Rewterz Threat Alert – APT MustangPanda – Active IOCs

Severity

High

Analysis Summary

Researchers have identified recent Mustang Panda activity that involves the use of DLL side-loading to deliver PlugX. The initial infection vector is an executable downloaded from a remote URL. The executable is responsible for installing the malware by dropping the required files (a DLL loader, a legitimate binary, and the PlugX payload) onto the system. The legitimate binary is the Adobe CEF Helper and is vulnerable to DLL side-loading. When the installer runs the legitimate binary, the dropped DLL is loaded. This DLL is the loader for the final payload. First, it reads a hardcoded .dat file that contains the XOR key for decrypting the final payload, then it performs the decryption and loads the malware into memory. Once running in memory, the PlugX payload is able to decrypt its configuration data, which includes its installation location, the XOR key for C2 communication, and any C2 addresses and ports

Impact

• Information Theft
• Exposure of Sensitive Data

Indicators of Compromise

Filename

• McUtil[.]dll

MD5

• b921f1f433015d3780e9c13ab245f2eb
• ffa5f4b6b580d53bc311d6e5bace3110

SHA-256

• 6e6bfcbc22644d060670718dea2c5a7d860edc55cf8bd6100e277e53a8b0fc92
• 9857e40be1fb5b9b6db93dc03f96f6b3ff0ffab85af7944dddcac0e37775ab02

SHA-1

• cbc30251bb9392dc0c47b2b1084273c0aa58a0dc
• d599ca575b995d8de971aed8a64762225bde386d

Remediation

• Always be suspicious about emails sent by unknown senders.
• Never click on links/attachments sent by unknown senders.
• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Search for IOCs in your environment.