OPERATION SILENTCANVAS: JPEG BASED MULTISTAGE POWERSHELL INTRUSION
Source AlienVault OTX General
Description
A sophisticated multi-stage intrusion campaign was identified leveraging a weaponized PowerShell payload disguised as a JPEG image file (sysupdate.jpeg) to deploy a trojanized ConnectWise ScreenConnect instance for covert remote access. The attack likely originates through social engineering techniques including phishing emails or malicious attachments. Upon execution, the malware establishes a staging environment, retrieves additional payloads from attacker-controlled infrastructure, and dynamically compiles a custom launcher using Microsoft's legitimate .NET compiler (csc.exe) to evade detection. The intrusion abuses ComputerDefaults.exe and a malicious ms-settings registry hijack to perform a fileless UAC bypass and obtain elevated privileges. Once elevated, the malware deploys a persistent service masquerading as OneDriveServers and launches a modified ScreenConnect framework capable of credential interception, remote command execution, surveillance operations, SYSTEM-level execution, encrypted command...
Indicators of compromise
Domains 1
- legitserver.theworkpc.com