< div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> One of the ways threat actors keep up with the constantly evolving cyber defense landscape is by raising the level of sophistication of their attacks. This trend can be seen across many of our engagements, particularly when…
Tag: Threat Intelligence
Windows Remote Desktop Protocol: Remote to Rogue
Written by: Rohit Nambiar Executive Summary In October 2024, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) observed a novel phishing campaign targeting European government and military organizations that was attributed to a suspected Russia-nexus espionage actor we track as UNC5837. The campaign…
Windows Remote Desktop Protocol: Remote to Rogue
Written by: Rohit Nambiar Executive Summary In October 2024, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) observed a novel phishing campaign targeting European government and military organizations that was attributed to a suspected Russia-nexus espionage actor we track as UNC5837. The campaign…
Suspected China-Nexus Threat Actor Actively Exploiting Critical Ivanti Connect Secure Vulnerability (CVE-2025-22457)
Written by: John Wolfram, Michael Edie, Jacob Thompson, Matt Lin, Josh Murchie On Thursday, April 3, 2025, Ivanti disclosed a critical security vulnerability, CVE-2025-22457, impacting Ivanti Connect Secure (“ICS”) VPN appliances version 22.7R2.5 and earlier. CVE-2025-22457 is a buffer overflow…
DPRK IT Workers Expanding in Scope and Scale
Written by: Jamie Collier Since our September 2024 report outlining the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) IT worker threat, the scope and scale of their operations has continued to expand. These individuals pose as legitimate remote workers to infiltrate…
BitM Up! Session Stealing in Seconds Using the Browser-in-the-Middle Technique
Written by: Truman Brown, Emily Astranova, Steven Karschnia, Jacob Paullus, Nick McClendon, Chris Higgins < div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Executive Summary The Rise of Browser in the Middle (BitM): BitM attacks offer a streamlined approach, allowing attackers to quickly compromise sessions across…
BitM Up! Session Stealing in Seconds Using the Browser-in-the-Middle Technique
Written by: Truman Brown, Emily Astranova, Steven Karschnia, Jacob Paullus, Nick McClendon, Chris Higgins < div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Executive Summary The Rise of Browser in the Middle (BitM): BitM attacks offer a streamlined approach, allowing attackers to quickly compromise sessions across…
Ghost in the Router: China-Nexus Espionage Actor UNC3886 Targets Juniper Routers
Written by: Lukasz Lamparski, Punsaen Boonyakarn, Shawn Chew, Frank Tse, Jakub Jozwiak, Mathew Potaczek, Logeswaran Nadarajan, Nick Harbour, Mustafa Nasser Introduction In mid 2024, Mandiant discovered threat actors deployed custom backdoors on Juniper Networks’ Junos OS routers. Mandiant attributed these…
Unraveling Time: A Deep Dive into TTD Instruction Emulation Bugs
Written by: Dhanesh Kizhakkinan, Nino Isakovic Executive Summary This blog post presents an in-depth exploration of Microsoft’s Time Travel Debugging (TTD) framework, a powerful record-and-replay debugging framework for Windows user-mode applications. TTD relies heavily on accurate CPU instruction emulation to…
Unraveling Time: A Deep Dive into TTD Instruction Emulation Bugs
Written by: Dhanesh Kizhakkinan, Nino Isakovic Executive Summary This blog post presents an in-depth exploration of Microsoft’s Time Travel Debugging (TTD) framework, a powerful record-and-replay debugging framework for Windows user-mode applications. TTD relies heavily on accurate CPU instruction emulation to…
GoStringUngarbler: Deobfuscating Strings in Garbled Binaries
Written by: Chuong Dong Overview In our day-to-day work, the FLARE team often encounters malware written in Go that is protected using garble. While recent advancements in Go analysis from tools like IDA Pro have simplified the analysis process, garble…
Not Lost in Translation: Rosetta 2 Artifacts in macOS Intrusions
Written by: Joshua Goddard Executive Summary Rosetta 2 is Apple’s translation technology for running x86-64 binaries on Apple Silicon (ARM64) macOS systems. Rosetta 2 translation creates a cache of Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) files that can serve as valuable forensic artifacts. Mandiant…
Phishing Campaigns Targeting Higher Education Institutions
Written by: Ashley Pearson, Ryan Rath, Gabriel Simches, Brian Timberlake, Ryan Magaw, Jessica Wilbur < div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Overview Beginning in August 2024, Mandiant observed a notable increase in phishing attacks targeting the education industry, specifically U.S.-based universities. A separate investigation conducted…
Signals of Trouble: Multiple Russia-Aligned Threat Actors Actively Targeting Signal Messenger
Written by: Dan Black < div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”>Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has observed increasing efforts from several Russia state-aligned threat actors to compromise Signal Messenger accounts used by individuals of interest to Russia’s intelligence services. While this emerging operational interest…
Signals of Trouble: Multiple Russia-Aligned Threat Actors Actively Targeting Signal Messenger
Written by: Dan Black < div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”>Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has observed increasing efforts from several Russia state-aligned threat actors to compromise Signal Messenger accounts used by individuals of interest to Russia’s intelligence services. While this emerging operational interest…
Cybercrime: A Multifaceted National Security Threat
< div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Executive Summary Cybercrime makes up a majority of the malicious activity online and occupies the majority of defenders’ resources. In 2024, Mandiant Consulting responded to almost four times more intrusions conducted by financially motivated actors than state-backed…
Using capa Rules for Android Malware Detection
< div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Mobile devices have become the go-to for daily tasks like online banking, healthcare management, and personal photo storage, making them prime targets for malicious actors seeking to exploit valuable information. Bad actors often turn to publishing and…
CVE-2023-6080: A Case Study on Third-Party Installer Abuse
Written By: Jacob Paullus, Daniel McNamara, Jake Rawlins, Steven Karschnia < div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Executive Summary Mandiant exploited flaws in the Microsoft Software Installer (MSI) repair action of Lakeside Software’s SysTrack installer to obtain arbitrary code execution. An attacker with low-privilege…
Adversarial Misuse of Generative AI
< div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are unlocking new possibilities for the way we work and accelerating innovation in science, technology, and beyond. In cybersecurity, AI is poised to transform digital defense, empowering defenders and enhancing our…
Adversarial Misuse of Generative AI
< div class=”block-paragraph_advanced”> Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are unlocking new possibilities for the way we work and accelerating innovation in science, technology, and beyond. In cybersecurity, AI is poised to transform digital defense, empowering defenders and enhancing our…