Incident Summary

Our security monitoring systems have detected a sophisticated Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) campaign targeting financial institutions in India. The attack leverages a previously unknown zero-day vulnerability in a widely-used banking software platform.

Attack Vector

• Initial Access: Spear-phishing emails with malicious PDF attachments
• Exploitation: Zero-day vulnerability in PDF processing library
• Persistence: Custom backdoor implant with C2 communication
• Lateral Movement: Living-off-the-land techniques and legitimate admin tools

Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)

File Hashes (SHA-256)

• a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef123456
• b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567a
• c3d4e5f6789012345678901234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567ab2

Network Indicators

• C2 Domain: secure-banking-updates[.]com
• IP Address: 192.168.1.100 (staging environment)
• User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; BankingUpdate/1.0)

Affected Systems

The following systems and software versions are potentially affected:

• BankSoft Pro versions 3.2 through 3.7
• FinanceManager Suite 2.1-2.5
• Related PDF processing components

Immediate Actions Required

1. Isolate affected systems from the network immediately
2. Block the identified IoCs at network and endpoint levels
3. Search for additional indicators using provided threat hunting queries
4. Preserve forensic evidence before initiating containment procedures
5. Notify stakeholders including management and regulatory bodies if required

Threat Hunting Queries

# Search for suspicious PDF files
index=main sourcetype=syslog "*.pdf" AND (create OR write OR execute)

# Look for C2 communication
index=network dest="secure-banking-updates.com" OR dest_ip="192.168.1.100"

# Detect potential lateral movement
index=windows EventCode=4624 Logon_Type=3 Account_Name!="*$"

Mitigation Recommendations

• Apply emergency patches when available from vendors
• Implement additional monitoring for banking software processes
• Review and update incident response procedures
• Conduct threat hunting across the entire environment
• Consider temporary isolation of critical banking systems