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Kaspersky links Lazarus to South Korea campaign using post-quantum crypto
Kaspersky attributed Operation FlashHole, a South Korea espionage campaign using financial-security software and ML-KEM-1024, to Lazarus, The Hacker News reported.
- New headline Was: “Lazarus Abuses South Korean Security Software to Deploy Malware Using Post-Quantum Encryption”
- Our desk filed its story
Kaspersky attributed a cyber-espionage campaign it calls Operation FlashHole to the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group, saying it has targeted at least three organizations in South Korea's construction, software and wire-communication equipment sectors since at least July 20251.
The Hacker News summarized an analysis by Kaspersky GReAT researcher Sojun Ryu, which assessed FlashHole as a continuation of Operation SyncHole, documented in April 20251. SyncHole exploited a flaw in iniLINE Cross EX, software widely required for Korean online banking and government sites, to deliver malware including ThreatNeedle1.
FlashHole instead abuses Initech's INISAFE CrossWeb EX, another mandatory financial-security product, Kaspersky said1. Lazarus has used that software in earlier campaigns, including DeathNote in 2021 and watering-hole attacks reported by AhnLab in 2022-20231.
The precise initial access for FlashHole is unclear1. Kaspersky pointed to malicious GitHub Pages sites, one hosting a fabricated resume for a network-appliance developer with a photo that appeared AI-generated, and suspected spear-phishing links1. Visiting such a site is described as triggering CrossWeb EX to launch Windows' fsquirt.exe and sideload a malicious DLL named TechHub1.
The early infection chain is said to exist only in memory1. TechHub then pulls TouchHub from GitHub, which sideloads TOUCHSHIFT; later stages include ClientHub, the longstanding LPEClient loader, and Cubridge, described as an orchestration component that fetches plugins to run commands and steal files and browser data1.
A newer LPEClient uses ML-KEM-1024, a post-quantum key-encapsulation algorithm, to encrypt traffic to attacker servers before loading more malware in memory, Kaspersky said1. Ryu told The Hacker News the group had used cryptography designed to resist quantum attacks since at least September 20241.
Kaspersky placed FlashHole in a broader "Cascade Hole" pattern of using South Korean software as an entry point1. It said the campaign coincided with COPPERHEDGE infections of Korean organizations, and that in at least one case data was posted to a leak site named ULOSE1. Attribution to Lazarus rests on Kaspersky's assessment; North Korea has not commented in the reporting1.
