• 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

Stormous Ransomware gang targets North Country HealthCare, claims 600K patient data stolen

 | 

United Natural Foods Expects $400M revenue impact from June cyber attack

 | 

Cisco patches critical CVE-2025-20337 bug in Identity Services Engine with CVSS 10 Severity

 | 

UNC6148 deploys Overstep malware on SonicWall devices, possibly for ransomware operations

 | 

Operation Eastwood disrupted operations of pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16)

 | 

Salt Typhoon breach: Chinese APT compromises U.S. Army National Guard network

 | 

Former US Army member confesses to Telecom hack and extortion conspiracy

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 marks the fifth actively exploited Chrome Zero-Day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

DDoS peaks hit new highs: Cloudflare mitigated massive 7.3 Tbps assault

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Wing FTP Server flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Android Malware Konfety evolves with ZIP manipulation and dynamic loading

 | 

Belk hit by May cyberattack: DragonForce stole 150GB of data

 | 

North Korea-linked actors spread XORIndex malware via 67 malicious npm packages

 | 

FBI seized multiple piracy sites distributing pirated video games

 | 

An attacker using a $500 radio setup could potentially trigger train brake failures or derailments from a distance

 | 

Interlock ransomware group deploys new PHP-based RAT via FileFix

 | 

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

 | 
  • 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
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • ExCobalt Cybercrime group targets Russian organizations in multiple sectors

ExCobalt Cybercrime group targets Russian organizations in multiple sectors

Pierluigi Paganini June 24, 2024

The cybercrime group ExCobalt targeted Russian organizations in multiple sectors with a previously unknown backdoor known as GoRed.

Positive Technologies researchers reported that a cybercrime gang called ExCobalt targeted Russian organizations in multiple sectors with a previously unknown Golang-based backdoor known as GoRed.

Members of the ExCobalt group have been active since at least 2016, the researchers believe that the group is linked to the notorious Cobalt Gang.

Over the past year, ExCobalt targeted Russian organizations in the the following industries:

  • Metallurgy
  • Telecommunications
  • Mining
  • Information technology
  • Government
  • Software development

The Cobalt’s hallmark was the use of the CobInt tool, the same tool that ExCobalt began using in 2022.

While investigating a security incident from March 2024 on a client’s Linux host, Positive Technologies researchers discovered a file named “scrond.” The file was compressed with UPX and upon unpacking it, the experts found included package paths indicating it was likely a proprietary tool named GoRed, associated with a Red Team.

The GoRed backdoor supports several notable features. It allows operators to connect and execute commands, similar to other Command and Control (C2) frameworks such as Cobalt Strike or Sliver. The communication between GoRed and its C2 server relies on the RPC protocol. For secure communication, operators employ DNS/ICMP tunneling, WSS, and QUIC protocols.

GoRed is capable of obtaining credentials from compromised systems and collecting various types of system information, including active processes, host names, network interfaces, and file system structures. To backdoor supports several commands to conduct reconnaissance on a target’s network. The backdoor serializes, encrypts, archives, and sends the collected data to a designated server that stores compromised data.

ExCobalt gained initial access to target entities by taking advantage of a previously compromised contractor. ExCobalt conducted a supply chain attack by infecting a component used to build the target company’s legitimate software

ExCobalt used the Spark RAT to execute commands and multiple tools ad part of the attack chain, including Mimikatz, ProcDump, SMBExec, Metasploit, and rsocx.

The group exploited the following vulnerabilities for privilege escalation: CVE-2022-2586, CVE-2021-3156, CVE-2021-4034, CVE-2019-13272, CVE-2022-27228, CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-40438, CVE-2023-3519, BDU:2023-05857, and CVE-2019-12725.

“ExCobalt continues to demonstrate a high level of activity and determination in attacking Russian companies, constantly adding new tools to its arsenal and improving its techniques. Not only is it developing new attack methods, but it’s also actively improving its existing tools, such as the GoRed backdoor.” concludes the report.

“ExCobalt is apparently aiming for more sophisticated and productive methods of hacking and cyberespionage, seeing how GoRed has been acquiring new capabilities and features. These include expanded functionality for collecting victim data and increased secrecy both inside the infected system and in communications with C2 servers.”

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, newsletter)


facebook linkedin twitter

Cybercrime ExCobalt GoRed backdoor Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 17, 2025
Stormous Ransomware gang targets North Country HealthCare, claims 600K patient data stolen
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 17, 2025
United Natural Foods Expects $400M revenue impact from June cyber attack
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    Stormous Ransomware gang targets North Country HealthCare, claims 600K patient data stolen

    Data Breach / July 17, 2025

    United Natural Foods Expects $400M revenue impact from June cyber attack

    Security / July 17, 2025

    Cisco patches critical CVE-2025-20337 bug in Identity Services Engine with CVSS 10 Severity

    Security / July 17, 2025

    UNC6148 deploys Overstep malware on SonicWall devices, possibly for ransomware operations

    Hacking / July 17, 2025

    Operation Eastwood disrupted operations of pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16)

    Cyber Crime / July 16, 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