The Return of Ghost Emperor’s Demodex
Essential information
- Published
- 08/08/2024 11:12
- Modified
- 08/08/2024 11:38
- Tags
- 2024-08-08 demodex ghost emperor rootkit
- Related entities
- 1 vulnerabilities (cve), 3 observables, 1 intrusion sets (apt), 13 techniques (mitre), 1 malware
Description
This document examines a recent infection chain utilized by the sophisticated China-nexus threat group GhostEmperor. It delves into the multi-stage loading process of the Demodex rootkit, which incorporates several obfuscation techniques and loading schemes. The analysis covers various components, including a batch file, PowerShell script, and malicious service DLL, which ultimately loads a reflective loader and the core implant. The core implant handles command-and-control communication and installs the Demodex kernel rootkit, leveraging Cheat Engine's signed driver to bypass driver signature enforcement.