New SideWalk Backdoor Targets U.S.-based Computer Retail Business
Aug 25, 2021
A computer retail company based in the U.S. was the target of a previously undiscovered implant called SideWalk as part of a recent campaign undertaken by a Chinese advanced persistent threat group primarily known for singling out entities in East and Southeast Asia. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET attributed the malware to an advanced persistent threat it tracks under the moniker SparklingGoblin, an adversary believed to be connected to the Winnti umbrella group, noting its similarities to another backdoor dubbed Crosswalk that was put to use by the same threat actor in 2019. "SideWalk is a modular backdoor that can dynamically load additional modules sent from its C&C [command-and-control] server, makes use of Google Docs as a dead drop resolver , and Cloudflare workers as a C&C server," ESET researchers Thibaut Passilly and Mathieu Tartare said in a report published Tuesday. "It can also properly handle communication behind a proxy." Since fir
