Malware Campaigns Using Social Engineering to Deliver Proxyware, RATs, and Ransomware
Multiple active malware campaigns are using social engineering and trojanized content to compromise Windows systems, with lures ranging from pirated software downloads to business and shipping documents. AhnLab reported a “proxyjacking” operation attributed to Larva-25012 that distributes fake installers (notably a trojanized Notepad++ package) via cracked-software sites; the Setup.zip bundle includes a legitimate Setup.exe plus a malicious sideloaded DLL (TextShaping.dll) that decrypts and installs DPLoader for persistent command retrieval and follow-on payload delivery. The malware also tampers with defenses by changing Microsoft Defender settings (e.g., exclusions, reduced notifications, and blocking sample submission) to reduce detection while monetizing victims’ bandwidth through installed proxyware.
Separately, FortiGuard Labs described a Russia-focused, multi-stage intrusion chain that abuses trusted services (GitHub and Dropbox) for payload hosting and weaponizes Defendnot (a Windows Security Center trust-model research tool) to disable Microsoft Defender before deploying a ransomware payload. Fortinet also documented phishing campaigns using weaponized shipping-themed Word documents to deliver Remcos RAT, including fileless execution behavior and exploitation of CVE-2017-11882 (Microsoft Equation Editor) via remotely fetched templates. These campaigns reinforce the operational risk from user-driven execution paths (pirated installers and document lures), “living off the land” techniques, and defense evasion through both policy tampering and security tooling abuse.
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