fly’ command encryption PowerShell generator, CountLoader’s builders display right here a complicated understanding of the Home windows working system and malware growth,” Silent Push stated.
A notable facet of CountLoader is its use of the sufferer’s Music folder as a staging floor for malware. The .NET taste shares some extent of useful crossover with its JavaScript counterpart, however helps solely two several types of instructions (UpdateType.Zip or UpdateType.Exe), indicating a lowered, stripped-down model.
CountLoader is supported by an infrastructure comprising over 20 distinctive domains, with the malware serving as a conduit for Cobalt Strike, AdaptixC2, and PureHVNC RAT, the final of which is a business providing from a risk actor often called PureCoder. It is price mentioning that PureHVNC RAT is a predecessor to PureRAT, which can also be known as ResolverRAT.
Latest campaigns distributing PureHVNC RAT have leveraged the tried-and-tested ClickFix social engineering tactic as a supply vector, with victims lured to the ClickFix phishing web page by way of faux job presents, per Verify Level. The trojan is deployed via a Rust-based loader.
“The attacker lured the sufferer by way of faux job commercials, permitting the attacker to execute malicious PowerShell code by way of the ClickFix phishing method,” the cybersecurity firm stated, describing PureCoder as utilizing a revolving set of GitHub accounts to host information that assist the performance of PureRAT.
Evaluation of the GitHub commits has revealed that exercise was carried out from the timezone UTC+03:00, which corresponds to many international locations, together with Russia, amongst others.
The event comes because the DomainTools Investigations workforce has uncovered the interconnected nature of the Russian ransomware panorama, figuring out risk actor actions throughout teams and the usage of instruments like AnyDesk and Fast Help, suggesting operational overlaps.
“Model allegiance amongst these operators is weak, and human capital seems to be the first asset, relatively than particular malware strains,” DomainTools stated. “Operators adapt to market circumstances, reorganize in response to takedowns, and belief relationships are crucial. These people will select to work with folks they know, whatever the identify of the group.”
