Phishing attacks using the topic “Azovstal” targets entities in Ukraine

Ukraine CERT-UA warns of phishing attacks on state organizations of Ukraine using the topic “Azovstal” and Cobalt Strike Beacon.

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) warns of phishing attacks aimed at organizations in the country using the topic “Azovstal”.

The phishing message use the subject “Azovstal” and a weaponized office document. Upon opening the attachment and enabling the macro, it will start the infection process. The malicious code will download, create on disk and run the malicious DLL “pe.dll”. 

The last stage malware installed on the infected systems is a Cobalt Strike Beacon that allows attackers to take over them.

The analysis of encryption techniques employed in the attack allowed the government experts to associate the campaign with the cybercrime group Trickbot.

Since February the notorious cybercrime operation Trickbot is controlled by Conti ransomware, the ransomware gang that publicly announced its support to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian cyber militaries.

The alert published by the Ukraine CERT-UA includes Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) for this campaign and recommendations.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Ukraine)

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