Threat Hunting Case Study: Uncovering Turla

Category	Details
Threat Actors	Turla (FSB’s Center 16), Russia’s state-sponsored cyber espionage group
Campaign Overview	Focused on cyber espionage, targeting military documents, critical infrastructure, and journalists; used Snake malware for long-term infiltration and data theft
Target Regions (Victims)	Military, critical infrastructure, journalists, Western targets (including U.S. and NATO members)
Methodology	Uses peer-to-peer malware (Snake), stealth tactics (e.g., masquerading as legitimate binaries like WerFault.exe), modular updates to evade detection
Product Targeted	Windows, macOS, Linux (cross-platform); target systems’ executables, critical infrastructure, and sensitive documents
Malware Reference	Snake (botnet), also linked to the “Moonlight Maze” APT
Tools Used	Snake malware, WerFaultSvc (LOLBin masquerading), PERSEUS (FBI tool for malware network takedown)
Vulnerabilities Exploited	Exploits software flaws to infect systems, including cross-platform vulnerabilities
TTPs	Masquerading (T1036.005), living-off-the-land (LOLBins), persistence via modifications in native Windows directories
Attribution	Russian Federation (FSB)
Recommendations	Use threat hunting packages (e.g., “Copying Files from Native Windows Directory for Masquerading”) to detect LOLBins and unusual file paths
Source	Intel 471 Blog

Read full article: https://intel471.com/blog/threat-hunting-case-study-uncovering-turla

Disclaimer: The above summary has been generated by an AI language model