Fresh samples of Qakbot malware have been circulating in email campaigns since mid-December, indicating ongoing experimentation by its developers. One variant uses a fake Adobe product installer to deceive users into installing the malware on Windows systems.
Qakbot, also known as QBot, has long been used to deliver various malicious payloads, including ransomware, primarily through email. Despite a takedown operation last August, which didn’t lead to any arrests, security experts predicted a resurgence of Qakbot activities. Indeed, Cisco Talos reported an active Qakbot campaign in October, suggesting that only the command and control servers were disrupted, not the spam delivery infrastructure.
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The new QBot variants feature incremental build number changes, indicating ongoing testing and refinement by the developers. Unlike previous versions, recent samples use Microsoft Software Installer (.MSI) executables that drop DLL binaries from a Windows Cabinet archive.
Furthermore, the malware displays a fake Adobe Setup popup to trick users into launching the malicious payload. Experts stress the importance of vigilance, as any effort by threat actors to revive Qakbot warrants close surveillance and scrutiny.
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