A newly discovered APT campaign dubbed Swan Vector is targeting educational institutes and mechanical engineering industries in Taiwan and Japan. The attack uses a sophisticated multi-stage infection chain involving malicious LNK files, DLL implants (Pterois and Isurus), and Cobalt Strike payloads. The threat actor employs various evasion techniques including API hashing, direct syscalls, DLL sideloading, and self-deletion. Google Drive is abused as a command-and-control server. While attribution remains uncertain, similarities with Winnti, Lazarus, and APT10 techniques have been observed. The campaign has been active since December 2024 and is expected to continue with new implants targeting additional applications. Author: AlienVault
Related Tags:
Isurus
Pterois
T1055.004
multi-stage attack
T1055.003
T1218.011
Cobalt Strike – S0154
T1566.001
T1070.004
Associated Indicators:
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DE839D6C361C7527EEAA4979B301AC408352B5B7EDEB354536BD50225F19CFA5
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9DF9BB3C13E4D20A83B0AC453E6A2908B77FC2BF841761B798B903EFB2D0F4F7
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C7B9AE61046EED01651A72AFE7A31DE088056F1C1430B368B1ACDA0B58299E28
C8ED52278EC00A6FBC9697661DB5FFBCBE19C5AB331B182F7FD0F9F7249B5896


