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Good Europol Hunting: How Do You Like Them Apples, Emotet?
Combating Ransomware
On January 27, 2021, Europol announced that it had led a coordinated takedown of the Emotet infrastructure in collaboration with law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, Canada, and Ukraine.
According to Europol, over the course of the operation, it has been able to map out and take control of servers from around the world that Emotet was using as “command-and-control” (C2) nodes. Europol also shared that it would use the seized servers to deactivate Emotet by pushing an update to all infected systems still connecting to the seized C2s. Analysis of the new Emotet updates, which were developed by Europol, shows code that will self-remove the Trojans from infected systems on March 25, 2021, at 12:00 (local time).
“As part of the criminal investigation conducted by the Dutch National Police into EMOTET, a database containing e-mail addresses, usernames and passwords stolen by EMOTET was discovered. You can check if your e-mail address has been compromised. As part of the global remediation strategy, in order to initiate the notification of those affected and the cleaning up of the systems, information was distributed worldwide via the network of so-called Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs).”
Source: Europol
The Ukrainian National Police agency also reported making some arrests in connection with this operation.
Mutable currency seized from Emotet
Emotet Overview
Emotet is a sophisticated banking Trojan that security researchers first identified in 2014. Originally, it was designed to steal banking credentials for use in taking over bank accounts and stealing funds from victims. Over the years, its functionality was updated to enable hackers to deploy supplementary malware and steal content from victims’ email systems.
In mid-2018, the Emotet group started to work closely with operators of the TrickBot banking Trojan and Ryuk/Conti ransomware groups. After initial infection, Emotet can stay undetected for weeks, sometimes months, before it eventually deploys the TrickBot Trojan, which can then lead to a subsequent ransomware attack. In the last few months, Emotet has also been seen deploying IcedID and Qbot Trojans, which can also lead to ransomware attacks by the MegaCortex, Prolock, and/or Maze/Egregor variants.
Emotet Risk Assessment
On October 12, 2020, Microsoft announced a similar takedown of the Trickbot infrastructure. In this case, the botnet’s owners were able to rebuild their infrastructure and restart operations in about four weeks. In part, this quick reboot was thanks to the Trickbot banking Trojan having a “fallback” communications module, which uses a blockchain distributed domain name service (DNS) technology called Emercoin DNS (EmerDNS) that law enforcement cannot take over. After the Trickbot operators deployed a new set of C2 servers, they were able to use the fallback channel to update configurations on infected systems.
It’s all about the money. Cold. Hard. Cash.
Unlike Trickbot, Emotet does not have a similar fallback capability and cannot regain access to infected systems to update configurations. Therefore, it will likely take the Emotet group longer to recover and resume operations. Based on the Arete Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) team’s assessment, the takedown of the Emotet C2 infrastructure will disrupt this botnet’s operations for at least five to six weeks.
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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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Think before you Click(Fix): Analyzing the ClickFix social engineering technique
Ghost CMS Vulnerability Exploited to Infect 700 Sites With ClickFix Malware
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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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