Newish hard to detect Virus threat "Astaroth"

A newish (has been seen since 2017 in EU and Brazil) threat that may be hard for some traditional AV tools to detect has been dubbed “Astaroth”. It uses a .LNK link in an email to set itself up using legitimate OS & AV processes. Basic precaution is DON’T click on links in emails unless you are very sure they are genuine.

To read more about this fileless threat (it doesn’t come as a downloadable file) see:

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3078616/microsoft-warns-astaroth-fileless-malware

https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0373/

https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2019/07/08/dismantling-a-fileless-campaign-microsoft-defender-atp-next-gen-protection-exposes-astaroth-attack/

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Wait - how can I trust the links you just posted?

To be clear, the email apparently contains a link to a website that hosts a .LNK file, that you then need to download and run. Don’t click email links!

I like the Microsoft description and process map.

Cool name someone chose for the malware.

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