North Korean Lazarus Group Linked to New Cryptocurrency Hacking Scheme

The Lazarus group, a North Korean hacking enactment antecedently linked to transgression activity, has been connected to a caller onslaught strategy to breach systems and bargain cryptocurrency from 3rd parties. The campaign, which uses a modified mentation of an already existing malware merchandise called Applejeus, uses a crypto tract and adjacent documents to summation entree to systems.

Modified Lazarus Malware Used Crypto Site arsenic Facade

Volexity, a Washington D.C.-based cybersecurity firm, has linked Lazarus, a North Korean hacking radical already sanctioned by the U.S. government, with a menace involving the usage of a crypto tract to infect systems successful bid to bargain info and cryptocurrency from 3rd parties.

A blog station issued connected Dec. 1 revealed that successful June, Lazarus registered a domain called “bloxholder.com,” which would beryllium aboriginal established arsenic a concern offering services of automatic cryptocurrency trading. Using this tract arsenic a facade, Lazarus prompted users to download an exertion that served arsenic a payload to present the Applejeus malware, directed to bargain backstage keys and different information from the users’ systems.

The aforesaid strategy has been utilized by Lazarus before. However, this caller strategy uses a method that allows the exertion to “confuse and dilatory down” malware detection tasks.

Document Macros

Volexity besides recovered that the method to present this malware to last users changed successful October. The method morphed to usage Office documents, specifically a spreadsheet containing macros, a benignant of programme embedded successful the documents designed to instal the Applejeus malware successful the computer.

The document, identified with the sanction “OKX Binance & Huobi VIP interest comparision.xls,” displays the benefits that each 1 of the VIP programs of these exchanges supposedly offers astatine their antithetic levels. To mitigate this benignant of attack, it is recommended to artifact the execution of macros successful documents, and besides scrutinize and show the instauration of caller tasks successful the OS to beryllium alert of caller unidentified tasks moving successful the background. However, Veloxity did not pass connected the level of scope that this run has attained.

Lazarus was formally indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) successful Feb. 2021, involving an operative of the radical linked to a North Korean quality organization, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). Before that, successful March 2020, the DOJ indicted 2 Chinese nationals for aiding successful the laundering of much than $100 cardinal successful cryptocurrency linked to Lazarus’ exploits.

What bash you deliberation astir Lazarus’ latest cryptocurrency malware campaign? Tell america successful the comments conception below.

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