{"id":5303,"date":"2025-05-20T10:33:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T10:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=5303"},"modified":"2025-05-20T10:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T10:33:50","slug":"south-asian-ministries-hit-by-sidewinder-apt-using-old-office-flaws-and-custom-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=5303","title":{"rendered":"South Asian Ministries Hit by SideWinder APT Using Old Office Flaws and Custom Malware"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Security Update News<\/h2>\n<h3>Update Information<\/h3>\n<table style=\"width:100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Title<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">South Asian Ministries Hit by SideWinder APT Using Old Office Flaws and Custom Malware<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Update ID<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">THN:90459831F00E9055F260B7933321B29F<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Type<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">thn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Published<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">2025-05-20T12:57:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Last Updated<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">2025-05-20T12:57:29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Security Impact<\/h3>\n<table style=\"width:100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">CVSS Score<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">7.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Severity<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; color: #ff4444; font-weight: bold;\">HIGH<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align: left; padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; \">Attack Vector<\/th>\n<td style=\"padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">LOCAL<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Affected CVEs<\/h3>\n<div style=\" padding: 15px; border: 1px solid #ddd; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n<ul style=\"margin: 0; padding-left: 20px;\">\n<li>CVE-2017-0199<\/li>\n<li>CVE-2017-11882<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Update Details<\/h3>\n<div style=\"; padding: 15px; border-left: 4px solid #4CAF50; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n![](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>High-level government institutions in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan have emerged as the target of a new campaign orchestrated by a threat actor known as SideWinder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The attackers used spear phishing emails paired with geofenced payloads to ensure that only victims in specific countries received the malicious content,&#8221; Acronis researchers Santiago Pontiroli, Jozsef Gegeny, and Prakas Thevendaran said in a report shared with The Hacker News.<\/p>\n<p>The attack chains leverage spear-phishing lures as a starting point to activate the infection process and deploy a known malware referred to as StealerBot. It&#8217;s worth pointing out that the modus operandi is consistent with recent SideWinder attacks documented by Kaspersky in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p>![Cybersecurity](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>Some of the targets of the campaign, per Acronis, include Bangladesh&#8217;s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Defence, and Ministry of Finance; Pakistan&#8217;s Directorate of Indigenous Technical Development; and Sri Lanka&#8217;s Department of External Resources, Department of Treasury Operations, Ministry of Defence, and Central Bank.<\/p>\n<p>The attacks are characterized by the use of years-old remote code execution flaws in Microsoft Office (CVE-2017-0199 and CVE-2017-11882) as initial vectors to deploy malware capable of maintaining persistent access in government environments across South Asia.<\/p>\n<p>![](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>The malicious documents, when opened, trigger an exploit for CVE-2017-0199 to deliver next-stage payloads that are responsible for installing StealerBot by means of DLL side-loading techniques.<\/p>\n<p>One noteworthy tactic adopted by SideWinder is that the spear-phishing emails are coupled with geofenced payloads to ensure that only victims meeting the targeting criteria are served the malicious content. In the event the victim&#8217;s IP address does not match, an empty RTF file is sent instead as a decoy.<\/p>\n<p>The malicious payload is an RTF file that weaponizes CVE-2017-11882, a memory corruption vulnerability in the Equation Editor, to launch a shellcode-based loader that runs the StealerBot malware.<\/p>\n<p>![Cybersecurity](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>StealerBot, according to Kaspersky, is a .NET implant that&#8217;s engineered to drop additional malware, launch a reverse shell, and collect a wide range of data from compromised hosts, including screenshots, keystrokes, passwords, and files.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;SideWinder has demonstrated consistent activity over time, maintaining a steady pace of operations without prolonged inactivity \u2014 a pattern that reflects organizational continuity and sustained intent,&#8221; the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A closer analysis of their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) reveals a high degree of control and precision, ensuring that malicious payloads are delivered only to carefully selected targets, and often only for a limited time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter _\uf099_ and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehackernews.com\/2025\/05\/south-asian-ministries-hit-by.html\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display: inline-block; color: white; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 4px;\">View Advisory Details<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Security Update News Update Information Title South Asian Ministries Hit by SideWinder APT Using Old Office Flaws and Custom Malware Update ID THN:90459831F00E9055F260B7933321B29F Type thn&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,8,28,12,15,13,7,11,43,5],"class_list":["post-5303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_news","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-cvss-78","tag-exploit","tag-high","tag-news","tag-security","tag-tapic","tag-thn","tag-vulnerability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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