• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Global Louis Vuitton data breach impacts UK, South Korea, and Turkey

 | 

Experts uncover critical flaws in Kigen eSIM technology affecting billions

 | 

Spain awarded €12.3 million in contracts to Huawei

 | 

Patch immediately: CVE-2025-25257 PoC enables remote code execution on Fortinet FortiWeb

 | 

Wing FTP Server flaw actively exploited shortly after technical details were made public

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 53

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 532 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

McDonald’s job app exposes data of 64 Million applicants

 | 

Athlete or Hacker? Russian basketball player accused in U.S. ransomware case

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

 | 

PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

 | 

Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

 | 

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Malware
  • Security
  • Bumblebee attacks, from initial access to the compromise of Active Directory Services

Bumblebee attacks, from initial access to the compromise of Active Directory Services

Pierluigi Paganini August 19, 2022

Threat actors are using the Bumblebee loader to compromise Active Directory services as part of post-exploitation activities.

The Cybereason Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) Team analyzed a cyberattack that involved the Bumblebee Loader and detailed how the attackers were able to compromise the entire network.

Most Bumblebee infections started by users executing LNK files which use a system binary to load the malware. The malware is distributed through phishing messages using a malicious attachment or a link to the malicious archive containing Bumblebee.

bumblebee

After initial execution, Bumblebee was used to perform post-exploitation activities, including privilege escalation, reconnaissance, and credential theft. 

Threat actors conduct intensive reconnaissance activities and redirect the output of executed commands to files for exfiltration.

Bumblebee has been active since March 2022 when it was spotted by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), experts noticed that cybercriminal groups that were previously using the BazaLoader and IcedID as part of their malware campaigns switched to the Bumblebee loader.

“Cybereason GSOC has observed threat actors transitioning from BazarLoader, Trickbot, and IcedID to Bumblebee, which seems to be in active development and generally the loader of choice for many threat actors.” reads the analysis published by Cybereason. “Bumblebee operators use the Cobalt Strike framework throughout the attack. The threat actors use the obtained credentials to access Active Directory and make a copy of ntds.dit containing data for the entire Active Directory. Lastly, a domain administrator account is used to move laterally, create local user accounts, and exfiltrate data using Rclone software.”

In the attack analyzed by Cybereason, threat actors used stolen credentials of a highly privileged user to gain access to the Active Directory and compromise the target network.

“Bumblebee accesses the remote Active Directory machines using Windows Management Instrumentation command-line utility (WMIC) and creates a shadow copy using vssadmin command. In addition, the attacker steals the ntds.dit file from the domain controller. The ntds.dit file is a database that stores Active Directory data, including information about user objects, groups and group membership. The file also stores the password hashes for all users in the domain.” continues the analysis.

The experts noticed that the time it took between initial access and Active Directory compromise was less than two days.

GSOC experts warn that attacks involving Bumblebee must be treated as critical. The attack chain they analyzed allows threat actors to deliver their ransomware in the compromised networks. 

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, malware)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

bumblebee Cybercrime Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security loader malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 14, 2025
Global Louis Vuitton data breach impacts UK, South Korea, and Turkey
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 14, 2025
Experts uncover critical flaws in Kigen eSIM technology affecting billions
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Global Louis Vuitton data breach impacts UK, South Korea, and Turkey

    Data Breach / July 14, 2025

    Experts uncover critical flaws in Kigen eSIM technology affecting billions

    Security / July 14, 2025

    Spain awarded €12.3 million in contracts to Huawei

    Intelligence / July 14, 2025

    Patch immediately: CVE-2025-25257 PoC enables remote code execution on Fortinet FortiWeb

    Security / July 13, 2025

    Wing FTP Server flaw actively exploited shortly after technical details were made public

    Hacking / July 13, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT