HazyLoad
HazyLoad is a custom-made proxy tool associated with North Korean Lazarus/Andariel activity. Cisco Talos identified it as a common artifact in the Lazarus Group campaign dubbed Operation Blacksmith and described BottomLoader as being used to fetch additional payloads such as HazyLoad. Talos reported HazyLoad targeting a European firm and an American subsidiary of a South Korean physical security and surveillance company as early as May 2023. The broader Operation Blacksmith activity opportunistically targeted internet-exposed enterprise infrastructure through n-day exploitation, including CVE-2021-44228 (Log4Shell) on publicly facing VMware Horizon servers, followed by reconnaissance, credential dumping, and deployment of proxy tooling for persistent access. The campaign showed overlaps with activity attributed to Onyx Sleet/PLUTIONIUM/Andariel, a subgroup under the Lazarus umbrella. Separate reporting also lists HazyLoad among tools associated with NICKEL HYATT/Andariel. High-confidence details in the provided content identify HazyLoad specifically as a custom proxy tool used in Lazarus/Andariel-linked intrusions; no additional technical indicators or standalone infection vector details are provided beyond its role as a fetched payload within that campaign.
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Groups observed using it
1 distinct threat actor attributed by public researchers. Open in Mallory to see the full evidence chain and overlapping campaigns.
"Tools Rifle, ActiveX 0-day, Valefor, HazyLoad, HotCriossant, DTrack, UnitBot"
Recent activity
3 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Custom proxy/reverse-proxy tool used to maintain direct access and provide redundant backdoor connectivity after initial compromise, reducing the need to repeatedly exploit the initial-access vulnerability.
Referenced as malware associated with exploitation of JetBrains TeamCity CVE-2023-42793 (no further details provided in the content).
Tooling attributed to NICKEL HYATT; the content lists it as part of the group’s toolset but does not describe functionality beyond being a named tool.
The version that knows your environment.
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Named campaigns wielding this family, with evidence pinned to each claim.
CVEs this family uses for access and lateral movement.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Every documented technique, ranked by evidence weight.
Reddit, Mastodon, and CTI community discussion around this family.