Russian APT29 Used 30+ C&C Servers Uncovered Linked to “WellMess” Malware

Researchers from RISKIQ uncovered more than 30 commands & control server infrastructure actively serving malware known as “WellMess/WellMail”.

These C2 servers belong to Russian APT29 group hackers, and the gang was identified nearly a year back by the UK, US, and Canadian governments issued a joint advisory.

APT29(YTTRIUM, THE DUKES, COZY BEAR) group explicitly believed to be associated with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Services (SVR) and the malware previously used in espionage campaigns targeting COVID-19 research in the UK, US, and Canada.

Identified command & control servers are actively serving WellMess malware against highly targeted victims.

“The activity uncovered was notable given the context in which it appeared, coming on the heels of a public reproach of Russian hacking by President Joe Biden in a recent summit with President Vladimir Putin.” RISKIQ said.

‘WellMess’ is a custom malware used to target the number of victims globally, and the group is mainly using the recently published exploits to gain initial footholds.

A Tweets Leads to the Way

Researchers’ investigation begins with the Tweet that contains an indicator about the command and control server and the signed certificate.

Further analysis leads to uncovering several additional IP addresses and  Certificates, also revealed that the C2 server associated with the APT29 and WellMess.

The identified C2 infrastructure is actively used by APT 29, Also found new IP addresses residing in the same networks.

“Building on that discovery, RiskIQ’s Team Atlas was then able to leverage RiskIQ’s Internet Intelligence Graph to link the following SSL Certificates and IP addresses to APT29 C2 infrastructure with high confidence.”

When researchers examined the banners returned from HTTP requests made to the servers, they were able to found an entirely separate group of malicious certificates and IP addresses.

You can explore the full list of these IOCs Here.

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