• 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

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 
  • 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
  • Operators behind Dark Caracal are still alive and operational

Operators behind Dark Caracal are still alive and operational

Pierluigi Paganini November 29, 2020

The Dark Caracal APT group has carried out a series of attacks against multiple sectors using a new variant of a 13-year-old backdoor Trojan.

The Dark Caracal cyberespionage group is back, researchers from Check Point uncovered a new series of attack against multiple industries.

The Dark Caracal is an APT group associated with the Lebanese General Directorate of General, in recent attacks it employed a new version of a 13-year-old backdoor Trojan dubbed Bandook.

The Bandook was spotted last time in 2015 and 2017 campaigns, dubbed “Operation Manul” and “Dark Caracal“, respectively attributed to Kazakh and the Lebanese governments. This circumstance suggests that the implant was developed by a third-party actor and used by multiple APT groups.

“During this past year, dozens of digitally signed variants of this once commodity malware started to reappear in the threat landscape, reigniting interest in this old malware family.” reads the report published by Check Point.

“In the latest wave of attacks, we once again identified an unusually large variety of targeted sectors and locations. This further reinforces a previous hypothesis that the malware is not developed in-house and used by a single entity, but is part of an offensive infrastructure sold by a third party to governments and threat actors worldwide, to facilitate offensive cyber operations.”

During the last campaign, the hackers targeted multiple sectors including Government, financial, energy, food industry, healthcare, education, IT, and legal institutions.

The APT group targeted entities in Singapore, Cyprus, Chile, Italy, the USA, Turkey, Switzerland, Indonesia, and Germany.

The infection chain used in the attacks is constantly evolving, in the following image are reported the three main stages.

Dark Caracal malware-attack-flow

The first stage leverages a lure Microsoft Word document (e.g. “Certified documents.docx”) delivered inside a ZIP file. Upon opening the archive, malicious macros are downloaded, which subsequently proceeds to drop and execute a second-stage PowerShell script encrypted inside the original Word document.

In the last phase of the attack, the PowerShell script downloads encoded executable parts from legitimate cloud storage services like Dropbox or Bitbucket then assemble the Bandook loader, which injects the RAT into a new Internet Explorer process.

The Bandook RAT is available on the underground market since 2007, it supports common backdoor commands, including capturing screenshots and carrying out various file-related operations.

Experts noticed that the new release of Bandook is a slimmed-down version of the original variant malware and supports only 11 commands out of the 120 commands. The support for a subset of commands suggests the threat actors attempt to remain under the radar.

Experts observed several samples of the malware that were digitally signed with valid certificates issued by Certum. Check Point researchers also spotted two digitally-signed and unsigned variants which they believe are operated by a single entity.

“Some of this campaign’s characteristics and similarities to previous campaigns leads us to believe that the activity we describe in this report is indeed the continuation and evolution of the infrastructure used during the Dark Caracal operation:

  • The use of the same certificate provider (Certum) throughout the various campaigns.
  • The use of the Bandook Trojan, in what appears to be a unique evolving fork from the same source code (which is not known to be publicly available). Samples from the Dark Caracal campaign (2017) utilized around 100 commands, compared to the current 120 command version we analyzed.
  • This wave of attacks shares the same anomalous characteristics for targeted attacks –  an extreme variance in the selected targets, both in their industry and their geographic spread.” concluded the experts.

“All evidence points to our belief that the mysterious operators behind the malicious infrastructure of “Operation Manul” and “Dark Caracal” are still alive and operational, willing to assist in the offensive cyber operations to anyone who is willing to pay.”

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

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, malware)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

APT backdoor Dark Caracal. APT Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

    Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

    Security / July 25, 2025

    Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

    Malware / July 25, 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