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Fortinet says Bitter APT used new PapRAT backdoor in South Asia
The Hacker News, citing Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, reports the Bitter cyberespionage group used an unreported PapRAT remote-access trojan against South Asian organizations.
- New headline Was: “Bitter Hackers Deploy New PapRAT Backdoor in Cyberespionage Campaign Targeting South Asia”
- Our desk filed its story
Fortinet FortiGuard Labs says the South Asian cyberespionage group known as Bitter used a previously unreported remote-access trojan called PapRAT against organizations in the region, The Hacker News reported Monday1.
The Hacker News, citing Fortinet researcher Cara Lin, said PapRAT has C++ and Rust versions1. Lin said its capabilities include command execution, file uploads and downloads, file deletion, directory and drive enumeration, and screenshot capture, with the Rust build adding PowerShell execution and other commands1.
The outlet described three infection chains1. One uses a Windows shortcut (LNK) that abuses the built-in ftp.exe tool to run scripts and create scheduled tasks for command-and-control contact1. A second uses a VHDX disk image whose LNK opens a lure Excel file while an MSI installer deploys PapRAT in the background1. A third uses a URL shortcut that fetches a LNK file over WebDAV, leading to an MSI that installs PapRAT1.
Fortinet said a living-off-the-land path ran commands from a remote server, collecting task lists, folder data from Desktop, Documents and Downloads, antivirus product information and mounted drives1. The Hacker News said that reconnaissance was saved as abc.pdf, sent back with curl, then deleted from the host1.
A second script version retrieved a file named talk.log that held a Base64-encoded script for further PowerShell instructions from the same server, the report said1. Fortinet said that staging lets operators update commands without dropping a new binary1.
PapRAT delivered by MSI in the second chain supports eight commands for a remote shell, directory listing, deletion, arbitrary execution, drive listing, screenshots, and file upload and download, The Hacker News said1. The Rust variant adds PowerShell execution, sleep-and-poll, and process termination1. The third chain combined elements of the first two, downloading an MSI via curl and then dropping WmRAT, malware previously linked to Bitter1.
Fortinet advised watching scripting tools, scheduled tasks and installer activity as well as known malware signatures, and treating unexpected LNK files, URL shortcuts, disk images and MSI packages with caution, especially from unsolicited messages1. The Hacker News did not name specific victims or independently confirm attribution beyond Fortinet's assessment1.
