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Trellix disclosed PathWiper, a destructive malware operation that abuses DCOM to move across Windows environments and trigger large-scale disk wiping. The activity was presented as a network erasure campaign rather than conventional ransomware, with the malware designed to render systems inoperable by corrupting or destroying data across affected hosts.
The report highlights the use of legitimate Windows remote management mechanisms to propagate the wiper, underscoring how trusted administrative features can be turned into destructive tradecraft. For defenders, the findings point to the need for tighter controls on DCOM usage, stronger monitoring of lateral movement through native Windows components, and rapid containment of suspicious remote execution activity before wiping actions spread across the network.
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Trellix published research describing PathWiper, including its abuse of DCOM and use for network-wide destructive wiping. The publication marks the public disclosure of the malware and its technical behavior.
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Microsoft disclosed a destructive Go-based Windows backdoor dubbed **GigaWiper** that has been observed in compromised environments since October 2025, combining espionage, remote access, and sabotage functions in a single modular implant. The malware supports about 20 command codes and can wipe physical disks, overwrite the Windows drive, trigger BSOD-based disruption, clear event logs, manipulate processes, services, and the registry, capture screenshots, record screens, and provide hidden VNC-like remote control. It also masquerades as OneDrive and uses **RabbitMQ**, **Redis**, and in some reporting **MinIO** for command, result handling, and data exfiltration. Microsoft said GigaWiper appears to be assembled from at least three malware families, with code overlaps linking it to **Crucio** and **FlockWiper** and references to a broader framework labeled **GRAT**. One destructive component mimics ransomware by encrypting files without preserving a recovery key, making restoration impossible except from clean backups, while another performs multi-pass secure wiping. Separate reporting said the same hashes and command-and-control infrastructure matched Binary Defense's earlier **BLUERABBIT** findings, and cited broader research associating related tooling with likely Iran-linked operations targeting Israeli organizations, though Microsoft did not publicly attribute the activity to a country.
Jul 10, 2026
Multiple Windows-focused malware campaigns were reported leveraging *trusted distribution and execution paths* rather than exploiting software vulnerabilities. One campaign attributed to **Larva-25012** disguised proxyware as legitimate *Notepad++* installers distributed via fake cracked-software portals and deceptive ads, primarily impacting South Korea. The payloads were hosted on GitHub and delivered as MSI/ZIP packages containing legitimate components plus malicious DLLs, using **DLL side-loading** and process injection into **Windows Explorer** to deploy proxyware (e.g., **Infatica** and **DigitalPulse**) for **proxyjacking**—monetizing victims’ internet bandwidth by reselling access through their networks. A separate multi-stage Windows malware operation used business-themed lures and weaponized archives containing **LNK** shortcuts to run hidden **PowerShell** with execution-policy bypass, pulling an obfuscated loader from GitHub and using legitimate services (e.g., **Dropbox**) to blend into normal traffic. Fortinet-reported tradecraft included persistence, decoy document generation, and beaconing via the **Telegram Bot API**, followed by defense evasion through abuse of **Defendnot** to disable Microsoft Defender before dropping follow-on payloads such as ransomware, banking trojans, and surveillance tooling. Additional reporting highlighted a broader trend of attackers abusing legitimate infrastructure and admin tooling (including **RMM** software after credential theft) to establish persistent access, while generic “common threats” content provided no incident-specific intelligence.
Jun 29, 2026
Security researchers have identified new and stealthy techniques leveraging Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed COM (DCOM) technologies for lateral movement and persistence within Windows environments. One report details the discovery of a previously undocumented DCOM object that can be abused for remote command execution and persistence by exploiting Control Panel items, highlighting both the technical mechanisms and detection strategies for defenders. The research also reviews the current state of tools like Impacket’s `dcomexec` script and discusses how adversaries enumerate and leverage COM objects for malicious purposes. In a separate breach assessment, investigators uncovered a threat actor using a ComHandler within Windows Scheduled Tasks to maintain long-term command-and-control access. The attacker deployed custom surrogate DLLs and targeted tasks named `User_Feed_Synchronization-{GUID}` to execute code, remaining undetected for at least seven months. This technique, tracked as UKC-1230, demonstrates the real-world application of COM-based persistence and the challenges defenders face in detecting such abuse, especially when attackers mimic legitimate system activity.
Jun 29, 2026