Cyber Threat Report: 'APT29 Uses WINELOADER to Target German Political Parties'
| Report Author | Mandiant |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2024-03-22 |
| Original Reporting | Source |
| Attributed to Nation | Russia |
| Related Intrusion Sets | APT29 |
| Related Threat Actors | SVR - Russian Foreign Intelligence Service |
This blog post by Mandiant describes activity by APT29, linked to Russia's SVR, which targeted German political parties with a new backdoor: WINELOADER. This marks a shift from the group's usual diplomatic targets, indicating an interest in political intelligence. According to the post, victims received phishing emails with a CDU-themed lure, leading to a malicious ZIP file containing the ROOTSAW dropper. The blog includes a technical annex with MITRE ATT&CK techniques and details on WINELOADER's features and functions.
Cyber Threat Graph Context
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Mitigations to defend against the techniques in this report
Privileged Account Management
Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to privileged accounts, including SYSTEM and root.User Account Management
Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to user accounts.Audit
Perform audits or scans of systems, permissions, insecure software, insecure configurations, etc. to identify potential weaknesses.Behavior Prevention on Endpoint
Use capabilities to prevent suspicious behavior patterns from occurring on endpoint systems. This could include suspicious process, file, API call, etc. behavior.Antivirus/Antimalware
Use signatures or heuristics to detect malicious software.User Training
Train users to be aware of access or manipulation attempts by an adversary to reduce the risk of successful spearphishing, social engineering, and other techniques that involve user interaction.Operating System Configuration
Make configuration changes related to the operating system or a common feature of the operating system that result in system hardening against techniques.Code Signing
Enforce binary and application integrity with digital signature verification to prevent untrusted code from executing.Identified MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
| ATT&CK ID | Title | Associated Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| T1082 | System Information Discovery | Discovery |
| T1012 | Query Registry | Discovery |
| T1134 | Access Token Manipulation | Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation |
| T1083 | File and Directory Discovery | Discovery |
| T1057 | Process Discovery | Discovery |
| T1027 | Obfuscated Files or Information | Defense Evasion |
| T1543.003 | Windows Service | Persistence, Privilege Escalation |
| T1007 | System Service Discovery | Discovery |
| T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking | Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation |
| T1070.004 | File Deletion | Defense Evasion |