APT36, a sophisticated threat actor, has been actively targeting Indian entities with advanced malware like ElizaRAT, which is designed for espionage. It leverages cloud-based services for covert communication and data exfiltration.
Recent campaigns have seen significant enhancements in ElizaRAT’s evasion techniques, making it a potent tool for persistent attacks.
The integration of ApoloStealer into the attack toolkit expands the threat actor’s capabilities to steal sensitive information from compromised systems.
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Transparent Tribe utilizes a two-pronged attack with ElizaRAT (SlackAPI.dll) and ApoloStealer targeting Indian systems disguised as CPL files. It leverages Slack’s API for C2 communication, stealing information, and executing commands.
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ApoloStealer, deployed later, focuses on data exfiltration by creating a local database of files like documents, presentations, and images across various locations on the victim’s machine and transmitting them to the attacker’s server.
The Circle ElizaRAT variant is a more sophisticated version that deploys the malware with lower detection rates using a dropper. This dropper creates a decoy PDF and MP4 file and registers victim information in DLLs within a dedicated directory.
Unlike previous variants, Circle utilizes a VPS for C2 communication instead of cloud services and checks for India Standard Time and retrieves victim details, including IP address.
It can receive commands from the attacker to download files from specific URLs or sleep for a period. Downloaded zip files are unpacked and potentially contain a SQLite DLL for further actions.
The campaign also leverages the “SlackFiles.dll” payload and the same working directory as the Slack campaign, suggesting a connection between the two.
The Google Drive campaign delivers ElizaRAT malware via spear phishing emails with malicious CPL files as attachments, which leverages Google Cloud for C2 communication and uses X.509 certificates for authentication.
It downloads additional payloads like ApoloStealer and ConnectX to steal specific file types and store them on a Google Cloud storage service account, where ApoloStealer steals file metadata and exfiltrates it to the C2 server, while ConnectX targets external drives and stores stolen data locally.
Transparent Tribe, the suspected actor behind these attacks, utilized a custom tool named ElizaRAT to target specific individuals.
This tool, along with other indicators like a shared email account and the pseudonym “Apolo Jones,” links these campaigns to the group’s past operations.
The group’s tactics involved distributing malicious PDF files and ZIP archives and leveraging social engineering techniques to trick victims into executing malicious payloads.
According to the Check Point Research, based on the results of their initial time zone check, it was determined that the ElizaRAT variants of APT36 specifically targeted Indian technology.
It leveraged cloud services like Google Drive, Telegram, and Slack to establish covert command and control channels, obfuscating their malicious activities within legitimate network traffic.
Introducing new payloads, including ApolloStealer, demonstrates APT36’s evolving tactics and its focus on data exfiltration and intelligence gathering against Indian entities.
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