The Shadow Campaigns Uncovering Global Espionage

[carlospolop]

🤖 Automated Content Update

This PR was automatically generated by the HackTricks News Bot based on a technical blog post.

📝 Source Information

• Blog URL: https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/shadow-campaigns-uncovering-global-espionage/
• Blog Title: The Shadow Campaigns: Uncovering Global Espionage
• Suggested Section: Generic Methodologies & Resources -> Malware Analysis / Anti-Forensic Techniques (anti-sandbox gating) and/or Pentesting Web -> Defense Evasion / Payload Staging techniques; additionally Linux Post-Exploitation -> rootkit/anti-forensics notes (eBPF-based hiding) if expanded with more technical detail

🎯 Content Summary

Title / Context
Unit 42 details a large-scale cyberespionage activity cluster they track as TGR-STA-1030 (aka UNC6619), referred to as the “Shadow Campaigns”. Unit 42 assesses with high confidence the actor is state-aligned and operating from Asia. Over the prior year, they report compromises of government and critical infrastructure across 37 countries (at least 70 organizations) and active reconnaissance against government infr...

🔧 Technical Details

Anti-sandbox “environment + dependency” detonation gating: Package malware so it only detonates when multiple prerequisites match the attacker’s expected execution context. Combine a host attribute check (e.g., horizontal screen resolution >= 1440) with a file-based dependency/integrity check (e.g., require a companion file like a zero-byte pic1.png in the working directory). If the dependency is missing (common when sandboxes execute only a submitted EXE), exit cleanly to suppress behavioral artifacts and evade automated analysis.

Living-off-common-hosting staged payload retrieval: Use widely trusted hosting/CDN endpoints (e.g., GitHub raw content URLs) to retrieve multiple “benign-looking” blobs (images) and transform/decrypt/unpack them locally into a final payload (here, resulting in a Cobalt Strike implant). This complicates network filtering because the initial downloads resemble ordinary static content fetches from common domai...

🤖 Agent Actions

Updated malware-analysis.md with new tradecraft coverage: added Diaoyu-style dual guardrails (screen resolution + companion file) for sandbox-aware staging, GitHub raw “image” payload staging notes, and ShadowGuard eBPF rootkit process/file hiding controls plus DFIR hunting tips. Appended reference to the Shadow Campaigns Unit42 blog.

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[carlospolop]

🔗 Additional Context

Original Blog Post: https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/shadow-campaigns-uncovering-global-espionage/

Content Categories: Based on the analysis, this content was categorized under "Generic Methodologies & Resources -> Malware Analysis / Anti-Forensic Techniques (anti-sandbox gating) and/or Pentesting Web -> Defense Evasion / Payload Staging techniques; additionally Linux Post-Exploitation -> rootkit/anti-forensics notes (eBPF-based hiding) if expanded with more technical detail".

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