APT28 conducts long-term espionage on Ukrainian forces using custom malware
APT28 used BEARDSHELL and COVENANT malware to spy on Ukrainian military personnel, enabling long-term surveillance since April 2024. The Russia-linked group APT28 (aka UAC-0001, aka Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit, BlueDelta, and STRONTIUM) has used BEARDSHELL and COVENANT malware to conduct long-term surveillance of Ukrainian military personnel. According to ESET, the campaign began in April 2024 and relies on […]
The Russia-linked group APT28 (aka UAC-0001, aka Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit, BlueDelta, and STRONTIUM) has used BEARDSHELL and COVENANT malware to conduct long-term surveillance of Ukrainian military personnel. According to ESET, the campaign began in April 2024 and relies on custom implants designed to maintain persistent access and collect sensitive information from targeted systems.
“Since April 2024, Sednit’s advanced development team has reemerged with a modern toolkit centered on two paired implants, BeardShell and Covenant, each using a different cloud provider for resilience.” reads the report published by ESET. “This dual‑implant approach enabled long‑term surveillance of Ukrainian military personnel. Interestingly, these current toolsets show a direct code lineage to the group’s 2010‑era implants.”
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