The menace actor often known as Blind Eagle has been attributed with excessive confidence to the usage of the Russian bulletproof internet hosting service Proton66.
Trustwave SpiderLabs, in a report revealed final week, stated it was in a position to make this connection by pivoting from Proton66-linked digital property, resulting in the invention of an energetic menace cluster that leverages Visible Primary Script (VBS) information as its preliminary assault vector and installs off-the-shelf distant entry trojans (RATS).
Many menace actors depend on bulletproWhereas Visible Primary Script (VBS) might sound outdated, it is nonetheless aof internet hosting suppliers like Proton66 as a result of these providers deliberately ignore abuse studies and authorized takedown requests. This makes it simpler for attackers to run phishing websites, command-and-control servers, and malware supply techniques with out interruption.
The cybersecurity firm stated it recognized a set of domains with an analogous naming sample (e.g., gfast.duckdns[.]org, njfast.duckdns[.]org) starting in August 2024, all of which resolved to the identical IP deal with (“45.135.232[.]38”) that is related to Proton66.
The usage of dynamic DNS providers like DuckDNS additionally performs a key position in these operations. As an alternative of registering new domains every time, attackers rotate subdomains tied to a single IP deal with — making detection tougher for defenders.
“The domains in query had been used to host a wide range of malicious content material, together with phishing pages and VBS scripts that function the preliminary stage of malware deployment,” safety researcher Serhii Melnyk stated. “These scripts act as loaders for second-stage instruments, which, on this marketing campaign, are restricted to publicly out there and sometimes open-source RATs.”
Whereas VBS might sound outdated, it is nonetheless a go-to instrument for preliminary entry because of its compatibility with Home windows techniques and talent to run silently within the background. Attackers use it to obtain malware loaders, bypass antivirus instruments, and mix into regular person exercise. These light-weight scripts are sometimes step one in multi-stage assaults, which later deploy RATs, information stealers, or keyloggers.
The phishing pages have been discovered to respectable Colombian banks and monetary establishments, together with Bancolombia, BBVA, Banco Caja Social, and Davivienda. Blind Eagle, also called AguilaCiega, APT-C-36, and APT-Q-98, is understood for its focusing on of entities in South America, notably Colombia and Ecuador.
The misleading websites are engineered to reap person credentials and different delicate info. The VBS payloads hosted on the infrastructure come fitted with capabilities to retrieve encrypted executable information from a distant server, basically appearing as a loader for commodity RATS like AsyncRAT or Remcos RAT.
Moreover, an evaluation of the VBS codes has revealed overlaps with Vbs-Crypter, a instrument linked to a subscription-based crypter service referred to as Crypters and Instruments that is used to obfuscate and pack VBS payloads with an purpose to keep away from detection.
Trustwave stated it additionally found a botnet panel that permits customers to “management contaminated machines, retrieve exfiltrated information, and work together with contaminated endpoints by a broad set of capabilities sometimes present in commodity RAT administration suites.”
The disclosure comes as Darktrace revealed particulars of a Blind Eagle marketing campaign that has been focusing on Colombian organizations since November 2024 by exploiting a now-patched Home windows flaw (CVE-2024-43451) to obtain and execute the next-stage payload, a conduct that was first documented by Examine Level in March 2025.
“The persistence of Blind Eagle and talent to adapt its techniques, even after patches had been launched, and the velocity at which the group had been in a position to proceed utilizing pre-established TTPs highlights that well timed vulnerability administration and patch software, whereas important, is just not a standalone protection,” the corporate stated.
