By Smartencylopedia with Agencies
In a chilling revelation of modern cyberwarfare, Russian state-sponsored hackers, known as Gamaredon, have been exploiting legitimate online services to conduct espionage operations against Ukrainian targets. The group, reportedly operating under the auspices of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), has leveraged Cloudflare Tunnels to mask their activities and deliver malware to Ukrainian-speaking victims, cybersecurity researchers have discovered.
Gamaredon’s Persistent Threat
Active since 2013, Gamaredon—also referred to as BlueAlpha—is one of the most active Moscow-backed hacker groups targeting Ukraine. Operating from the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, the group has consistently deployed sophisticated techniques to infiltrate critical Ukrainian systems, particularly military and government agencies.
In their latest campaign, detailed by Recorded Future’s Insikt Group, Gamaredon used Cloudflare Tunnels to deliver custom-built malware called GammaDrop. This tool, once deployed on victims’ systems, delivers a backdoor known as GammaLoad, granting hackers persistent access to exfiltrate data, steal credentials, and execute further malicious payloads.
Abuse of Cloudflare Tunnels
Cloudflare Tunnels, designed to help organizations securely connect services to the internet without exposing their actual locations, have become a favored tool for threat actors like Gamaredon. The service’s ease of use and cost-free options make it an appealing defense evasion technique.
“Cloudflare Tunnels have been gaining momentum as a defense evasion technique due to their ease of setup and the fact that they have no cost to the user in most cases,” researchers from Insikt Group explained.
To evade detection, Gamaredon’s GammaDrop malware was heavily obfuscated with junk code and random variable names, complicating analysis by cybersecurity experts.
Targeting Ukraine Amid Counteroffensive
This cyber campaign aligns with a period of heightened conflict, as Ukraine’s military launched a critical counteroffensive against Russian forces. In August, Ukraine’s National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity (NCCC) reported a surge in Gamaredon attacks on military and government systems.
The NCCC revealed that the group’s malware often retrieves domain names from legitimate platforms such as Cloudflare, Telegram, and Telegraph, making it harder for defenders to trace the malware’s origins.
Cloudflare’s Role Under Scrutiny
Cloudflare has not yet commented on the allegations. However, this is not the first time its services have been misused. Other security firms, such as Proofpoint, have also observed an uptick in malware delivery via Cloudflare Tunnels, typically for financially motivated attacks.
The abuse of legitimate services highlights a broader challenge for cybersecurity—balancing the benefits of innovative tools with their potential misuse by malicious actors.
Looking Ahead
Gamaredon’s continued activity underscores the evolving nature of cyber warfare and the increasing reliance on digital tools in geopolitical conflicts. Researchers warn that the group is likely to enhance its techniques further, making detection and prevention even more challenging.
For Ukraine, this is yet another front in an ongoing hybrid war that combines kinetic military operations with relentless cyberattacks aimed at undermining the nation’s security and resilience.
The international community is watching closely, with cybersecurity experts urging collaboration between governments and private tech firms to curb the exploitation of legitimate services for malicious purposes.