securelist · Crawled Oct 25, 2026
How APT41 revived the BlackLotus bootkit to attack diplomatic organizations in Central Asia
5 IoCs 1 Actors 1 Malware
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AI Summary
In early 2026, the APT41 threat actor revived techniques from the BlackLotus UEFI bootkit to target diplomatic organizations in Central Asia, specifically in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The attackers deployed a new bootkit dubbed BlackX, exploiting the Baton Drop vulnerability (CVE-2022-21894) to bypass Secure Boot by installing custom Machine Owner Keys (MOK). The attack involved a multi-stage payload, including a malicious kernel driver signed with a revoked certificate and user-mode implants such as a cloud-based RAT and a Rust-based C2 client communicating with www.archivetj.com.
AI-extracted · verify before operational use
Extracted Entities 2 found
Indicators of Compromise 5 extracted
MITRE ATT&CK TTPs 37 techniques
T1006 Direct Volume Access · Defense Evasion T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information · Defense Evasion T1055 Process Injection · Defense Evasion T1059.001 PowerShell · Execution T1071.001 Web Protocols · Command And Control T1078.001 Default Accounts · Defense Evasion T1218.001 Compiled HTML File · Defense Evasion T1542.001 System Firmware · Persistence T1003 OS Credential Dumping · Credential Access T1003.001 LSASS Memory · Credential Access T1018 Remote System Discovery · Discovery T1021.001 Remote Desktop Protocol · Lateral Movement T1036 Masquerading · Defense Evasion T1036.005 Match Legitimate Name or Location · Defense Evasion T1055.001 Dynamic-link Library Injection · Defense Evasion T1059.003 Windows Command Shell · Execution T1071.003 Mail Protocols · Command And Control T1078 Valid Accounts · Defense Evasion T1082 System Information Discovery · Discovery T1083 File and Directory Discovery · Discovery T1087.002 Domain Account · Discovery T1095 Non-Application Layer Protocol · Command And Control T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer · Command And Control T1129 Shared Modules · Execution T1133 External Remote Services · Persistence T1135 Network Share Discovery · Discovery T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information · Defense Evasion T1170 T1170 T1197 BITS Jobs · Defense Evasion T1204.002 Malicious File · Execution T1205.001 Port Knocking · Defense Evasion T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services · Lateral Movement T1485 Data Destruction · Impact T1558 Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets · Credential Access T1566 Phishing · Initial Access T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment · Initial Access T1573.001 Symmetric Cryptography · Command And Control