A recent analysis by WithSecure’s Incident Response team uncovered a highly targeted malware campaign aimed at users of KeePass, a popular open-source password management tool. The attackers used malvertising techniques on search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo to redirect users to malicious replicas of the KeePass download page. These deceptive sites distributed compromised installers, which were re-signed with valid digital certificates to avoid detection and gain user trust. Once downloaded, the installer deployed a custom malware loader named KeeLoader, which tampered with essential KeePass binaries like KeePass.exe and ShInstUtil.exe. After compromising the system, KeeLoader established persistence by modifying autorun registry keys and covertly launched a Cobalt Strike beacon. This beacon was disguised as a JPG file, encrypted with RC4, and programmed to activate only when a password database was accessed, helping it bypass detection from sandbox environments. When triggered, the malware extracted stored login credentials and account data from KeePass, saving the information to a local CSV file labeled with a random numeric name. Data exfiltration was believed to be manually conducted through the active Cobalt Strike beacon, reducing the risk of triggering automated alerts. Further investigation linked the attack infrastructure to a known Initial Access Broker (IAB) involved in prior ransomware activity, with ties to the Black Basta and BlackCat threat groups. The operation leveraged domains registered via Namecheap, Cloudflare hosting, and ephemeral HTTPS certificates issued by Google Trust Services to avoid detection and takedown. This campaign highlights the increasing use of trusted software as a malware delivery vehicle, a tactic that adds complexity to threat detection and response. Users are strongly encouraged to download KeePass only from its official website, remain vigilant for suspicious behavior, and adopt zero-trust security models to counter the risks posed by sophisticated supply chain threats.
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