Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Malware & Threats

China Cybergang Using Hacking Team Exploits Against Financial Firm

Emissary Panda Using Hacking Team Exploits to Deliver RAT

The Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as Emissary Panda and Threat Group 3390 has been using Hacking Team’s Flash Player exploits in its operations.

Emissary Panda Using Hacking Team Exploits to Deliver RAT

The Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as Emissary Panda and Threat Group 3390 has been using Hacking Team’s Flash Player exploits in its operations.

According to Zscaler, the group leveraged the CVE-2015-5119 vulnerability to target a major financial services firm. While it has not been named, Zscaler told SecurityWeek that the targeted organization is a multi-national financial services firm with locations across Europe, Middle East and Asia.

“The main motive of this group is to monitor and exfiltrate intellectual property data from the target organization,” Zscaler researchers explained in a blog post.

The attack targeting the financial services firm started with a spear phishing message containing a malicious URL. The link pointed to a server in Hong Kong set up to host the Hacking Team Flash Player exploit. The attackers attempted to use the exploit to install a variant of the HttpBrowser remote access Trojan (RAT) hosted on the same Hong Kong-based server, which has also been used for command and control (C&C).

HttpBrowser RAT, a piece of malware that is highly popular among APT groups, leverages a legitimate digitally signed executable from Symantec to decrypt and run the RAT payload without being detected.

The financial services firm targeted by the cyber espionage group is a Zscaler customer and the security company said it blocked the attack before any damage was caused.

Zscaler told SecurityWeek that Emissary Panda has also leveraged another Hacking Team Flash Player exploit (CVE-2015-5123) in its operations. According to the company, the attack on the financial services firm was not an isolated incident — Zscaler plans on releasing additional research in the upcoming days.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Several exploits were leaked online after the Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team suffered a data breach, and Emissary Panda is not the only APT actor to use the spyware maker’s exploits.

The Chinese group known as Wekby (APT 18) has also used at least one of the exploits to deliver Gh0st RAT. Cyber espionage groups such as Pawn Storm, APT3 and Darkhotel have also leveraged Hacking Team’s exploits in their campaigns.

A report published earlier this month by Dell’s SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit revealed that Emissary Panda has become more selective when it comes to data exfiltration.

The group has targeted a wide range of companies over the past years, including automobile, electronics, aircraft, pharmaceutical, and oil and gas manufacturers. Up until recently, the threat actor stole all the information it could find on compromised networks, but now it has changed its tactics and only takes what it believes to be more valuable.

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Malware & Threats

The NSA and FBI warn that a Chinese state-sponsored APT called BlackTech is hacking into network edge devices and using firmware implants to silently...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Cyberwarfare

An engineer recruited by intelligence services reportedly used a water pump to deliver Stuxnet, which reportedly cost $1-2 billion to develop.

Malware & Threats

Unpatched and unprotected VMware ESXi servers worldwide have been targeted in a ransomware attack exploiting a vulnerability patched in 2021.

Malware & Threats

Apple’s cat-and-mouse struggles with zero-day exploits on its flagship iOS platform is showing no signs of slowing down.

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.