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Evasive Panda APT group targets international NGO in China



The advanced persistent threat (APT) group referred to as Evasive Panda has been observed targeting an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in Mainland China with malware delivered via update channels of legitimate applications like Tencent QQ. The attack chains are designed to distribute a Windows installer for MgBot malware, ESET security researcher Facundo Muñoz said in a new report published today. The activity commenced in November 2020 and continued throughout 2021. Evasive Panda, also known as Bronze Highland and Daggerfly, is a Chinese-speaking APT group that has been attributed to a series of cyber espionage attacks targeting various entities in China, Hong Kong, and other countries located in East and South Asia since at least late December 2012. The group's hallmark is the use of the custom MgBot modular malware framework, which is capable of receiving additional components on the fly to expand on its intelligence-gathering capabilities. Some of the prominent capabilities of the malware include stealing files, logging keystrokes, harvesting clipboard data, recording audio streams, and credential theft from web browsers. ESET, which discovered the campaign in January 2022 after a legitimate Chinese application was used to deploy an installer for the MgBot backdoor, said the targeted users were located in the Gansu, Guangdong, and Jiangsu provinces and are members of an unnamed international NGO. The NGO members were targeted with malware delivered through update channels of legitimate applications. The attack chains are designed to distribute a Windows installer for MgBot malware. ESET security researcher Facundo Muñoz discovered the campaign in January 2022. The activity commenced in November 2020 and continued throughout 2021. Evasive Panda has been observed targeting an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in Mainland China. The group is also known as Bronze Highland and Daggerfly. Evasive Panda is a Chinese-speaking APT group that has been attributed to a series of cyber espionage attacks targeting various entities in China, Hong Kong, and other countries located in East and South Asia since at least late December 2012. The group's hallmark is the use of the custom MgBot modular malware framework, which is capable of receiving additional components on the fly to expand on its intelligence-gathering capabilities. Some of the prominent capabilities of the malware include stealing files, logging keystrokes, harvesting clipboard data, recording audio streams, and credential theft from web browsers. The NGO members were targeted with malware delivered through update channels of legitimate applications. The attack chains are designed to distribute a Windows installer for MgBot malware. MgBot malware is a custom modular malware framework that is capable of receiving additional components on the fly to expand on its intelligence-gathering capabilities. Some of the prominent capabilities of the malware include stealing files, logging keystrokes, harvesting clipboard data, recording audio streams, and credential theft from web browsers.

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