Lazarus Group is Using the Solana Blockchain as a Dead-Drop C2 Channel -- and Nobody Noticed for 4 Months

2026-03-16 Break Glass Intelligence

https://intel.breakglass.tech/post/lazarus-group-is-using-the-solana-blockchain-as-a-dead-drop-c2-channel-and-nobody-noticed-for-4-months

Thumbnail for Lazarus Group is Using the Solana Blockchain as a Dead-Drop C2 Channel -- and Nobody Noticed for 4 Months

A Node.js stage-one dropper attributed in the excerpt to Lazarus Group's TraderTraitor sub-cluster uses Solana transaction memos as a dead-drop resolver for rotating C2 infrastructure. The malware queries a specific Solana wallet through the public mainnet RPC API, extracts the latest memo, decodes a base64 URL, and fetches an AES-encrypted second-stage payload whose IV and key are supplied in HTTP response headers. The campaign is described as targeting macOS-first Solana developers through malicious npm postinstall scripts, with a 120-second anti-sandbox delay and a beacon limiter stored in ~/init.json. The source says 51 memo transactions and seven Vultr VPS nodes were observed over roughly four months, while a 20-byte kill-switch response caused the dropper to exit during live probing.

Indicators of Compromise

Type Value First Seen Last Seen
HASH 48109c33cf45749a7fdc2629a4c11d9… 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
HASH b81d8031450264845cdf79851b6a4807 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
HASH 5dfa031ccd4cb45f5338eeaad6416a5… 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
URL https://api.mainnet-beta.solana… 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
DOMAIN vultrusercontent.com 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
DOMAIN api.mainnet-beta.solana.com 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 217.69.11.57 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 45.32.151.157 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 45.32.150.97 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 217.69.0.159 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 217.69.11.60 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 45.76.44.240 2026-03-16 2026-03-16
IPv4 217.69.11.99 2026-03-16 2026-03-16

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