Article
FIN7 Return Drives Increase in Cl0p Ransomware Attacks Share
Arete Analysis
Combating Ransomware
Threat Actors
The longstanding FIN7 threat group resumed operations in 2024 and is driving an increase in Cl0p ransomware attacks. While the US Attorney for Washington state declared FIN7 “an entity no more” in May 2023, the group became increasingly active in April 2024. Starting in May 2024, Arete observed an increase in FIN7’s trojan communicating from victim environments two to three months prior to those victims being posted to the Cl0p extortion group’s data leak site (DLS).
Separately, the Cl0p group rose to prominence in June 2023 after exploiting a vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer software. In 2024, Cl0p returned to ransomware deployment operations, with a steady rate of attacks that have increased since June 2024. Importantly, not all Cl0p ransomware attacks are perpetrated by FIN7, and not all FIN7 operations are conducted with the Cl0p group. However, the combination of these threat actors presents an elevated threat to victims due to their deep combined experience in attacking victims.
What’s New and Notable
FIN7 began operating in 2013, but took a nearly year-long hiatus from operations before reestablishing itself in April 2024. Its recent operations are focused on creating malicious advertisements (malvertising) to deliver trojanized applications that give the threat actor access to the victim environment.
One malvertising campaign is delivering a trojan which is commonly observed communicating from a victim environment two to three months prior to the victim appearing on the Cl0p group’s DLS.
In addition to distributing a trojan used prior to a Cl0p ransomware infection, FIN7 is selling an endpoint detection and response (EDR) bypass and evasion tool on dark web forums.
After conducting primarily extortion-only attacks in 2023, the Cl0p group returned to exfiltrating and encrypting data in its recent attacks.
Analyst Comments
FIN7 is an example of an established cybercriminal group whose operations span a broad scope of monetization schemes. The group deploys ransomware, operates ransomware brands, conducts payment fraud, and sells tools other threat actors can use to target victims. With over a decade of experience in the cybercriminal ecosystem and multiple law enforcement actions against them, the group remains sophisticated and viable. Their partnership with Cl0p further magnifies the potential damage these threat actors can inflict. Organizations can defend themselves prior to data exfiltration and encryption by monitoring for suspicious outbound connections to foreign IP addresses.
Sources
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CMS Vulnerability Leads to ClickFix Campaign
Threat actors compromised at least 700 education and technology websites in a recent ClickFix campaign by exploiting a critical SQL injection flaw (CVE-2026-26980) in the Ghost content management system (CMS). Adversaries combined the vulnerability with the ClickFix social engineering tactic to steal admin keys and inject a malicious JavaScript that delivers a fake Cloudflare or CAPTCHA verification pop-up, tricking victims into copying and pasting a malicious command into their systems.
What’s Notable and Unique
Rather than targeting the end user first, this campaign is unique in its initial exploitation of the system, followed by social engineering attempts. This hybrid attack style is likely being leveraged to bypass traditional defenses.
This recent campaign also highlights how trusted web properties can be weaponized at scale and coupled with unpatched CMS vulnerabilities. Rather than using the CMS compromise to perpetrate a single attack, threat actors turned it into a supply-chain attack that ultimately affected over 700 trusted websites.
Analyst Comments
As network defenders and their tools enhance threat detection capabilities, adversaries increasingly seek methods to bypass these defenses. By combining vulnerability exploitation, social engineering techniques, and staging for ancillary attacks, this campaign successfully bypassed traditional defenses and inflicted significant impact. Defending against hybrid cyberattacks requires comprehensive security controls beyond simply patching vulnerabilities. Organizations should focus on limiting movement within the environment, detecting abuse of trusted applications, and preventing end-user manipulation.
Sources
700+ education and tech websites hijacked in huge ClickFix malware campaign
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Threat Actors Leverage Fake JPEG Files for Initial Access
In a recent campaign, researchers observed threat actors using fake JPEG image files as a delivery mechanism to initiate the deployment of additional malicious components. The false JPEG files are typically distributed via phishing emails or other social engineering-based lures, and are actually PowerShell-based malware that deploys a trojanized version of ConnectWise ScreenConnect to establish and maintain persistence in the compromised environment.
What’s Notable and Unique
This campaign leverages JPEG images as the initial lure, where the images are not merely decoys but part of the infection workflow. Victims are typically led to download or open an image that triggers hidden execution logic or redirects them to a payload-delivery sequence that initiates later stages of the intrusion chain.
The attack chain is designed to blend into legitimate environments, making detection more difficult. Execution typically relies on scripted or native Windows components, often including PowerShell or other living-off-the-land binaries, enabling fileless or near-fileless execution and reducing forensic artifacts on disk.
The multistage design ensures that the initial JPEG does not directly contain the full payload but instead triggers retrieval or decryption steps that progressively assemble the final malicious components in memory.
Analyst Comments
This campaign illustrates how threat actors continue to blur the line between legitimate file handling and malicious execution chains, indicating potential overlap with remote management or administrative tooling. The use of JPEG-based staging combined with script-based execution reflects a broader evolution toward a stealth-first intrusion design, in which file formats serve as triggers rather than payload containers.
Sources
OPERATION SILENTCANVAS : JPEG BASED MULTISTAGE POWERSHELL INTRUSION
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