Mongall is a custom DLL-based backdoor associated with the Aoqin Dragon espionage group and in use since at least 2013. Reporting describes it as a long-maintained malware family used primarily in cyberespionage operations targeting government, education, and telecommunications organizations, particularly in Southeast Asia and Australia; ESET previously reported Mongall activity targeting the Vietnamese government and a telecommunications department. Aoqin Dragon commonly deployed Mongall alongside a modified version of the open-source Heyoka project.
Observed infection and execution methods include user execution of malicious documents and later removable-media/shortcut-based lures used by Aoqin Dragon. In the latter tradecraft, loaders used DLL hijacking, decrypted payloads, and injected the Mongall backdoor into memory, including into rundll32.exe; Mongall can also use rundll32.exe for execution. The malware has been observed packed with Themida, and SentinelLABS reported newer variants with upgraded encryption.
Documented capabilities include remote shell access, file upload, file download, exfiltration of files and host information to command-and-control servers, removable-media discovery, and host profiling. Mongall can identify removable media attached to compromised hosts and can upload files from victim machines to its C2. Communications have been described as using HTTP GET with victim data encoded or encrypted using Base64, modified Base64, or RC4 depending on the variant/mutex. SentinelLABS also reported emulating a Mongall C2 server to capture beacon messages. High-confidence behavioral details directly mentioned in the source include DLL injection into rundll32.exe, Base64 use in C2 traffic, file upload capability, and removable-media identification.
2 CVEs Mallory has correlated with this family across public research and vendor advisories. Each card links to the full Mallory page for that vulnerability.
1 distinct threat actor Mallory has associated with this family across public reporting. Open in Mallory to see the full evidence chain and overlapping campaigns.
Attacks attributable to Aoqin Dragon typically drop one of two backdoors, Mongall and a modified version of the open source Heyoka project.
27 distinct techniques documented for this family, organized by ATT&CK tactic.
From 2018 to present, this actor has also been observed using a fake removable device as an initial infection vector... The spreader component will try to find the removable device in the victim’s environment. This malware component will copy all the malicious modules to any removable device to spread the malware in the target’s network environment
MITRE ATT&CK TTPs ... Initial Access T1566 – Phishing Threat actor use fake icon executable and document exploit as a decoy
Using a document exploit and tricking the user into opening a weaponized Word document to install a backdoor. Luring users into double-clicking a fake Anti-Virus to execute malware in the victim’s host.
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.
Starting in 2018, hackers left these tactics behind to resort to using a removable disk shortcut file; clicking this icon triggers a DLL hijack and loads an encrypted payload to deliver a backdoor.
The malware sets the auto start function with the value “EverNoteTrayUService”. When the user restarts the computer, it will execute the “Evernote Tray Application” and use DLL hijacking to load the malicious loader.
Numerous malware families and threat groups are described as achieving persistence by adding values under Run/RunOnce/Policies\Explorer\Run Registry keys or by placing shortcuts/files in the Windows Startup folder.
After decrypting the encrypted payload, DLL-test.dll will execute rundll32.exe and run specific export functions. The loader injects the decrypted payload into memory and runs it persistently.
There are two payloads in this attack chain... the second one is an encrypted backdoor which injects itself into rundll32’s memory.
The malware sets the auto start function with the value “EverNoteTrayUService”. When the user restarts the computer, it will execute the “Evernote Tray Application” and use DLL hijacking to load the malicious loader.
Numerous malware families and threat groups are described as achieving persistence by adding values under Run/RunOnce/Policies\Explorer\Run Registry keys or by placing shortcuts/files in the Windows Startup folder.
Other techniques the attacker has been observed using include DLL hijacking, Themida-packed files, and DNS tunneling to evade post-compromise detection... Actors using Thimda packer to pack the malwares
"Sandworm Team used UPX to pack a copy of Mimikatz"; "APT38 has used several code packing methods such as Themida, Enigma, VMProtect, and Obsidium"; "Lazarus Group packed malicious .db files with Themida to evade detection."
After decrypting the encrypted payload, DLL-test.dll will execute rundll32.exe and run specific export functions. The loader injects the decrypted payload into memory and runs it persistently.
There are two payloads in this attack chain... the second one is an encrypted backdoor which injects itself into rundll32’s memory.
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors decoding, decrypting, deobfuscating, or unpacking payloads, strings, configuration data, commands, and C2 responses prior to execution or use.
Starting in 2018, hackers left these tactics behind to resort to using a removable disk shortcut file; clicking this icon triggers a DLL hijack and loads an encrypted payload to deliver a backdoor.
MITRE ATT&CK TTPs ... Discovery T1033 – System Owner/User Discovery Collecting user account and send back to C2
The content repeatedly describes malware and threat actors collecting host details such as hostname, OS version, architecture, CPU, memory, BIOS, language, and other machine characteristics; e.g., "Action RAT has the ability to collect the hostname, OS version, and OS architecture of an infected host."
Examples include: "Babuk can enumerate disk volumes," "Confucius has used a file stealer that can examine system drives," and "XAgentOSX contains the getInstalledAPP function to run ls -la /Applications to gather what applications are installed."
ADVSTORESHELL can list connected devices. APT28 uses a module to receive a notification every time a USB mass storage device is inserted into a victim. APT37 has a Bluetooth device harvester, which uses Windows Bluetooth APIs to find information on connected Bluetooth devices.
From 2018 to present, this actor has also been observed using a fake removable device as an initial infection vector... The spreader component will try to find the removable device in the victim’s environment. This malware component will copy all the malicious modules to any removable device to spread the malware in the target’s network environment
The content repeatedly describes threat actors and malware using HTTP and HTTPS for command and control, such as: "Sandworm Team used BlackEnergy to communicate between compromised hosts and their command-and-control servers via HTTP post requests."
Mongall uses base64 or RC4 to encode or encrypt data to make the content of command and control traffic more difficult to detect
MITRE ATT&CK TTPs ... Command and Control T1571 – Non-Standard Port Mongall uses port 5050,1352, etc. to communicates with C2
This backdoor profiles the host and sends the details to the C&C using an encrypted channel.
Many entries state malware or actors can upload, transfer, send, or exfiltrate files from compromised hosts to command-and-control servers or attacker infrastructure.
211 indicators attributed across vendor reports, sandbox runs, and researcher write-ups. Values are masked here and available in full in Mallory.
26 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.