PhantomCore, a hacking group targeting Russian and Belarusian companies since 2022, launched a new wave of malicious email campaigns on January 19 and 21, 2026. The attacks targeted various sectors including utilities, finance, urban infrastructure, aerospace, consumer digital services, chemical industry, construction, consumer goods manufacturing, and e-commerce. The campaign used phishing emails with malicious attachments, leveraging compromised legitimate email addresses. The malware operates in multiple stages, including downloading decoy documents, executing PowerShell scripts, and establishing persistence through scheduled tasks. The second stage malware, similar to previously known PhantomCore.PollDL, communicates with command and control servers to receive and execute commands.
A comprehensive analysis reveals a substantial threat posed by domains linked to Salt Typhoon and UNC4841, likely China-associated cyberespionage actors. The investigation uncovered a larger network of domain names beyond those publicly known, indicating a pattern of long-term access and sophisticated operations. A recent breach of a U.S.telecommunications provider, discovered a year after the fact, underscores the persistent nature of these threats. Organizations potentially at risk of Chinese espionage are strongly advised to scrutinize their DNS logs for the past five years, checking for requests to listed domains, subdomains, and associated IP addresses. Ongoing monitoring and information sharing are crucial in defending against this evolving threat landscape.
