Mélofée: Researchers Uncover New Linux Malware Linked to Chinese APT Groups

An unknown Chinese state-sponsored hacking team has been joined to a novel piece of malware aimed at Linux servers.

French cybersecurity firm ExaTrack, which located 3 samples of the formerly documented malicious software package that date back to early 2022, dubbed it Mélofée.

1 of the artifacts is created to fall a kernel-method rootkit that’s based mostly on an open supply venture referred to as Reptile.

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“In accordance to the vermagic metadata, it is compiled for a kernel variation 5.10.112-108.499.amzn2.x86_64,” the company claimed in a report. “The rootkit has a restricted established of options, generally putting in a hook built for hiding by itself.”

Each the implant and the rootkit are mentioned to be deployed working with shell instructions that obtain an installer and a personalized binary bundle from a distant server.

The installer requires the binary package deal as an argument and then extracts the rootkit as very well as a server implant module that is currently below active improvement.

Mélofée’s options are no different from other backdoors of its type, enabling it to contact a remote server and obtain recommendations that make it possible for it to carry out file operations, create sockets, launch a shell, and execute arbitrary commands.

The malware’s ties to China appear from infrastructure overlaps with groups these types of as APT41 (aka Winnti) and Earth Berberoka (aka GamblingPuppet).

Earth Berberoka is the identify provided to a condition-sponsored actor mainly targeting gambling web-sites in China because at minimum 2020 utilizing multi-platform malware like HelloBot and Pupy RAT.

In accordance to Trend Micro, some samples of the Python-dependent Pupy RAT have been hid utilizing the Reptile rootkit.

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Also found out by ExaTrack is a further implant codenamed AlienReverse, which shares code similarities with Mélofée and can make use of publicly-offered applications like EarthWorm and socks_proxy.

“The Mélofée implant family members is one more resource in the arsenal of Chinese state sponsored attackers, which clearly show regular innovation and advancement,” the firm reported.

“The abilities supplied by Mélofée are rather straightforward, but may perhaps enable adversaries to carry out their attacks under the radar. These implants have been not greatly observed, exhibiting that the attackers are probable limiting its usage to superior benefit targets.”

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