Analysis Summary

SharpPanda, the Chinese advanced persistent (APT) threat actor that has been active since at least 2018, has reinforced its cyber warfare activities. SharpPanda APT attacks and targets Southeast Asian government users with template injection of malicious documents. The attackers use spear-phishing to gain initial access and leverage old Microsoft Office vulnerabilities together with the chain of in-memory loaders to attempt and install a previously unknown backdoor on the victim’s machines. Upon opening the document, it connects back to the hacker’s server to download the payload file.

The campaign that was initiated at the beginning of 2022 starts from the distribution of malicious DOCX documents that are sent to different employees of a government entity in Southeast Asia. In some cases, the emails are spoofed to look like they were from other government-related entities. The attachments to these emails are weaponized copies of legitimate-looking official documents and use the remote template technique to pull the next stage from the attacker’s server.

Impact

• Template Injection
• Exposure of Sensitive Data

Indicators of Compromise

IP

• 38.54.31.43

MD5

• 6dfba2e6ae44c0efc5835e0c5838c5ea
• 7a26f14a61caddf7dc86c3c206bdd3ed
• 7f43376ba2512ee14c9aceb475af8f98

SHA-256

• 47bbd623b026c88e6275434e91b5329026e6291700cd3e802b6719d2a67f1805
• c16cdce72822bd40a5769811c36768147a3090438b1511fa01c68f7c51bd65c6
• cd24a44f2fcb9e8bbedee3ba9a2d1026272f1296a584f8832022eda57b98574c

SHA1

• 27a0fc054c8428b3a49dcfef98e3c8f53bc2b9a4
• d6bcbc0eb29ac7dd9f82b4cef3b52ffb8b61bfcf
• 33ef9fda2548219ab279ab0ab5025d261855db03

URL

• http://38.54.31.43/WindowsTime/update.php?Data=
• http://38.54.31.43/WindowsTime/Fishing.png

Remediation

• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) in your environment utilizing your respective security controls
• Do not download documents attached in emails from unknown sources and strictly refrain from enabling macros when the source isn’t reliable.
• Enable antivirus and anti-malware software and update signature definitions promptly. Using multi-layered protection is necessary to secure vulnerable assets
• Along with network and system hardening, code hardening should be implemented within the organization so that their websites and software are secure. Use testing tools to detect any vulnerabilities in the deployed codes.