Unveiling Silent Lynx APT Targeting Entities Across Kyrgyzstan & Neighbouring Nations

Unveiling Silent Lynx APT Targeting Entities Across Kyrgyzstan & Neighbouring Nations

The article discusses two campaigns by a new threat group named Silent Lynx, targeting government entities in Kyrgyzstan, particularly the National Bank and Ministry of Finance. The campaigns involve sophisticated phishing attacks using malicious ISO files and C++ loaders, along with Golang implants for reverse shells. The group employs Telegram for command and control and data exfiltration. Affected: Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan

Keypoints :

  • Silent Lynx targets government entities in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.
  • The group uses phishing emails with malicious attachments to initiate attacks.
  • Campaign 1 involves a malicious ISO file containing a C++ loader and PowerShell script.
  • Campaign 2 uses a password-protected RAR file with a malicious Golang executable.
  • Decoy documents are crafted to appear legitimate, reducing suspicion.
  • Telegram bots are utilized for command execution and data exfiltration.
  • Infrastructure includes domains and tools for maintaining persistence on victim systems.
  • Attribution suggests connections to a Kazakhstan-based group known as YoroTrooper.

MITRE Techniques :

  • Reconnaissance (T1589.002): Gather Victim Identity Information: Email Addresses.
  • Initial Access (T1204.002): User Execution: Malicious File.
  • Initial Access (T1078.002): Valid Accounts: Domain Accounts.
  • Execution (T1059.001): Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell.
  • Persistence (T1547.001): Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder.
  • Credential Access (T1056.001): Input Capture: Keylogging.
  • Credential Access (T1552.001): Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files.
  • Discovery (T1087): Account Discovery.
  • Discovery (T1083): File and Directory Discovery.
  • Collection (T1560.001): Archive Collected Data: Archive via Utility.
  • Exfiltration (T1567.002): Exfiltration to Cloud Storage.

Indicator of Compromise :

  • [file name] 147.exe
  • [file hash] efb700681713cd50a2addd1fea6b7ee80c084467d3e87668688b9f06642062ba
  • [file name] Xerox_Scan17510875802718752175.exe
  • [file hash] e6f76a73180b4f2947764f4de57b52d037b482ece1a88dab9d3290e76be8c098
  • [domain] hxxps://pweobmxdlboi[.]com
  • Check the article for all found IoCs.

Full Research: https://www.seqrite.com/blog/silent-lynx-apt-targeting-central-asian-entities/