Bloody Wolf’s New Hunting Ground: Inside the Sophisticated Cyber Campaign Targeting Central Asia
A threat actor with an expanding toolkit is systematically compromising financial institutions and government organizations across Russia and Central Asia.
The Core Insight
The threat actor known as “Bloody Wolf” (tracked by Kaspersky as “Stan Ghouls”) has launched an aggressive campaign targeting Uzbekistan and Russia using the NetSupport RAT—a legitimate remote administration tool weaponized for cyber espionage and financial crime. With over 60 confirmed victims across multiple countries, this represents one of the most prolific targeted campaigns in the region.
What makes this campaign particularly noteworthy isn’t just its scale but its evolution. Bloody Wolf has shifted from using STRRAT (their previous tool of choice) to NetSupport RAT, demonstrating the kind of tactical flexibility that separates opportunistic hackers from sophisticated threat actors. The group has also been linked to Mirai botnet payloads, suggesting potential expansion into IoT device targeting.
Why This Matters
The campaign reveals several concerning trends in the threat landscape:
Living off the land: NetSupport is a legitimate remote administration tool, which makes detection significantly harder. Defenders can’t simply block the software without potentially disrupting legitimate use cases. This “living off the land” approach has become the hallmark of sophisticated attackers who understand that custom malware raises more red flags than repurposed legitimate tools.
Geographic targeting with purpose: The victims span manufacturing, finance, IT, government organizations, logistics companies, medical facilities, and educational institutions across Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Serbia, and Belarus. This isn’t random—it’s a systematic effort to gain footholds across critical infrastructure.
Dual-use motivation: Kaspersky notes that while financial gain appears to be the primary motive, “heavy use of RATs may also hint at cyber espionage.” This dual-use approach allows threat actors to monetize access while potentially serving intelligence objectives—a business model increasingly common among state-adjacent threat groups.
Key Takeaways
Attack chain simplicity is deceptive: The initial attack vector is straightforward—phishing emails with malicious PDF attachments containing links that trigger the infection sequence. Simplicity doesn’t mean amateur; it means efficient.
Sophisticated persistence mechanisms: The loader establishes multiple persistence methods—autorun scripts, registry modifications, and scheduled tasks. Even partial remediation leaves the attacker with alternative footholds.
Built-in anti-analysis features: The loader checks if installation has been attempted more than three times and throws an error if the limit is reached—a clever anti-analysis technique that can frustrate security researchers.
Regional threat landscape is heating up: This campaign coincides with increased activity from other threat actors targeting Russian organizations, including ExCobalt, Punishing Owl, and Vortex Werewolf—suggesting the region has become an active battleground.
Supply chain vectors: Related groups like ExCobalt are increasingly targeting contractors to gain initial access, rather than attacking primary targets directly—a trend that has implications for vendor security management.
Looking Ahead
The Bloody Wolf campaign underscores the importance of defense-in-depth strategies. When attackers use legitimate tools and sophisticated evasion techniques, no single security control will provide adequate protection.
For organizations in the targeted regions and sectors, the immediate priorities should be:
- Email security: Enhanced phishing detection, particularly for PDF attachments with embedded links
- Endpoint monitoring: Behavioral detection for suspicious use of remote administration tools
- Network segmentation: Limiting lateral movement when initial compromise occurs
- Third-party risk management: Given the trend toward contractor compromise, vendor security posture is now a critical concern
Perhaps most importantly, the scale of this campaign—60+ victims in a targeted operation—demonstrates that sophisticated threat actors are investing significant resources in these operations. The attackers aren’t going away; they’re getting more capable. Defenders need to respond accordingly.
Based on analysis of “Bloody Wolf Targets Uzbekistan, Russia Using NetSupport RAT in Spear-Phishing Campaign” (The Hacker News)