Security News > 2022 > January > North Korean Hackers Using Windows Update Service to Infect PCs with Malware

The notorious Lazarus Group actor has been observed mounting a new campaign that makes use of the Windows Update service to execute its malicious payload, expanding the arsenal of living-off-the-land techniques leveraged by the APT group to further its objectives.

The Lazarus Group, also known as APT38, Hidden Cobra, Whois Hacking Team, and Zinc, is the moniker assigned to the North Korea-based nation-state hacking group that's been active since at least 2009.

Last year, the threat actor was linked to an elaborate social engineering campaign targeting security researchers.

In the next phase, one of the loaded binaries, "Drops lnk.dll," leverages the Windows Update client to run a second module called "Wuaueng.dll." "This is an interesting technique used by Lazarus to run its malicious DLL using the Windows Update Client to bypass security detection mechanisms," researchers Ankur Saini and Hossein Jazi noted.

"Lazarus APT is one of the advanced APT groups that is known to target the defense industry," the researchers concluded.

"The group keeps updating its toolset to evade security mechanisms. Even though they have used their old job theme method, they employed several new techniques to bypass detections."

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https://thehackernews.com/2022/01/north-korean-hackers-using-windows.html