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Inside a Multi-Stage Windows Malware Campaign

0
Medium
Published: Tue Jan 20 2026 (01/20/2026, 17:50:42 UTC)
Source: AlienVault OTX General

Description

A sophisticated multi-stage malware campaign targeting Windows users in Russia has been identified. The attack chain begins with social engineering lures and progresses to a full system compromise, including security bypass, surveillance, and ransomware delivery. It abuses Defendnot to disable Microsoft Defender and uses modular hosting across cloud services. The attack employs various techniques such as PowerShell scripts, obfuscated VBScript, and COM object manipulation. It deploys Amnesia RAT for data theft and surveillance, Hakuna Matata ransomware for file encryption, and a WinLocker component for system lockout. The campaign demonstrates how full system compromise can be achieved without exploiting software vulnerabilities, instead relying on social engineering and abuse of legitimate Windows features.

Technical Details

Author
AlienVault
Tlp
white
References
["https://www.fortinet.com/blog/threat-research/inside-a-multi-stage-windows-malware-campaign"]
Adversary
null
Pulse Id
696fc0723c9020d483708e56
Threat Score
null

Indicators of Compromise

Hash

ValueDescriptionCopy
hashea498b9d0f0ad35c8ea2c21bf98cc557
hash00f66065a4af319947a1004bb1dbb2c24b5e7fa3
hash1828614be6d9bdd92f7ee30e12c8aac8eba33a6df2c92995f9bf930c3f1b992b
hash263b5ba921e478215dc9e3a397157badab415fc775cfb4681821b7446c14fb1a
hash359fe8df31c903153667fbe93795929ad6172540b3ee7f9eff4bcc1da6d08478
hash3aa6ebb73390d304eef8fd897994906c05f3e967f8f6f6a7904c6156cf8819f9
hash45e942ba59f3876b263a03ed7e5d5b1b250e84a0a4b4093b3c13b5fca4e12b21
hash5443232a367a83ac2899b37c066dae3ec2010df292291db24ce3d744133218a6
hash6222775b877b4be4f5407525d52c5889739b96c302e5a204ef369b4a51c6dab2
hash71069a5d2a80a047ca36ca82e630d353829726d4f03a74c7522b7700c5c2bb59
hash7b8cf0ef390a7d6126c5e7bf835af5c5ce32c70c0d58ca4ddc9c238b2d3f059a
hash7de56603a7b41fca9313231df6105dbb8148d3b0d80dfbc00e71e1d88f871915
hashe6ca6bab85ae1eff08a59b46b7905ae0568110da172dec8367f32779094bdd08

Threat ID: 696fc78c4623b1157c44328d

Added to database: 1/20/2026, 6:21:00 PM

Last updated: 1/20/2026, 6:22:01 PM

Views: 1

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