INSPECTING ARCHIVED INTELLIGENCE (OUTDATED VERSION).

NightEagle group expands operations to Russia targeting Chinese high-tech

| 2026-09-16 15:27 HIGH HIGH CYBERATTACK (GENERAL)
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Executive Summary
AI-generated
A cyberespionage group previously known for targeting sensitive technology and defense organizations in China has expanded its operations to Russian companies, according to new research released this week. The group, known as NightEagle or APT-Q-95, has been active since at least 2023 but had previously focused its attacks in Asia. Over the past year, Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said it investigated several incidents involving the group at Russian businesses. In most cases, the hackers used stolen credentials to gain access to corporate networks through virtual private networks, or VPNs.
Technical Mitigations AI-generated
• Apply the vendor fix for CVE-2020-0688, CVE-2021-26855 and treat internet-facing systems that were not patched in time as potentially compromised until verified.
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Intelligence Metadata
Actors / Malware / CVEs / Campaigns
Neo-reGeorgNeo-reGeorg CVE-2020-0688CVE-2020-0688 CVE-2021-26855CVE-2021-26855 CVE-2026-42897CVE-2026-42897 CVE-2019-0708CVE-2019-0708
Target & Sectors
NORTH_AMERICA NORTH_AMERICA defensedefense technologytechnology governmentgovernment
Incident Timeline
‎February 2024
Three threat groups, including Hacking Cat and Toy Ghouls, have collaborated to target Russian enterprises with various malware tools.
source_region Russian Federation
The second group to single out Russian enterprises is Hacking Cat, a pro-Ukrainian hacktivist entity with a history of conducting website defacements and data breaches since February 2024.
organisation the First Time Rounding
Deploys Custom Backdoor for the First Time Rounding off the list of groups targeting Russian organizations is Toy Ghouls (aka Bearlyfy, Laboo.boo, and Feral Wolf), which has moved from using leaked Babuk and LockBit ransomware builders to its own custom GenieLocker ransomware and now to a bespoke backdoor.
organisation Bearlyfy
Deploys Custom Backdoor for the First Time Rounding off the list of groups targeting Russian organizations is Toy Ghouls (aka Bearlyfy, Laboo.boo, and Feral Wolf), which has moved from using leaked Babuk and LockBit ransomware builders to its own custom GenieLocker ransomware and now to a bespoke backdoor.
organisation Laboo.boo
Deploys Custom Backdoor for the First Time Rounding off the list of groups targeting Russian organizations is Toy Ghouls (aka Bearlyfy, Laboo.boo, and Feral Wolf), which has moved from using leaked Babuk and LockBit ransomware builders to its own custom GenieLocker ransomware and now to a bespoke backdoor.
organisation LockBit
Deploys Custom Backdoor for the First Time Rounding off the list of groups targeting Russian organizations is Toy Ghouls (aka Bearlyfy, Laboo.boo, and Feral Wolf), which has moved from using leaked Babuk and LockBit ransomware builders to its own custom GenieLocker ransomware and now to a bespoke backdoor.
organisation Hacking Cat
Hacking Cat has also been observed teaming up with the Cyber Anarchy Squad , another pro-Ukraine hacktivist group, to deliver a different ransomware strain known as ClearWater by means of a batch script.
organisation ClearWater
Hacking Cat has also been observed teaming up with the Cyber Anarchy Squad , another pro-Ukraine hacktivist group, to deliver a different ransomware strain known as ClearWater by means of a batch script.
infrastructure Windows
Also delivered by the threat actor are multiple variants of a ransomware family dubbed Monkey that are written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang to target Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi systems.
It's equipped to escalate privileges and disable Windows recovery mechanisms, extract Microsoft Outlook credentials and send them to the C2 server, delete files with .bak, .backup, .bkf, .bck
infrastructure Linux
Also delivered by the threat actor are multiple variants of a ransomware family dubbed Monkey that are written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang to target Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi systems.
The Golang variant, which is mainly used to target Linux and ESXi systems, establishes persistence via a crontab entry, disables SELinux and AppArmor, and attempts to delete volume shadow copies.
"This [Golang] version also includes functionality for removing shadow volume copies, which serves no purpose in Linux and ESXi environments – a fact that suggests the attackers were careless and likely used AI in developing the toolkit," Kaspersky theorized.
organisation Golang
Also delivered by the threat actor are multiple variants of a ransomware family dubbed Monkey that are written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang to target Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi systems.
organisation VMware
Also delivered by the threat actor are multiple variants of a ransomware family dubbed Monkey that are written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang to target Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi systems.
organisation ChaCha20-Poly1305
"A Rust-based variant of Monkey Ransomware generates a 32-byte key and encrypts the victim's files using ChaCha20-Poly1305," Kaspersky said.
data_breach 32 byte
"A Rust-based variant of Monkey Ransomware generates a 32-byte key and encrypts the victim's files using ChaCha20-Poly1305," Kaspersky said.
" Some of the notable features spread across the other three variants are listed below - The .NET variant generates a 32-byte key, sends it to the command-and-control (C2) server, and encrypts victim files using AES-256-CBC.
organisation Microsoft Outlook
It's equipped to escalate privileges and disable Windows recovery mechanisms, extract Microsoft Outlook credentials and send them to the C2 server, delete files with .bak, .backup, .bkf, .bck
organisation SELinux
The Golang variant, which is mainly used to target Linux and ESXi systems, establishes persistence via a crontab entry, disables SELinux and AppArmor, and attempts to delete volume shadow copies.
organisation AppArmor
The Golang variant, which is mainly used to target Linux and ESXi systems, establishes persistence via a crontab entry, disables SELinux and AppArmor, and attempts to delete volume shadow copies.
organisation AES-256-CBC
" Some of the notable features spread across the other three variants are listed below - The .NET variant generates a 32-byte key, sends it to the command-and-control (C2) server, and encrypts victim files using AES-256-CBC.
organisation the Ukrainian
In another collaborative operation with the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, the threat actor is said to have deployed a wiper malware called Nemo Wiper that overwrites files with random bytes and fills the remaining free disk space with files containing random alphanumeric names and the .lock extension.
organisation Exchange
Attacks mounted by the group have weaponized vulnerabilities in Exchange servers (e.g., CVE-2021-26855 and CVE-2026-42897 ) to deliver a Go-based remote access trojan dubbed Gorilla RAT, which can tunnel traffic to allow the operator to access the victim's internal network.
organisation Cyber Anarchy Squad
"Hacking Cat actively collaborates with other hacktivists such as Cyber Anarchy Squad and the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, which can complicate the attribution of tools to specific attackers," Kaspersky said .
organisation Cyber Alliance
"Hacking Cat actively collaborates with other hacktivists such as Cyber Anarchy Squad and the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, which can complicate the attribution of tools to specific attackers," Kaspersky said .
organisation TCP
Once launched, the malware establishes a connection with a remote server, registers the victim, and awaits further instructions that allow it to run arbitrary commands, enumerate processes, gather system information, upload/download files, and open or close a TCP tunnel.
organisation Toy Ghouls
" Toy Ghouls
‎July 2025
The Pro-Ukrainian Hacking Cat group deployed the GhostContainer backdoor and Monkey ransomware, utilizing CVE-2019-0708 to gain initial access, targeting Russian enterprises.
organisation Microsoft Exchange
" The attacks, as highlighted in July 2025, involve the deployment of GhostContainer , a known modular backdoor that grants the operators complete access to a victim's Microsoft Exchange Server, as well as run arbitrary code, perform file operations, and load additional modules.
tactic T1584.004 - Server
" The attacks, as highlighted in July 2025, involve the deployment of GhostContainer , a known modular backdoor that grants the operators complete access to a victim's Microsoft Exchange Server, as well as run arbitrary code, perform file operations, and load additional modules.
organisation Pro-Ukrainian Hacking Cat Deploys Gorilla
Pro-Ukrainian Hacking Cat Deploys Gorilla RAT and Monkey Ransomware
organisation the Administrators and Remote Desktop Users
" This includes the exploitation of CVE-2019-0708 (aka BlueKeep ) to create a local account on the system and add it to the Administrators and Remote Desktop Users groups.
organisation GhostContainer
" The exact method used by the attackers to deliver GhostContainer to Microsoft Exchange servers is unknown, although it's believed to have involved the extraction of cryptographic keys used by the server from the ASP.NET configuration, followed by overwriting the VIEWSTATE framework parameter, and injecting a payload into it, causing the backdoor to be launched in memory.
organisation ASP.NET
" The exact method used by the attackers to deliver GhostContainer to Microsoft Exchange servers is unknown, although it's believed to have involved the extraction of cryptographic keys used by the server from the ASP.NET configuration, followed by overwriting the VIEWSTATE framework parameter, and injecting a payload into it, causing the backdoor to be launched in memory.
organisation VIEWSTATE
" The exact method used by the attackers to deliver GhostContainer to Microsoft Exchange servers is unknown, although it's believed to have involved the extraction of cryptographic keys used by the server from the ASP.NET configuration, followed by overwriting the VIEWSTATE framework parameter, and injecting a payload into it, causing the backdoor to be launched in memory.
organisation Microsoft
To move laterally within the internal network, NightEagle has been observed downloading tunneling tools to redirect network traffic via RDP using Microsoft dev tunnels and an open-source program called rdp2tcp .
organisation Active Directory
The end goal is to establish persistence in the victim infrastructure, get password hashes for domain accounts, use long-lived Kerberos tickets to gain legitimate access to target resources, and ultimately break into domain controllers and the victim's entire Active Directory infrastructure.
‎late summer 2025
The earliest Monkey ransomware artifact was discovered in late summer 2025.
tactic Ransomware
The earliest Monkey ransomware artifact dates back to late summer 2025.
‎July 2026
The Bird Agent backdoor, detected in July 2026, uses Windows Remote Management (WinRM) to deliver its configuration files and establishes a connection with the C2 server via HiveMQ or Element for command execution.
organisation 0.1.0
The backdoor, first detected in July 2026, appears in two variants - mqtt-bird-agent 0.1.0, which uses HiveMQ MQTT broker for C2 matrix-bird-agent 0.1.0, which uses Element, a Matrix-based end-to-end encrypted messenger app, for C2 "In this campaign, the attackers use Windows Remote Management (WinRM) to deliver the backdoors and their configuration files to compromised systems," Kaspe…
infrastructure Windows
" The Bird Agent backdoor can run within an interactive command-line session, as well as set up persistence as a Windows service.
The malware then proceeds to read the file and partially encrypts it with a key derived from the victim machine's MachineGuid value stored in the Windows Registry so that the configuration is bound to that specific system.
The Element variant of Bird Agent is functionally similar to its HiveMQ counterpart, the main difference being that the received commands are executed through the Windows command-line interface (CLI) and send the command output back to the C2 server.
organisation Bird
" The Bird Agent backdoor can run within an interactive command-line session, as well as set up persistence as a Windows service.
organisation the Windows Registry
The malware then proceeds to read the file and partially encrypts it with a key derived from the victim machine's MachineGuid value stored in the Windows Registry so that the configuration is bound to that specific system.
organisation CLI
The Element variant of Bird Agent is functionally similar to its HiveMQ counterpart, the main difference being that the received commands are executed through the Windows command-line interface (CLI) and send the command output back to the C2 server.
organisation HiveMQ
Once the connection is established, the backdoor proceeds to send system information and issues HTTP GET requests to the HiveMQ broker to fetch commands from the C2 server, execute them via PowerShell in hidden mode (-NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command), and transmit the results back to the server.
‎2026/09/16
Threat actors used compromised valid credentials to gain access to corporate VPNs in most incidents.
‎2026/09/16
Threat actors using NightEagle, a cyberespionage group known for targeting sensitive technology and defense organizations in China, have targeted Russian enterprises with backdoors, ransomware, and wipers.
organisation Ransomware
Three Threat Groups Target Russian Enterprises With Backdoors, Ransomware, and Wipers.
organisation Wipers
Three Threat Groups Target Russian Enterprises With Backdoors, Ransomware, and Wipers.
organisation NightEagle
Enterprises in Russia have emerged as the target of three threat activity clusters tracked as NightEagle , Hacking Cat , and Toy Ghouls , according to multiple reports from Kaspersky.
organisation Kaspersky
Enterprises in Russia have emerged as the target of three threat activity clusters tracked as NightEagle , Hacking Cat , and Toy Ghouls , according to multiple reports from Kaspersky.
organisation IP
"VPN connections originated from IP addresses in the Russian segment linked to Cloudflare WARP tunnels, as well as from IP addresses associated with European virtual infrastructure providers.
organisation Cloudflare
"VPN connections originated from IP addresses in the Russian segment linked to Cloudflare WARP tunnels, as well as from IP addresses associated with European virtual infrastructure providers.
organisation APT
The cybersecurity vendor said it has identified attacks mounted by NightEagle (aka APT-Q-95), a threat actor known to be active since at least 2023, that involve new techniques for persistence and lateral movement.
infrastructure Windows
The C++ variant offers similar functionality, but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Window…
…, first detected in July 2026, appears in two variants - mqtt-bird-agent 0.1.0, which uses HiveMQ MQTT broker for C2 matrix-bird-agent 0.1.0, which uses Element, a Matrix-based end-to-end encrypted messenger app, for C2 "In this campaign, the attackers use Windows Remote Management (WinRM) to deliver the backdoors and their configuration files to compromised systems," Kaspersky said .
…NightEagle targeted Microsoft Exchange email servers and installed a backdoor known as GhostContainer, which allows attackers to remotely control compromised servers, evade some Windows security and logging mechanisms and redirect network traffic.
organisation RunOnce
The C++ variant offers similar functionality, but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Window…
organisation Task
The C++ variant offers similar functionality, but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Window…
organisation Windows Command Prompt
The C++ variant offers similar functionality, but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Window…
organisation AMSI
…functionality, but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Windows Command Prompt, obtain the p…
organisation Event Tracing for
…but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Windows Command Prompt, obtain the public IP addres…
organisation ETW
…nce via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Windows Command Prompt, obtain the public IP address by querying api.ipify[.]o…
Tactical Metrics
Metrics
infrastructure
‎Windows
Affected Product
Also delivered by the threat actor are multiple variants of a ransomware family dubbed Monkey that are written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang to target Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi systems.
It's equipped to escalate privileges and disable Windows recovery mechanisms, extract Microsoft Outlook credentials and send them to the C2 server, delete files with .bak, .backup, .bkf, .bck
The C++ variant offers similar functionality, but can establish persistence via a scheduled task or a RunOnce registry key, clear system logs, disable logging, wipe PowerShell Command History and Windows Command Prompt, bypass AMSI, turn off Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), configure Microsoft Defender exclusions for the encryptor, make Registry modifications to disable Task Manager and Window…
…, first detected in July 2026, appears in two variants - mqtt-bird-agent 0.1.0, which uses HiveMQ MQTT broker for C2 matrix-bird-agent 0.1.0, which uses Element, a Matrix-based end-to-end encrypted messenger app, for C2 "In this campaign, the attackers use Windows Remote Management (WinRM) to deliver the backdoors and their configuration files to compromised systems," Kaspersky said .
" The Bird Agent backdoor can run within an interactive command-line session, as well as set up persistence as a Windows service.
The malware then proceeds to read the file and partially encrypts it with a key derived from the victim machine's MachineGuid value stored in the Windows Registry so that the configuration is bound to that specific system.
The Element variant of Bird Agent is functionally similar to its HiveMQ counterpart, the main difference being that the received commands are executed through the Windows command-line interface (CLI) and send the command output back to the C2 server.
…NightEagle targeted Microsoft Exchange email servers and installed a backdoor known as GhostContainer, which allows attackers to remotely control compromised servers, evade some Windows security and logging mechanisms and redirect network traffic.
Metrics
infrastructure
‎Linux
Affected Product
Also delivered by the threat actor are multiple variants of a ransomware family dubbed Monkey that are written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang to target Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi systems.
The Golang variant, which is mainly used to target Linux and ESXi systems, establishes persistence via a crontab entry, disables SELinux and AppArmor, and attempts to delete volume shadow copies.
"This [Golang] version also includes functionality for removing shadow volume copies, which serves no purpose in Linux and ESXi environments – a fact that suggests the attackers were careless and likely used AI in developing the toolkit," Kaspersky theorized.
Metrics
data_breach
32
Byte
"A Rust-based variant of Monkey Ransomware generates a 32-byte key and encrypts the victim's files using ChaCha20-Poly1305," Kaspersky said.
" Some of the notable features spread across the other three variants are listed below - The .NET variant generates a 32-byte key, sends it to the command-and-control (C2) server, and encrypts victim files using AES-256-CBC.
Intelligence Sources
TheRecord 2026-09-18
The Hacker News 2026-09-16