Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new malware loader called QuirkyLoader that’s being used to deliver via email spam campaigns an array of next-stage payloads ranging from information stealers to remote access trojans since November 2024.
Some of the notable malware families distributed using QuirkyLoader include Agent Tesla, AsyncRAT, Formbook, Masslogger, Remcos RAT, Rhadamanthys Stealer, and Snake Keylogger.
IBM X-Force, which detailed the malware, said the attacks involve sending spam emails from both legitimate email service providers and a self-hosted email server. These emails feature a malicious archive, which contains a DLL, an encrypted payload, and a real executable.
“The actor uses DLL side-loading, a technique where launching the legitimate executable also loads the malicious DLL,” security researcher Raymond Joseph Alfonso said. “This DLL, in turn, loads, decrypts, and injects the final payload into its target process.”
This is achieved by using process hollowing to inject the malware into one of the three processes: AddInProcess32.exe, InstallUtil.exe, or aspnet_wp.exe.
The DLL loader, per IBM, has been used in limited campaigns for the past few months, with two campaigns observed in July 2025 targeting Taiwan and Mexico.
The campaign targeting Taiwan is said to have specifically singled out employees of Nusoft Taiwan, a network and internet security research company based in New Taipei City, with the goal of infecting them with Snake Keylogger, which is capable of stealing sensitive information from popular web browsers, keystrokes, and clipboard content.
The Mexico-related campaign, on the other hand, is assessed to be random, with the infection chains delivering Remcos RAT and AsyncRAT.
“The threat actor consistently writes the DLL loader module in .NET languages and uses ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation,” Alfonso said. “This process compiles the code into native machine code before execution, making the resulting binary appear as though it were written in C or C++.”
New Phishing Trends
The development comes as threat actors are using new QR code phishing (aka quishing) tactics like splitting malicious QR codes into two parts or embedding them within legitimate ones in email messages propagated via phishing kits like Gabagool and Tycoon, respectively, to evade detection, demonstrating ongoing evolution.
“Malicious QR codes are popular with attackers for several reasons,” Barracuda researcher Rohit Suresh Kanase said. “They cannot be read by humans so don’t raise any red flags, and they can often bypass traditional security measures such as email filters and link scanners.”
“Furthermore, since recipients often have to switch to a mobile device to scan the code, it can take users out of the company security perimeter and away from protection.”
The findings also follow the emergence of a phishing kit used by the PoisonSeed threat actor to acquire credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) codes from individuals and organizations to gain access to victims’ accounts and use them to send emails for carrying out cryptocurrency scams.
“The domains hosting this phishing kit impersonate login services from prominent CRM and bulk email companies like Google, SendGrid, Mailchimp, and likely others, targeting individuals’ credentials,” NVISO Labs said. “PoisonSeed employs spear-phishing emails embedding malicious links, which redirect victims to their phishing kit.”
A noteworthy aspect of the kit is the use of a technique known as precision-validated phishing in which the attacker validates an email address in real-time in the background, while a fake Cloudflare Turnstile challenge is served to the user. Once the checks are passed, a login form impersonating the legitimate online platform appears, allowing the threat actors to capture submitted credentials and then relay them to the service.
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