EXOTIC LILY
Exotic Lily is a phishing-focused threat actor and initial access broker. The content explicitly describes it as a Conti initial access broker and notes reporting that Lazarus likely resorted to initial access broker services including Exotic Lily’s. Exotic Lily has conducted email thread-hijacking campaigns using malicious ISO attachments and has relied on victims opening malicious links in emails for execution. It has gained execution through malicious LNK files contained within ISO files, which execute hidden DLLs. The actor has also used malicious documents exploiting CVE-2021-40444 affecting Microsoft MSHTML. Its tradecraft includes creating email accounts to spoof targeted organizations, registering spoofed domains by changing the top-level domain to .us, .co, or .biz, and establishing social media profiles that mimic employees of targeted companies. The group gathers victim information through open-source research, business databases including RocketReach and CrunchBase, social media, and victim website contact forms to support impersonation and tailored phishing. For payload delivery, Exotic Lily has abused legitimate file-sharing services and their notification features, including WeTransfer, TransferNow, TransferXL, and OneDrive, and has uploaded malicious payloads to those services. The content also links Exotic Lily to BumbleBee delivery in an intrusion where a phishing email likely delivered a password-protected ZIP containing an ISO and malicious LNK file that executed rundll32 to load a DLL payload. Known alias information in the provided content is limited to the lowercase form exotic_lily.
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Tradecraft
34 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
Associated malware families
3 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
Associated vulnerabilities
2 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 2 of them exploited in the wild.
EXOTIC LILY has used malicious documents containing exploits for CVE-2021-40444 affecting Microsoft MSHTML.
This detection identifies instances where Windows Explorer.exe spawns PowerShell or cmd.exe processes, particularly focusing on executions initiated by LNK files. This behavior is associated with the ZDI-CAN-25373 Windows shortcut zero-day vulnerability, where specially crafted LNK files are used to trigger malicious code execution through cmd.exe or powershell.exe. This technique has been actively exploited by multiple APT groups in targeted attacks through both HTTP and SMB delivery methods.
Observables
31 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
Recent activity
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Listed as a threat actor associated with the malicious file execution technique detected by this analytic.
Listed in the detection annotations as a threat actor associated with EFI volume mounting / installation-related behavior.
Listed as a threat actor associated with exploitation of public-facing applications and malware/tool upload activity relevant to Confluence exploitation detection.
Referenced as a threat actor associated with spearphishing attachment activity involving malicious file execution and potential credential capture via UDL files.
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Every observed MITRE ATT&CK technique, grouped by tactic.
Families this actor is known to deploy, with IOCs and behavior.
CVEs this actor has used in known campaigns.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Domains, IPs, and hashes tied to this actor, refreshed continuously.