UAT-10147 Uses AI to Scale Server Attacks, Deploys SPECTRE With EDR Bypass and Linux Rootkit
UAT-10147 is a Chinese-speaking cybercrime group leveraging AI-powered tools across the entire attack lifecycle, from reconnaissance and exploitation to persistence and data exfiltration The group deployed a novel cross-platform implant called SPECTRE alongside established malware like BadIIS, Gh0stCringe, and Noodle RAT to target Windows and Linux servers AI tools including PentestGPT and DeepAudit were integrated into offensive operations for automated vulnerability scanning, exploit validatio
Analysis
TL;DR
- UAT-10147 is a Chinese-speaking cybercrime group leveraging AI-powered tools across the entire attack lifecycle, from reconnaissance and exploitation to persistence and data exfiltration
- The group deployed a novel cross-platform implant called SPECTRE alongside established malware like BadIIS, Gh0stCringe, and Noodle RAT to target Windows and Linux servers
- AI tools including PentestGPT and DeepAudit were integrated into offensive operations for automated vulnerability scanning, exploit validation, and post-exploitation workflow automation
- Attackers exploited known vulnerabilities in Zimbra, AjaxPro, Telerik UI, and Alibaba Nacos, using Nacos instances as asynchronous exfiltration sinks to blend malicious traffic with legitimate operations
- The campaign targeted approximately 170,000 URLs across education, media, technology, and gaming sectors, with primary victims in Brazil, Bolivia, China, Canada, and Vietnam
Why It Matters
This case represents a significant escalation in how threat actors operationalize AI tools for offensive purposes at scale, moving beyond manual exploitation to automated, AI-assisted attack chains. The integration of autonomous pentesting frameworks and AI-driven vulnerability scanning into criminal tradecraft signals a new paradigm where open-source security tools are being weaponized against the organizations that produced them. For defenders, this underscores the critical importance of patch management, as the group relied almost entirely on publicly disclosed vulnerabilities and freely available exploitation frameworks.
Technical Details
- AI-Powered Tooling: The group deployed PentestGPT (an autonomous pentesting framework) on their C2 server to scan web servers and execute PoC exploits, and installed DeepAudit (an AI-driven vulnerability scanning framework) for reconnaissance and potential defensive auditing of their own infrastructure
- Windows Attack Chain: Initial access via known vulnerabilities leading to RCE on IIS servers, followed by deployment of a web shell, privilege escalation using EfsPotato, Microsoft Defender exclusion configuration, and installation of BadIIS, Quasar RAT (hidden under a scheduled task named "Google Chrome Start"), and Gh0stCringe
- Linux Attack Chain: Initial foothold through known vulnerabilities, followed by systematic Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) using CVE-2022-0995, CVE-2021-3156, CVE-2015-5287, CVE-2015-3246, CVE-2010-3904, and CVE-2022-0847 to achieve root access, then deployment of Noodle RAT, SPECTRE, and Meterpreter backdoors
- C2 and Exfiltration Infrastructure: Exfiltrated data was routed through legitimate cloud-based Alibaba Nacos configuration management instances, acting as an asynchronous exfiltration sink that allows attackers to poll their own Nacos instance to verify exploitation success without maintaining persistent reverse shells or direct inbound connections
- ASP.NET ViewState Exploitation: The group utilized an AI-generated guide leveraging the badsecrets library with publicly known or leaked ASP.NET MachineKey configurations, combined with ysoserial.net to construct malicious deserialization payloads that bypass View State protection and achieve remote code execution
- Malware Ecosystem: Deployed a previously unreported cross-platform implant dubbed SPECTRE, the BadIIS malware variant operating under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model, Quasar RAT, and Noodle RAT (a variant combining Gh0st RAT and Rekoobe features)
Industry Insight
- The weaponization of open-source AI security tools like PentestGPT and DeepAudit by threat actors demonstrates that defensive tooling is a double-edged sword; organizations should assume any publicly available security framework can be repurposed for offensive operations and should monitor for their presence in compromised environments
- The use of legitimate cloud infrastructure (Alibaba Nacos) as an exfiltration sink represents an evolving operational security technique that blends malicious traffic with normal administrative activity, suggesting defenders should implement behavioral analytics and DNS/HTTP anomaly detection rather than relying solely on known malicious indicators
- The group's heavy reliance on publicly disclosed CVEs and freely available exploitation frameworks (Metasploit, ysoserial) highlights that basic hygiene—prompt patching of known vulnerabilities, removal of default credentials, and strict network segmentation—remains the most effective defense against this class of automated, scale-driven attacks
Disclaimer: The above content is generated by AI and is for reference only.