EVILNUM
Evilnum is a backdoor and malware family associated with the DeathStalker threat actor, and has also been reported in activity targeting European financial and investment entities. The content describes it as used for data theft and for loading additional payloads. Observed targeting includes financial, investment, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrency-related organizations.
Documented infection vectors include spearphishing emails containing links to Google Drive-hosted ZIP files and lures designed to trick recipients into opening malicious shortcut links that result in .LNK download and execution. Evilnum activity has also involved malicious JavaScript on victim machines.
Capabilities directly mentioned in the content include collecting the username from the victim machine; harvesting browser cookies and web session information and uploading them to command-and-control infrastructure; collecting email credentials from victims; uploading files from the infected host over the C2 channel; executing commands and scripts through rundll32; running a remote scriptlet that drops a file and executes it via regsvr32.exe; using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to enumerate infected machines; modifying the Windows Registry for persistence; changing file creation dates for defense evasion; and removing artifacts via a function named "DeleteLeftovers." The group has also used PowerShell to bypass UAC, deployed additional components or tools as needed, and used the TerraTV malware variant to load a malicious DLL from the TeamViewer directory and run legitimate TeamViewer for remote access to compromised machines. A TerraLoader component was used to check hardware and file information for sandbox detection.
High-confidence behaviors and artifacts mentioned in the content include the malware function name "DeleteLeftovers," abuse of regsvr32.exe and rundll32.exe for execution, WMI-based host enumeration, Registry-based persistence, cookie and credential theft, file upload over C2, timestomping via changed file creation dates, and spearphishing delivery via Google Drive-hosted ZIP or malicious shortcut-link lures.
Hunt this family in your stack
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Groups observed using it
3 distinct threat actors attributed by public researchers. Open in Mallory to see the full evidence chain and overlapping campaigns.
We discovered it in Q2 2020 as part of an update of the Evilnum modus operandi, and attributed it to DeathStalker.
"TA4563 is a threat actor leveraging EvilNum malware to target European financial and investment entities... EvilNum is a backdoor that can be used for data theft or to load additional payloads."
Techniques & procedures
26 distinct techniques documented for this family, organized by ATT&CK tactic.
Initial Access
2 techniques
Initial Access
Execution
6 techniques
Execution
The content repeatedly describes threat actors and malware using WMI/WMIC/wmiexec for remote execution, lateral movement, discovery, persistence, and administrative actions; e.g., 'APT41 used WMI in several ways, including for execution of commands via WMIEXEC as well as for persistence via PowerSploit' and 'Scattered Spider used Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to move laterally via Impacket.'
“executing PowerShell via cmd.exe… downloads two different payloads…”; “PowerShell script loads C# code dynamically…”; “executes another PowerShell command… -windowstyle hidden”
“The initial stage LNK loader is responsible for executing PowerShell via cmd.exe…”
APT32 created a Scheduled Task/Job that used regsvr32.exe to execute a COM scriptlet that dynamically downloaded a backdoor and injected it into memory. ... RogueRobin uses regsvr32.exe to run a .sct file for execution.
Persistence
2 techniques
Persistence
The content repeatedly describes threat actors and malware modifying, creating, deleting, or storing data in Windows Registry keys and values for persistence, configuration storage, defense evasion, credential access, privilege escalation, and execution.
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors establishing persistence by adding values under HKCU/HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or RunOnce, and by placing executables, scripts, or .lnk files in the Startup folder.
Privilege Escalation
1 technique
Privilege Escalation
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors establishing persistence by adding values under HKCU/HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or RunOnce, and by placing executables, scripts, or .lnk files in the Startup folder.
Stealth
9 techniques
Stealth
APT5 has used the THINBLOOD utility to clear SSL VPN log files located at /home/runtime/logs.
APT5 has used the THINBLOOD utility to clear SSL VPN log files located at /home/runtime/logs.
APT28 has performed timestomping on victim files. APT29 has used timestomping to alter the Standard Information timestamps on their web shells to match other files in the same directory. APT32 has used scheduled task raw XML with a backdated timestamp... APT38 has modified data timestamps to mimic files that are in the same folder on a compromised host.
“decrypt a PNG… restart the infection chain”; “payload contains two encrypted blobs… decrypted to an executable… and …TMP… decrypts … to load … shellcode … final decrypted and decompressed PE file.”
AppleSeed can call regsvr32.exe for execution. APT19 used Regsvr32 to bypass application control techniques. APT32 created a Scheduled Task/Job that used regsvr32.exe to execute a COM scriptlet that dynamically downloaded a backdoor and injected it into memory. ... Raspberry Robin uses regsvr32.exe execution without any command line parameters for command and control requests to IP addresses associated with Tor nodes.
Defense Impairment
1 technique
Defense Impairment
Credential Access
1 technique
Credential Access
Discovery
3 techniques
Discovery
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors collecting usernames, identifying logged-in users, running whoami/query user/quser, checking whether the current user is an administrator, enumerating user sessions, and gathering account details from compromised hosts.
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors collecting host details such as OS version, hostname, architecture, CPU, memory, BIOS, domain, language, and other configuration data; e.g., "APT41 uses multiple built-in commands such as systeminfo and net config Workstation to enumerate victim system basic configuration information."
Collection
1 technique
Collection
Command and Control
2 techniques
Command and Control
Exfiltration
1 technique
Exfiltration
ADVSTORESHELL exfiltrates data over the same channel used for C2... Agrius exfiltrated staged data using tools such as Putty and WinSCP, communicating with command and control servers... numerous malware and groups sent victim data, files, credentials, or host information over existing C2 channels.
IOCs tracked for this family
29 indicators attributed across vendor reports, sandbox runs, and researcher write-ups. Full values are available in Mallory.
IPs, domains, and DNS infrastructure linked to this family.
File hashes (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256) from samples and reports.
Other indicator types observed in public reporting.
Recent activity
27 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A DeathStalker-associated malware/campaign referenced as the earlier modus operandi from which the VileRAT activity evolved.
Malware that can alter file creation dates.
A C#-based backdoor used for reconnaissance and data theft, with an execution chain that adapts based on detected antivirus (Avast/AVG/Windows Defender). Delivered via phishing using Word/ISO/LNK, leveraging LNK loaders, wscript, PowerShell, encrypted blobs, and shellcode to ultimately load a final PE payload; can also act as a loader for follow-on payloads.
Malware family referenced in the context of DeathStalker intrusion history; no additional details provided in this content.
The version that knows your environment.
Match every observed IP, domain, and hash against your live telemetry.
Named campaigns wielding this family, with evidence pinned to each claim.
CVEs this family uses for access and lateral movement.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Every documented technique, ranked by evidence weight.
Reddit, Mastodon, and CTI community discussion around this family.