Inside TDrop2: Technical Analysis of new Dark Seoul Malware
2015-11-23 • Paloalto Networks •
Unit 42 analyzes TDrop2 malware used in a campaign tied to Dark Seoul and Operation Troy activity, targeting European transportation organizations through a trojanized security-camera video player package. The first-stage installer drops both the legitimate video player and malicious executables, performs parent-process checks, dynamically loads APIs, and uses process hollowing to run inside legitimate Windows binaries. A downloader retrieves a disguised executable from a .jpg URL, repairs its altered PE header from "DW" to "MZ", and launches later stages that add Run-key persistence, collect victim information, and poll C2 servers. The final payload supports command execution, download-and-execute functions, encrypted and custom-base64-encoded C2 traffic, and reconnaissance commands such as system, network, process, Outlook, temp, and Microsoft Office directory listings.