• 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

Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

 | 

Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

 | 

Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

 | 

Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

 | 

U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

 | 

Qantas confirms customer data breach amid Scattered Spider attacks

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 is the fourth Chrome zero-day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

U.S. CISA adds TeleMessage TM SGNL flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

A sophisticated cyberattack hit the International Criminal Court

 | 

Esse Health data breach impacted 263,000 individuals

 | 

Europol dismantles €460M crypto scam targeting 5,000 victims worldwide

 | 

CISA and U.S. Agencies warn of ongoing Iranian cyber threats to critical infrastructure

 | 

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

 | 

Canada bans Hikvision over national security concerns

 | 

Denmark moves to protect personal identity from deepfakes with new copyright law

 | 

Ahold Delhaize data breach affected over 2.2 Million individuals

 | 

Facebook wants access to your camera roll for AI photo edits

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 51

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 530 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

The FBI warns that Scattered Spider is now targeting the airline sector

 | 
  • 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
  • Hacking
  • Security
  • Evilnum group targets legal entities with a new Janicab variant

Evilnum group targets legal entities with a new Janicab variant

Pierluigi Paganini December 12, 2022

A hack-for-hire group dubbed Evilnum is targeting travel and financial entities with the new Janicab malware variant.

Kaspersky researchers reported that a hack-for-hire group dubbed Evilnum is targeting travel and financial entities. The attacks are part of a campaign aimed at legal and financial investment institutions in the Middle East and Europe.

The campaign took place in 2020 and 2021, but experts speculate it has been active since 2015.

The threat actors employed a new variant of the Janicab malware that relies on public services like WordPress and YouTube as dead drop resolvers.

The researchers spotted the new variant while investigating Evilnum (aka Deathstalker) intrusions that use the Janicab malware family. The experts believe DeathStalker is a group of mercenaries or threat actors that act as an information broker in financial circles.

“The affected entities fall within the traditional sphere of Deathstalker targeting; primarily legal and financial investment management (FSI) institutions. However, we have also recorded a potentially new affected industry – travel agencies.” reads the analysis published by Kaspersky. “The Middle East region and Europe were also seen as a typical workspace for Deathstalker with varying intensity between the countries. Interestingly, this is the first time we have noted legal entities in Saudi Arabia being targeted by this group.”

Kaspersky reported Janicab infections in different countries, including Egypt, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the U.K.

The spear phishing messages aim at distributing an LNK-based dropper inside a ZIP archive, a technique observed in previous campaigns attributed to the EVILNUM group. The attackers used different phishing themes depending on different types of victims. In a sample Janicab case, the attackers used an industrial corporate profile (hydraulics) matching the subject of a decoy used in a previous PowerPepper intrusion.

Upon opening the LNK file, a series of chained malware files are dropped leading to the deployment of the VBScript-based Janicab implant. The malware can be used to execute commands on the infected system and deploy additional tools.

Evilnum DeathStalker_Janicab_2022_03.png

Janicab is a modular, interpreted-language malware, recent variants replace the SnapIT.exe tool (used to capture screenshots) with other custom-built tools that do the same job. New variants also lack audio recording capabilities implemented in older variants.

Newer versions of the modular malware include a keylogger module and features to avoid detection.

The researchers noticed that in recent attacks threat actors used unlisted old YouTube links that were used in 2021 intrusions, this technique allows reusing C2 infrastructure.

Kaspersky attributes with high confidence the recent attacks to the Deathstalker based on the use of the new Janicab variant, unique TTPs, similarities in the cyber kill chain, victimology, and C2 infrastructure.

“Despite not much public information being available, the threat actor has kept developing and updating the malware code, updating the structure of the LNK droppers and switching the toolset to maintain stealthiness over a long period of time.” concludes the report. “Based on our telemetry, the threat actor remains focused on the Middle East and Europe as its main areas of operation, and shows a lot of interest in compromising legal and financial institutions. Despite that focus, we have historically seen the threat actor targeting other industries in rare situations; travel agencies are an example of this. This once again shows the threat actor is likely a hack-for-hire group with diverse motivation.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

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

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Evilnum)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

APT cyber mercenaries Evilnum Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security Janicab malware malware Pierluigi Paganini Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 03, 2025
Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 02, 2025
Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

    Data Breach / July 03, 2025

    Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

    Cyber Crime / July 03, 2025

    Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

    Uncategorized / July 03, 2025

    Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

    Security / July 02, 2025

    U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

    Cyber Crime / July 02, 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