ANY.RUN Empowers Government Agencies with Real-Time Threat Detection

Government agencies worldwide are facing an unprecedented wave of cyberattacks, with adversaries employing advanced tactics to breach critical infrastructure and steal sensitive data.

Recent case studies analyzed using the ANY.RUN malware analysis platform reveal how attackers are leveraging phishing, domain spoofing, and malicious document delivery to target public sector organizations.

These incidents highlight the urgent need for technical vigilance and modern threat detection strategies.

Attack Vectors and Detection

According to the report, one of the most prevalent attack vectors remains phishing emails.

For example, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce was targeted by a phishing email sent from a spoofed @163.com domain.

The email contained a ZIP attachment, “Quotation.zip,” which unpacked to an executable flagged as the FormBook infostealer.

FormBook is a sophisticated malware-as-a-service (MaaS) tool that exfiltrates credentials, screenshots, and keystrokes and can download additional payloads.

Technical analysis in the ANY.RUN sandbox revealed the following:

• The phishing email failed SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks, indicating sender spoofing.
• The attachment “Quotation.exe” was immediately flagged by behavioral signatures.
• Network traffic analysis using Suricata rules confirmed FormBook’s activity, specifically detecting HTTP headers used by the malware.
• The malware’s execution chain was mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques T1552.001 (Credentials in Files) and T1518 (Software Discovery)1.

Sample YARA Rule for Detection

YARA rules are instrumental in identifying malware patterns.

A simplified example targeting FormBook might look like:

textrule FormBook_Executable
{
    meta:
        description = "Detects FormBook executable by unique string patterns"
    strings:
        $s1 = "FormBook"
        $s2 = "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run"
    condition:
        any of ($s*)
}

This rule can be used to scan attachments and files for known indicators, automating early detection.

Domain Spoofing and Remote Access Tools

Attackers also register domains mimicking legitimate government sites.

A recent campaign involved a fraudulent domain, documentssagov[.]com, imitating the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Unsuspecting users were prompted to download a file disguised as a document, which deployed the ScreenConnect remote administration tool upon execution, enabling attackers to gain persistent remote access.

Suricata network analysis detected unusual port connections, and sandboxing visualized the attack chain for rapid triage.

Malicious PDFs and Credential Harvesting

Another notable tactic is the use of malicious PDFs, as seen in an attack on the South African Judiciary.

The PDF contained a button linking to a phishing page hosted on FloppyShare, which presented a fake Microsoft 365 login form to harvest credentials.

ANY.RUN’s sandbox flagged the PDF based on embedded phishing language and link analysis.

Extracting image hashes from these PDFs allowed analysts to identify similar campaigns using the TI Lookup tool.

Recommendations and Automation

To counter these evolving threats, security teams are advised to:

• Deploy YARA rules for targeted threat hunting on agency domains.
• Integrate interactive sandboxing for real-time behavioral analysis of suspicious files and URLs.
• Leverage threat intelligence lookups to gather and block indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as malicious IPs, domains, and hashes.
• Automate detection and response workflows by integrating TI Feeds with existing security infrastructure.
• Conduct regular staff training to recognize phishing tactics and spoofed domains.

The technical landscape of cyberattacks on government agencies is rapidly evolving, with attackers employing multifaceted strategies that blend social engineering, malware delivery, and domain spoofing.

Platforms like ANY.RUN, combined with proactive detection tools such as YARA and Suricata, empowers cybersecurity teams to detect, analyze, and mitigate threats in real time, ultimately safeguarding critical public sector infrastructure.