C2
FBI warns of Handala hackers using Telegram in malware attacks
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned network defenders that Iranian hackers linked to the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) are using Telegram in malware attacks. In a flash alert issued on Friday, the FBI says Telegram is being used as command-and-control (C2) infrastructure by malware targeting journalists criticizing the Iranian government, […]
AI platforms can be abused for stealthy malware communication
AI assistants like Grok and Microsoft Copilot with web browsing and URL-fetching capabilities can be abused to intermediate command-and-control (C2) activity. Researchers at cybersecurity company Check Point discovered that threat actors can use AI services to relay communication between the C2 server and the target machine. Attackers can exploit this mechanism to deliver commands and retrieve […]
New Ghost Calls tactic abuses Zoom and Microsoft Teams for C2 operations
A new post-exploitation command-and-control (C2) evasion method called ‘Ghost Calls’ abuses TURN servers used by conferencing apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to tunnel traffic through trusted infrastructure. Ghost Calls uses legitimate credentials, WebRTC, and custom tooling to bypass most existing defenses and anti-abuse measures, without relying on an exploit. This new tactic was presented […]
New FinalDraft malware abuses Outlook mail service for stealthy comms
A new malware called FinalDraft has been using Outlook email drafts for command-and-control communication in attacks against a ministry in a South American country. The attacks were discovered by Elastic Security Labs and rely on a complete toolset that includes a custom malware loader named PathLoader, the FinalDraft backdoor, and multiple post-exploitation utilities. The abuse of Outlook, […]
QR codes bypass browser isolation for malicious C2 communication
Mandiant has identified a novel method to bypass browser isolation technology and achieve command-and-control operations through QR codes. Browser isolation is an increasingly popular security technology that routes all local web browser requests through remote web browsers hosted in a cloud environment or virtual machines. Any scripts or content on the visited web page is executed […]