Link to original page : McAfee Uncovers Operation Honeybee, a Malicious Document Campaign Targeting Humanitarian Aid Groups
Repository containing Indicators of Compromise and Yara rules
Excerpts from the web page :
Repository containing Indicators of Compromise and Yara rules
Excerpts from the web page :
McAfee Advanced Threat Research analysts have discovered a new operation targeting humanitarian aid organizations and using North Korean political topics as bait to lure victims into opening malicious Microsoft Word documents. Our analysts have named this Operation Honeybee, based on the names of the malicious documents used in the attacks.
Advanced Threat Research analysts have also discovered malicious documents authored by the same actor that indicate a tactical shift. These documents do not contain the typical lures by this actor, instead using Word compatibility messages to entice victims into opening them.
This malicious document contains a Visual Basic macro that dropped and executed an upgraded version of the implant known as SYSCON, which appeared in 2017 in malicious Word documents as part of several campaigns using North Korea–related topics. The malicious Visual Basic script uses a unique key (custom alphabet) to encode data. We have seen this in previous operations using SYSCON. This key was also used in the Honeybee campaign and appears to have been used since August 2017.