Ukrainian telecommunications operators hit by DarkCrystal RAT malware

The Ukrainian CERT-UA warns of attacks against Ukrainian telecommunications operators involving the DarkCrystal RAT.

The Governmental Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) is warning of a malware campaign targeting Ukrainian telecommunications operators with the DarkCrystal RAT.

The malspam messages have the topic “Free primary legal aid” use a password-protected attachment “Algorithm of actions of members of the family of a missing serviceman LegalAid.rar.”

The RAR archive analyzed by the Ukrainian CERT-UA contains the document “Algorithm_LegalAid.xlsm.” Upon opening the document and enabling the macro, a PowerShell command will be executed. The script will download and run the .NET bootloader “MSCommondll.exe,” which in turn will download and run the malware DarkCrystal RAT.

“Based on the email addresses of e-mail recipients, as well as the domain management DarkCrystal RAT, we assume that the attack is aimed at operators and telecommunications providers of Ukraine. During the previous attack, on June 10, 2022, media organizations of Ukraine ( CERT-UA # 4797 ) were the objects of interest of malefactors.” states the alert published by CERT-UA.

The report also includes indicators of compromise for this threat.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, RAT)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.