🚨 We’ve identified a new, previously unreported variant of
#SantaStealer (first reported by
@Rapid7 last December).
Using our code-similarity engine, we uncovered overlaps between the original and the new samples, which triggered a deeper investigation.
💡 The new variant maintains similar behavior and core functionality, but introduces several notable changes:
- Uses Mastodon as its C2 infrastructure
- Encrypts many strings with AES-256-CBC
- Protects the C2 address and URL path with three layers of AES-256-CBC
Through retrohunting, we traced the earliest sample back to early January. Early builds contained fewer encrypted strings, while more recent samples show progressively heavier string encryption.
🧬
#IOCs:
756bbdb069db144f16dd62dc9ddbe0ac0b4d62ca303d48f65e95e5265bdc9f45 ace0a0d6615f233f3c71781e59d6438bf3ca35ead4123cf4e02b97effd45a75c d3fb6919ce5b708d7e4f50e49050d5c497f658f89951418c4f590d9476764271 055d777c3d38269f07d454f07abc985dfa52493b669cd3cc687304a0a6425122 885b57ac755eb84c505fd41c55bc451746b29fb8101a8e1cff74d46e85a80bee b4d1b2f81992764178c6fbee4b91118f0350d4fa3a70abc9a9abfaf7b7b77b37 5621c4c3f8fd7a9b62894a79c44d29dfb35143dd833e7ac47bd06b3f0c8d9102 14e2358e66c2dfd1aa283cc030a49110b06fd057cdebb9e96ff10e44ef0c012b b54cc77250a22c94b7acbd1bbdab6bba650d4d3a6bf6b37c6128fab13c2c0813 763f815d2fca9acd9266fa0129954a6d219baaf34e447f333d880f5a51521a67 cc1de746b577bf949aeeab2db18c07f6be0346e9f519a39c8bb1b7effca0458d 391158e325043bfd5b6bc0d66dc0fda3455bfe76e519deaf1ee46c966e0f2fc4 99f4a1e2d828e2c4e32084c51b26bd0ba22a8e982776537204e119653e2e2db1 3545ae95ec6e180adb41914e1c22fa726d5f769195d539a774fe8f9daba1d8ee 6ba6373af16ae34d3f0322e6f54087bc33e620a0a369323bc76a1addc8175ace