Fraudulent emails claimed to be invitations to a wine-tasting event.
The Russian state-backed threat group Midnight Blizzard, also known as APT29 or Cozy Bear, has targeted embassies and other diplomatic organizations across Europe as part of a spear-phishing campaign that began in January.
According to Check Point Research, the campaign introduces a previously unseen malware loader called 'GrapeLoader,' and a new variant of the 'WineLoader' backdoor, reports BleepingComputer.
The attacks commenced with the distribution of fraudulent Ministry of Foreign Affairs emails, purporting to be a wine-tasting event invitation. An attached link downloads a ZIP archive containing the GrapeLoader payload, alongside a legitimate PowerPoint executable and an accompanying DLL file.
The WineLoader backdoor allows for the collection of extensive host details for cyberespionage and evades detection through junk instructions, export table discrepancies, and RVA duplication.
"Previously, automated tools like FLOSS could easily extract and deobfuscate strings from an unpacked WINELOADER sample. The improved implementation in the new variant disrupts this process, making automated string extraction and deobfuscation fail," said the report.
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Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
