LunarMail is a malware family reported by ESET Research in the 2024-05-15 publication "To the Moon and back(doors): Lunar landing in diplomatic missions." The available content indicates it is used in espionage activity associated with the Turla/Secret Blizzard ecosystem targeting diplomatic missions. LunarMail has been installed through malicious Microsoft Word documents containing VBA macros. It communicates with command and control using email messages via the Outlook Messaging API (MAPI), and can also use email image attachments with embedded data to receive C2 commands and exfiltrate data. Reported behaviors include pinging a specific C2 URL with the victim machine ID in the subdomain, creating a directory under %TEMP% to stage data prior to exfiltration, and capturing the recipients of sent email messages from compromised accounts. High-confidence artifacts and behaviors mentioned in the content include macro-based installation, %TEMP% staging, Outlook/MAPI-based email C2, image-attachment-based embedded-data C2/exfiltration, and collection of sent-message recipient information.
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21 distinct techniques documented for this family, organized by ATT&CK tactic.
The content repeatedly describes threat actors and malware using VBScript, VBS, VBA macros, and Visual Basic code for execution, payload delivery, persistence, reconnaissance, and command execution.
The content repeatedly mentions malicious macros in Word/Excel documents, such as "enable macros," "embedded macros," and "macro-enabled documents."
Sandworm Team leveraged Microsoft Office attachments which contained malicious macros that were automatically executed once the user permitted them... APT29 has used various forms of spearphishing attempting to get a user to open attachments... DarkGate is distributed through phishing links to VBS or MSI objects requiring user interaction for execution.
The content contains many examples of base64, XOR, RC4, AES, Rijndael, custom ciphers, rolling XOR, and multi-layer obfuscation used to hide payloads, strings, scripts, and C2 data.
Examples throughout the content include 'encrypted payloads decrypted and executed in memory,' 'encrypts its configuration file,' 'AES-encrypted resource,' 'RC4 encrypted embedded scripts,' and 'payload includes an encrypted main component.'
The content repeatedly describes adversaries and malware deleting files, directories, droppers, scripts, logs, archives, staged data, and other artifacts from compromised systems, e.g., 'APT29 has used SDelete to remove artifacts from victim networks' and 'Lazarus Group malware has deleted files in various ways, including "suicide scripts" to delete malware binaries from the victim.' | Several entries explicitly state files were deleted after exfiltration or upload, such as 'AppleSeed can delete files from a compromised host after they are exfiltrated,' 'Attor’s plugin deletes the collected files and log files after exfiltration,' and 'Ursnif has deleted data staged in tmp files after exfiltration.'
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."
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors listing files and directories, enumerating drives, searching for files by extension/name/path, retrieving file metadata, and browsing file systems (for example: "APT28 has used Forfiles to locate PDF, Excel, and Word documents during collection" and "cmd can be used to find files and directories with native functionality such as dir commands").
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.
Cannon exfiltrates collected data over email via SMTP/S and POP3/S C2 channels... CURIUM has used IMAP and SMTPS for exfiltration via tools such as IMAPLoader... Kevin can send data from the victim host through a DNS C2 channel... NightClub can use SMTP and DNS for file exfiltration and C2.
12 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Backdoor used in campaigns against diplomatic missions.
Malware installed through a malicious macro in a Word document.
Malware installed via a VBA macro.
Malware installed through a malicious macro in a Word document.
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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.