• 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

Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

 | 

OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

 | 

APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

 | 

Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

 | 

Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

 | 

U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

 | 

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 50

 | 
  • 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 warfare
  • Data Breach
  • Intelligence
  • Malware
  • #Vault7: CIA Pandemic implant turns file servers into malware infectors

#Vault7: CIA Pandemic implant turns file servers into malware infectors

Pierluigi Paganini June 01, 2017

Wikileaks released a new lot of documents belonging to the Vault7 dump that details the CIA project codenamed ‘Pandemic implant’

Wikileaks released a new batch of documents belonging to the Vault7 archive related to the CIA project codenamed ‘Pandemic.’

RELEASE: CIA 'Pandemic' Windows infection malware documentation #Vault7 https://t.co/YfxAKT1pog pic.twitter.com/HhmmvUBupi

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 1, 2017

The Pandemic CIA project refers a Windows persistent implant that share files (programs) with remote users in a local network. Pandemic is used by the cyber spies to infect remote users by replacing application code on-the-fly with a trojaned version if the application that is retrieved from the infected machine.

“Today, June 1st 2017, WikiLeaks publishes documents from the “Pandemic” project of the CIA, a persistent implant for Microsoft Windows machines that share files (programs) with remote users in a local network.” reads the description published by Wikileaks.”‘Pandemic’ targets remote users by replacing application code on-the-fly with a trojaned version if the program is retrieved from the infected machine.”

The implant transforms file servers into machines that infect PCs which access them remotely.

A computer on a local network with shared drives that is infected with the Pandemic implant is the medical equivalent of a Patient Zero in Medical science that spreads a disease. It will compromise remote computers if the user executes applications stored on the pandemic file server.

pandemic implant

The Pandemic tool doesn’t change the file on the infected system when victims request a file from it, they will receive a trojanized replacement of the legitimate application.

The Pandemic implant can replace up to 20 programs, with a maximum size of 800MB.

“Pandemic is a tool which is run as kernel shellcode to install a file system filter driver. The filter will ‘replace’ a target file with the given payload file when a remote user accesses the file via SMB (read-only, not write).” reads the Pandemic Implant tool summary. “Pandemic will not ‘replace’ the target file when the target file is opened on the machine Pandemic is running on. The goal of Pandemic is to be installed on a machine where remote users use SMB to download/execute PE files. (S//NF) Pandemic does NOT//NOT make any physical changes to the targeted file on disk. The targeted file on the system Pandemic is installed on remains unchanged. Users that are targeted by Pandemic, and use SMB to download the targeted file, will receive the ‘replacement’ file.”

The Pandemic Data leak contains five files, the installation of the implant is very rapid. it just takes between 10 to 15 seconds.

The documentation does not provide information about the infection process, it is not specified if infected machines become new pandemic servers.

Let’s wait for the next Vault

[adrotate banner=”9″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Pandemic Implant, CIA)

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Apple CIA Hacking Pandemic implant Patient Zero Vault 7 Wikileaks

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 27, 2025
Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 27, 2025
OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

    Hacking / June 27, 2025

    OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

    Hacking / June 27, 2025

    APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

    APT / June 27, 2025

    Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

    Cyber Crime / June 26, 2025

    Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

    Security / June 26, 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