We look into the latest tools and techniques used by Confucius, as the threat actor seems to have a new modus operandi, setting up two new websites and new payloads with which to compromise its targets.
Read More In today’s online chat and dating scene, romance scams are not uncommon, what with catfishers and West African cybercriminals potently toying with their victims’ emotions to cash in on their bank accounts. It’s quite odd (and probably underreported), however, to see it used as a vector for cyberespionage.
We stumbled upon the Confucius hacking group while delving into Patchwork’s cyberespionage operations, and found a number of similarities. Code in their custom malware bore similarities, for instance. And like Patchwork, Confucius targeted a particular set of individuals in South Asian countries, such as military personnel and businessmen, among others.
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Patchwork (also known as Dropping Elephant) is a cyberespionage group known for targeting diplomatic and government agencies that has since added businesses to their list of targets. Patchwork’s moniker is from its notoriety for rehashing off-the-rack tools and malware for its own campaigns. The attack vectors they use may not be groundbreaking—what with other groups exploiting zero-days or adjusting their tactics—but the group’s repertoire of infection vectors and payloads makes them a credible threat.
We trailed Patchwork’s activities over the course of its campaigns in 2017. The diversity of their methods is notable—from the social engineering hooks, attack chains, and backdoors they deployed. They’ve also joined the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Windows Script Component (SCT) abuse bandwagons and started exploiting recently reported vulnerabilities. These imply they’re at least keeping an eye on other threats and security flaws that they can repurpose for their own ends. Also of note are its attempts to be more cautious and efficient in their operations.
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