• 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

200 Swedish municipalities impacted by a major cyberattack on IT provider

 | 

TransUnion discloses a data breach impacting over 4.4 million customers

 | 

NSA, NCSC, and allies detailed TTPs associated with Chinese APT actors targeting critical infrastructure Orgs

 | 

UNC6395 targets Salesloft in Drift OAuth token theft campaign

 | 

Over 28,000 Citrix instances remain exposed to critical RCE flaw CVE-2025-7775

 | 

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

 | 

Healthcare Services Group discloses 2024 data breach that impacted 624,496 people

 | 

ESET warns of PromptLock, the first AI-driven ransomware

 | 

China linked UNC6384 targeted diplomats by hijacking web traffic

 | 

Farmers Insurance discloses a data breach impacting 1.1M customers

 | 

Citrix fixed three NetScaler flaws, one of them actively exploited in the wild

 | 

Auchan discloses data breach: data of hundreds of thousands of customers exposed

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Citrix Session Recording, and Git flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Docker fixes critical Desktop flaw allowing container escapes

 | 

Malicious apps with +19M installs removed from Google Play because spreading Anatsa banking trojan and other malware

 | 

Pakistan-linked APT36 abuses Linux .desktop files to drop custom malware in new campaign

 | 

Android.Backdoor.916.origin malware targets Russian business executives

 | 

Electronics manufacturer Data I/O took offline operational systems following a ransomware attack

 | 

IoT under siege: The return of the Mirai-based Gayfemboy Botnet

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 59

 | 
  • 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
  • APT
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Lazarus targets blockchain engineers with new KandyKorn macOS Malware

Lazarus targets blockchain engineers with new KandyKorn macOS Malware

Pierluigi Paganini November 05, 2023

North Korea-linked Lazarus group is using new KandyKorn macOS Malware in attacks against blockchain engineers.

North Korea-linked Lazarus APT group were spotted using new KandyKorn macOS malware in attacks against blockchain engineers, reported Elastic Security Labs.

“KandyKorn is an advanced implant with a variety of capabilities to monitor, interact with, and avoid detection. It utilizes reflective loading, a direct-memory form of execution that may bypass detections,” notes Elastic Security, which identified and analyzed the threat.” reads the report.

Threat actors impersonated blockchain engineering community members on a public Discord used by members of this community. The attackers attempted to trick victims into downloading and decompress a ZIP archive (Cross-Platform Bridges.zip) containing the malicious Python code masqueraded by an arbitrage bot. An arbitrage bot is a tool that allows users to profit from cryptocurrency rate differences between platforms.

The attack chain aimed at infecting the target system with the KANDYKORN macOS malware.

Below is the sequence of malicious code employed in the attack:

  • Stage 0 (Initial Compromise) – Watcher.py
  • Stage 1 (Dropper) – testSpeed.py and FinderTools
  • Stage 2 (Payload) – .sld and .log – SUGARLOADER
  • Stage 3 (Loader)- Discord (fake) – HLOADER
  • Stage 4 (Payload) – KANDYKORN

Decompressing the archive, it reveals a Main.py script along with the folder named order_book_recorder, which contains 13 Python scripts.

The SUGARLOADER connects to the C2 server to download the KANDYKORN and executes it directly in memory.

Elastic researchers traced this campaign to April 2023 through the RC4 key used to encrypt the SUGARLOADER and KANDYKORN C2.

The malware supports multiple capabilities such as harvesting information, listing directories and running processes, downloading files, uploading files, archiving directories and exfiltrating them, killing processes, executing commands using a terminal, spawning a shell, downloading a configuration from the server, sleeping, and exiting.

North Korea-linked threat actors continue to target organizations in the cryptocurrency industry to circumvent international sanctions and finance its military operations.

“The DPRK, via units like the LAZARUS GROUP, continues to target crypto-industry businesses with the goal of stealing cryptocurrency in order to circumvent international sanctions that hinder the growth of their economy and ambitions. In this intrusion, they targeted blockchain engineers active on a public chat server with a lure designed to speak to their skills and interests, with the underlying promise of financial gain.” concludes the report. “The infection required interactivity from the victim that would still be expected had the lure been legitimate.”

The campaign is still active and the enhance its tactics, techniques and procedures, Elastic warns.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Lazarus)


facebook linkedin twitter

APT Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security KandyKorn Malware macOS malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini August 28, 2025
200 Swedish municipalities impacted by a major cyberattack on IT provider
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini August 28, 2025
TransUnion discloses a data breach impacting over 4.4 million customers
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    200 Swedish municipalities impacted by a major cyberattack on IT provider

    Security / August 28, 2025

    TransUnion discloses a data breach impacting over 4.4 million customers

    Data Breach / August 28, 2025

    NSA, NCSC, and allies detailed TTPs associated with Chinese APT actors targeting critical infrastructure Orgs

    Intelligence / August 28, 2025

    UNC6395 targets Salesloft in Drift OAuth token theft campaign

    Hacking / August 28, 2025

    Over 28,000 Citrix instances remain exposed to critical RCE flaw CVE-2025-7775

    Hacking / August 27, 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