Operation ForumTrol, a complicated persistent risk group, has launched a brand new focused phishing marketing campaign in opposition to Russian political scientists and researchers.
This refined operation continues the group’s sample of cyberattacks that started in March 2025 with the exploitation of CVE-2025-2783, a zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome.
The risk group beforehand deployed uncommon malware just like the LeetAgent backdoor and Dante adware, developed by Memento Labs.
In contrast to their spring marketing campaign that focused organizations, this latest operation focuses on particular person students in political science, worldwide relations, and international economics at main Russian universities and analysis establishments.
The assault marketing campaign makes use of fastidiously crafted phishing emails despatched from help@e-library[.]wiki, impersonating the authentic scientific digital library eLibrary.
The message that was displayed once we tried to obtain the archive from a non-Home windows OS (Supply – Securelist)
Recipients obtain messages prompting them to obtain plagiarism reviews by malicious hyperlinks formatted as https://e-library[.]wiki/elib/wiki.php?id=.
A screenshot of the malicious web site components displaying the IP handle and preliminary session date (Supply – Securelist)
Clicking these hyperlinks downloads customized archive information named with the sufferer’s full identify in LastName_FirstName_Patronymic.zip format.
The risk actors demonstrated superior preparation by registering the malicious area in March 2025, six months earlier than launching the marketing campaign, permitting the area to construct repute and evade spam filters.
Additionally they cloned the authentic eLibrary homepage and carried out protecting mechanisms to limit repeat downloads, hindering safety evaluation.
Securelist researchers recognized this new marketing campaign in October 2025, simply days earlier than presenting their report on ForumTrol on the Safety Analyst Summit.
The investigation revealed that attackers fastidiously customized their method, researching particular targets and customizing every assault.
The malicious web site even detected non-Home windows gadgets and prompted customers to entry the content material from Home windows computer systems, displaying the operation’s technical sophistication.
This focused method, mixed with area growing old methods, demonstrates the group’s dedication to evading detection and maximizing an infection success charges.
An infection Chain and Payload Supply
The malicious archives include a shortcut file named after the sufferer and a .Thumbs listing with roughly 100 Russian-named picture information added as decoys to keep away from elevating suspicion.
A portion of the .Thumbs listing contents (Supply – Securelist)
When customers click on the shortcut, it executes a PowerShell script that downloads and runs a PowerShell-based payload from the malicious server.
This payload contacts https://e-library[.]wiki/elib/question.php to retrieve a DLL file, which is saved to %localappdatapercentMicrosoftWindowsExplorericoncache_.dll.
The malware establishes persistence utilizing COM Hijacking by writing the DLL path into the registry key HKCRCLSID{1f486a52-3cb1-48fd-8f50-b8dc300d9f9d}InProcServer32, a way ForumTrol utilized in earlier spring assaults.
Lastly, a decoy PDF containing a blurred plagiarism report mechanically opens to take care of the deception whereas the OLLVM-obfuscated loader deploys the Tuoni framework, a business pink teaming software that grants attackers distant entry capabilities.
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