Thought Leadership
Security researchers at Arctic Wolf Labs have discovered a sophisticated cyberattack campaign targeting the Turkish defense industry.
The focus is on a manufacturer of precision-guided missile systems – a highly sensitive target with geopolitical relevance. The group behind the attack is Dropping Elephant, also known as Chinastrats or Patchwork.
Dropping Elephant: A growing player with new resources
The cyber espionage group Dropping Elephant is a comparatively new but increasingly active player in the field of targeted espionage campaigns. The group is known for its customized tools, which are particularly aimed at diplomatic and economic targets. Their current tactics show a technical evolution: from previous attacks using 64-bit DLL files, the group has now moved to 32-bit PE files – these are more flexible, require fewer external libraries and show more sophisticated command control.
At the center of the attack chain is a series of prepared LNK files. These are disguised as letters of invitation to conferences – a typical case of social engineering. The attackers rely on spear phishing, whereby the emails are aimed at people who are interested in unmanned vehicle systems.
Once opened, a complex five-stage infection chain begins, which uses PowerShell to download malware from a manipulated domain (expouav[.]org). A combination of legitimate programs such as VLC Media Player and Microsoft Task Scheduler is used. Using so-called DLL side-loading techniques, it is possible to bypass common protection measures and embed itself in the system.
One of the most striking innovations concerns the command and control infrastructure (C2). The group relies on legitimate web addresses as a disguise for its servers and uses functions such as strtok() from the C standard library to analyze data streams and start threads in the target system – a sign of the increasing maturity of the attackers.
Geopolitical context: more than just technology
The timing of the campaign coincides strikingly with a phase of increased military cooperation between Turkey and Pakistan. At the same time, there are ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan – a geopolitical area of tension in which information from the defense industry could be of particular interest. The choice of target suggests that this is not mere industrial espionage, but strategically motivated cyber espionage.
The revelations from Arctic Wolf Labs show once again how professionally and precisely modern cyber attacks are orchestrated. Dropping Elephant demonstrates technical flexibility combined with psychological deception through social engineering. The target – a key player in the Turkish arms industry – underlines the political explosiveness of the attacks. For security managers in sensitive industries, this case offers an important lesson: technical defense measures must go hand in hand with awareness of political contexts and human attack vectors.
