Hackers from China’s ‘Mustang Panda’ were Utilizing New ‘Hodur’ Malware

Mustang Panda (a.k.a. Temp.Hex, HoneyMyte, TA416 or RedDelta), a China-based advanced persistent threat (APT), has been traced to an ongoing cyberattack campaign using a formerly undocumented variation of the PlugX remote access trojan on affected workstations mostly in and around Southeast Asia. For its similarities to another PlugX (aka Korplug) variation called THOR which surfaced in July 2021, slovak cybersecurity firm ESET termed the current version Hodur. 

Korplug is a proprietary virus used widely, it was initially uncovered in a 2020 investigation that looked into Chinese hackers’ activities against Australian targets. Mustang Panda employs phishing lures with counterfeit papers to target European embassies, ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and research institutes in the most recent known campaign, according to cybersecurity firm ESET. “Anti-analysis measures and control-flow obfuscation are used at every level of the deployment process,” the firm told.

Hodur is based on PlugX, a remote access tool that “allows remote users to steal data or take control of impacted systems without authorization. It can copy, move, rename, execute, and delete files, as well as log keystrokes and fingerprint the infected system.” The infections end with the implementation of the Hodur backdoor on the infected Windows host, irrespective of the phishing lure used. 

As formerly stated, the campaign begins simply, with the group phishing its targ

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