Campaign, Nov 2019 to Jan 2021.View on attack.mitre.org
Operation Spalax was a campaign that primarily targeted Colombian government organizations and private companies, particularly those associated with the energy and metallurgical industries. The Operation Spalax threat actors distributed commodity malware and tools using generic phishing topics related to COVID-19, banking, and law enforcement action. Security researchers noted indicators of compromise and some infrastructure overlaps with other campaigns dating back to April 2018, including at least one separately attributed to APT-C-36, however identified enough differences to report this as separate, unattributed activity.
| Technique | Procedure example |
|---|---|
| T1027.002 Software Packing |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used a variety of packers, including CyaX, to obfuscate malicious executables. |
| T1027.003 Steganography |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used packers that read pixel data from images contained in PE files' resource sections and build the next layer of execution from the data. |
| T1027.013 Encrypted/Encoded File |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used XOR-encrypted payloads. |
| T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) scripts to install malware. |
| T1102 Web Service |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors used OneDrive and MediaFire to host payloads. |
| T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used a variety of packers and droppers to decrypt malicious payloads. |
| T1204.001 Malicious Link |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors relied on a victim to click on a malicious link distributed via phishing emails. |
| T1204.002 Malicious File |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors relied on a victim to open a PDF document and click on an embedded malicious link to download malware. |
| T1218.011 Rundll32 |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors used `rundll32.exe` to execute malicious installers. |
| T1497 Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors used droppers that would run anti-analysis checks before executing malware on a compromised host. |
| T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors sent phishing emails that included a PDF document that in some cases led to the download and execution of malware. |
| T1566.002 Spearphishing Link |
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors sent phishing emails to victims that contained a malicious link. |
| T1568 Dynamic Resolution |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used dynamic DNS services, including Duck DNS and DNS Exit, as part of their C2 infrastructure. |
| T1583.001 Domains |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors registered hundreds of domains using Duck DNS and DNS Exit. |
| T1588.001 Malware |
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors obtained malware, including Remcos, njRAT, and AsyncRAT. |
MITRE does not attribute this campaign to a group.
Data from MITRE ATT&CK® (Enterprise). ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
