{"id":6001,"date":"2025-05-27T02:35:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T02:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=6001"},"modified":"2025-05-27T02:35:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T02:35:36","slug":"russia-linked-hackers-target-tajikistan-government-with-weaponized-word-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=6001","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Linked Hackers Target Tajikistan Government with Weaponized Word Documents"},"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;\">Russia-Linked Hackers Target Tajikistan Government with Weaponized Word Documents<\/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:6B7D0980660FA174F06CDCBFE8E3A4EF<\/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;\">2025-05-27T06:54:00<\/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;\">2025-05-27T06:54:32<\/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;\">0.0<\/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: #666666; font-weight: bold;\">NONE<\/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;\"><\/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<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Update Details<\/h3>\n<div style=\"; padding: 15px; border-left: 4px solid #4CAF50; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n![Weaponized Word Documents](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>The Russia-aligned threat actor known as TAG-110 has been observed conducting a spear-phishing campaign targeting Tajikistan using macro-enabled Word templates as an initial payload.<\/p>\n<p>The attack chain is a departure from the threat actor&#8217;s previously documented use of an HTML Application (.HTA) loader dubbed HATVIBE, Recorded Future&#8217;s Insikt Group said in an analysis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Given TAG-110&#8217;s historical targeting of public sector entities in Central Asia, this campaign is likely targeting government, educational, and research institutions within Tajikistan,&#8221; the cybersecurity company noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These cyber espionage operations likely aim to gather intelligence for influencing regional politics or security, particularly during sensitive events like elections or geopolitical tensions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>![Cybersecurity](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>TAG-110, also called UAC-0063, is the name assigned to a threat activity group that&#8217;s known for its targeting of European embassies, as well as other organizations in Central Asia, East Asia, and Europe. It&#8217;s believed to be active at least since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Assessed to share overlaps with the Russian nation-state hacking crew APT28, activities associated with the threat actor were first documented by Romanian cybersecurity company Bitdefender in May 2023 in connection with a campaign that delivered a malware codenamed DownEx (aka STILLARCH) targeting government entities in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>However, it was the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) that formally assigned the moniker UAC-0063 that same month after it uncovered cyber attacks targeting state bodies in the country using malware strains like LOGPIE, CHERRYSPY (aka DownExPyer), DownEx, and PyPlunderPlug.<\/p>\n<p>![](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>The latest campaign aimed at Tajikistan organizations, observed starting January 2025, demonstrates a shift away from HATVIBE, distributed via HTA-embedded spear-phishing attachments, in favor of macro-enabled Word template (.DOTM) files, underscoring an evolution of their tactics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Previously, TAG-110 leveraged macro-enabled Word documents to deliver HATVIBE, an HTA-based malware, for initial access,&#8221; Recorded Future said. &#8220;The newly detected documents do not contain the embedded HTA HATVIBE payload for creating a scheduled task and instead leverage a global template file placed in the Word startup folder for persistence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>![Cybersecurity](data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)<\/p>\n<p>The phishing emails have been found to use Tajikistan government-themed documents as lure material, which aligns with its historical use of trojanized legitimate government documents as a malware delivery vector. However, the cybersecurity company said it could not independently verify the authenticity of these documents.<\/p>\n<p>Present with the files is a VBA macro that&#8217;s responsible for placing the document template in the Microsoft Word startup folder for automatic execution and subsequently initiating communications with a command-and-control (C2) server and potentially executing additional VBA code supplied with C2 responses. The exact nature of the second-stage payloads is not known.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, based on TAG-110&#8217;s historical activity and tool set, it is likely that successful initial access via the macro-enabled templates would result in the deployment of additional malware, such as HATVIBE, CHERRYSPY, LOGPIE, or potentially a new, custom-developed payload designed for espionage operations,&#8221; the company said.<\/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\/russia-linked-hackers-target-tajikistan.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 Russia-Linked Hackers Target Tajikistan Government with Weaponized Word Documents Update ID THN:6B7D0980660FA174F06CDCBFE8E3A4EF Type thn Published 2025-05-27T06:54:00 Last Updated 2025-05-27T06:54:32&#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":[6,8,34,12,13,33,7,11,43,5],"class_list":["post-6001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_news","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-cvss-00","tag-exploit","tag-news","tag-none","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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