Operation TaxShadow: Multi-Region Tax Phishing & In-Memory Malware Campaign
Essential information
- Published
- 04/06/2026 22:52
- Modified
- 05/06/2026 06:41
- Tags
- 2026-06-04 dll hijacking government impersonation in-memory execution multi-stage payload reflective loading tax phishing token manipulation websocket c2
- Related entities
- 5 observables, 19 techniques (mitre), 13 others
Description
A sophisticated multi-stage malware campaign targets victims through tax-themed phishing emails impersonating Indian and Japanese government authorities. The operation leverages social engineering, fraudulent tax notifications, and trusted third-party email delivery services to distribute ZIP archives containing three staged payloads. The malware implements advanced evasion techniques including DLL Search Order Hijacking, API hooking, token manipulation, Mersenne Twister-based execution logic, COM callback execution, mutated RC4 encryption, and reflective PE loading. Execution occurs primarily in memory, significantly reducing forensic artifacts. The malware establishes persistent WebSocket-based command-and-control communication through HTTP protocol upgrades, allowing malicious traffic to blend with legitimate activity. Chinese-language artifacts were observed throughout the infrastructure and code, though attribution remains at moderate confidence. The campaign demonstrates characteristics of a mature, ...