OPERATION SILENTCANVAS: JPEG BASED MULTISTAGE POWERSHELL INTRUSION
A sophisticated multi-stage intrusion campaign was identified leveraging a weaponized PowerShell payload disguised as a JPEG image file (sysupdate.jpeg) to deploy a trojanized ConnectWise ScreenConnect instance for covert remote access. The attack likely originates through social engineering techniques including phishing emails or malicious attachments. Upon execution, the malware establishes a staging environment, retrieves additional payloads from attacker-controlled infrastructure, and dynamically compiles a custom launcher using Microsoft's legitimate .NET compiler (csc.exe) to evade detection. The intrusion abuses ComputerDefaults.exe and a malicious ms-settings registry hijack to perform a fileless UAC bypass and obtain elevated privileges. Once elevated, the malware deploys a persistent service masquerading as OneDriveServers and launches a modified ScreenConnect framework capable of credential interception, remote command execution, surveillance operations, SYSTEM-level execution, encrypted command...
Pulse ID: 6a008382641183db3b20fef5
Pulse Link: https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6a008382641183db3b20fef5
Pulse Author: AlienVault
Created: 2026-05-10 13:09:22
Be advised, this data is unverified and should be considered preliminary. Always do further verification.
#ConnectWise #CyberSecurity #EDR #Email #InfoSec #Malware #Microsoft #NET #OTX #OpenThreatExchange #Phishing #PowerShell #RAT #RCE #RemoteCommandExecution #ScreenConnect #SocialEngineering #Trojan #Troll #bot #AlienVault



