November 6, 2023

How PlugX Malware Has Evolved & Adapted

Discover how Darktrace effectively detected and thwarted the PlugX remote access trojan in 2023 despite its highly evasive and adaptive nature.

Written by

Nahisha Nobregas

SOC Analyst

Inside the SOC

Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.

Written by

Nahisha Nobregas

SOC Analyst

Nov 2023

What is PlugX Remote Access Trojan?

Understanding remote access trojans (RATs)

As malicious actors across the threat landscape continue to pursue more efficient and effective ways of compromising target networks, all while remaining undetected by security measures, it is unsurprising to see an increase in the use of remote access trojans (RATs) in recent years. RATs typically operate stealthily, evading security tools while offering threat actors remote control over infected devices, allowing attackers to execute a wide range of malicious activities like data theft or installing additional malware.

Definition and general functionality of RATs: A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is a type of malware that enables unauthorized remote control of an infected computer. Once installed, RATs allow attackers to monitor user activities, steal sensitive information, manipulate files, and execute commands. RATs are typically distributed via phishing emails, malicious attachments, drive-by downloads, or exploiting software vulnerabilities. Due to their ability to provide comprehensive control over a compromised system, RATs pose a significant security threat to individuals and organizations.

Historical overview of PlugX

PlugX is one such example of a RAT that has attributed to Chinese threat actors such as Mustang Panda, since it first appeared in the wild back in 2008. It is known for its use in espionage, a modular and plug-in style approach to malware development. It has the ability to evolve with the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) that allow it to avoid the detection of traditional security tools as it implants itself target devices.

How does PlugX work?

The ultimate goal of any RAT is to remotely control affected devices with a wide range of capabilities, which in PlugX’s case has typically included rebooting systems, keylogging, managing critical system processes, and file upload/downloads. One technique PlugX heavily relies on is dynamic-link library (DLL) sideloading to infiltrate devices. This technique involves executing a malicious payload that is embedded within a benign executable found in a data link library (DLL) [1]. The embedded payload within the DLL is often encrypted or obfuscated to prevent detection.

What’s more, a new variant of PlugX was observed in the wild across Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria in August 2022, that added several new capabilities to its toolbox.

Key capabilities of PlugX

The new variation is reported to continuously monitor affected environments for new USB devices to infect, allowing it to spread further through compromised networks [2]. It is then able to hide malicious files within a USB device by using a novel technique that prevents them from being viewed on Windows operating systems (OS). These hidden files can only be viewed on a Unix-like (.nix) OS, or by analyzing an affected USB devices with a forensic tool [2]. The new PlugX variant also has the ability to create a hidden directory, “RECYCLER.BIN”, containing a collection of stolen documents, likely in preparation for exfiltration via its command and control (C2) channels. [3]

Since December 2022, PlugX has been observed targeting networks in Europe through malware delivery via HTML smuggling campaigns, a technique that has been dubbed SmugX [4].

This evasive tactic allows threat actors to prepare and deploy malware via phishing campaigns by exploiting legitimate HTML5 and JavaScript features [5].

Darktrace Coverage of PlugX

Between January and March 2023, Darktrace observed activity relating to the PlugX RAT on multiple customers across the fleet. While PlugX’s TTPs may have bypassed traditional security tools, the anomaly-based detection capabilities of Darktrace allowed it to identify and alert the subtle deviations in the behavior of affected devices, while Darktrace was able to take immediate mitigative action against such anomalous activity and stop attackers in their tracks.

C2 Communication

Between January and March 2023, Darktrace detected multiple suspicious connections related to the PlugX RAT within customer environments. When a device has been infected, it will typically communicate through C2 infrastructure established for the PlugX RAT. In most cases observed by Darktrace, affected devices exhibited suspicious C2 connections to rare endpoints that were assessed with moderate to high confidence to be linked to PlugX.

On the network of one Darktrace customer the observed communication was a mix of successful and unsuccessful connections at a high volume to rare endpoints on ports such as 110, 443, 5938, and 80. These ports are commonly associated with POP3, HTTPS, TeamViewer RDP / DynGate, and HTTP, respectively. Figure 1 below showcases this pattern of activity.

Figure 1: Model Breach Event Log demonstrating various successful and unsuccessful connections to the PlugX C2 endpoint 103.56.53[.]46 via various destination ports.

On another customer’s network, Darktrace observed C2 communication involving multiple failed connection attempts to another rare external endpoint associated with PlugX. The device in this case was detected attempting connections to the endpoint, 45.142.166[.]112 on ports 110, 80, and 443 which caused the DETECT model ‘Anomalous Connection / Multiple Failed Connections to Rare Endpoint’ to breach. This model examines devices attempting connections to a rare external endpoint over a short period of time, and it breached in response to almost all PlugX C2 related activity detected by Darktrace. This highlights Darktrace DETECT’s unique ability to identify anomalous activity which appears benign or uncertain, rather than relying on traditional signature-based detections.

Figure 2: Device Event Log demonstrating various successful and unsuccessful connections to the PlugX C2 endpoint 45.142.166[.]112 via various destination on January 27, 2023.

New User Agent

Darktrace's Self-Learning AI approach to threat detection also allowed it to recognize connections to PlugX associated endpoints that utilized a new user agent. In almost all connections to PlugX endpoints detected by Darktrace, the same user agent, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0;Win64;x64)AppleWebKit/537.36, was observed, illustrating a clear pattern in PlugX-related activity

In one example from February 2023, an affected device successfully connected to an endpoint associated with PlugX, 45.142.166[.]112, while using the aforementioned new user agent, as depicted in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The Device Event log above showcases a successful connection to the PlugX associated IP address, 45.142.166[.]112 using the new user agent ‘Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0;Win64;x64)AppleWebKit/537.36’.

On March 21, 2023, Darktrace observed similar activity on a separate customer’s network affected by connections to PlugX. This activity included connections to the same endpoint, 45.142.166[.]112. The connection was an HTTP POST request made via proxy with the same new user agent, ‘Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0;Win64;x64)AppleWebKit/537.36’. When investigated further this user agent actually reveals very little about itself and appears to be missing a couple of common features that are typically contained in a user agent string, such as a web browser and its version or the mention of Safari before its build ID (‘537.36’).

Additionally, for this connection the URI observed consisted of a random string of 8 hexadecimal characters, namely ‘d819f07a’. This is a technique often used by malware to communicate with its C2 servers, while evading the detection of signature-based detection tools. Darktrace, however, recognized that this external connection to an endpoint with no hostname constituted anomalous behavior, and could have been indicative of a threat actor communicating with malicious infrastructure, thus the ‘Anomalous Connection / Possible Callback URI’ model was breached.

Figure 4: An affected device was detected using the new user agent, ‘Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0;Win64;x64)AppleWebKit/537.36’ while connecting to the rare external endpoint 45.142.166[.]112 via proxy.

Numeric File Download

Darktrace’s detection of PlugX activity on another customer’s network, in February 2023, helped to demonstrate related patterns of activity within the C2 communication and tooling attack phases. Observed PlugX activity on this network followed the subsequent pattern; a connection to a PlugX endpoints is made, followed by a HTTP POST request to a numeric URI with a random string of 8 hexadecimal characters, as previously highlighted. Darktrace identified that this activity represented unusual ‘New Activity’ for this device, and thus treated it with suspicion.

Figure 5: New activity was identified by Darktrace in the Device Event Log shown above for connections to the endpoint 45.142.166[.]112 followed by HTTP POSTs to URIs “/8891431c” and “/ba12b866” on February 15, 2023.

The device in question continued to connect to the endpoint and make HTTP POST connections to various URIs relating to PlugX. Additionally, the user agent `Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0;Win64;x64)AppleWebKit/537.36` was again detected for these connections. Figure 6 details the activity captured by Darktrace’s Cyber AI Analyst.

Figure 6: The image above showcases activity captured by Darktrace’s AI Analyst for PlugX connections made on February 15, 2023.

Darktrace detected that during these connections, the device in question attempted to download a suspicious file named only with numbers. The use of numeric file names is a technique often used by threat actors to obfuscate the download of malicious files or programs and bypass traditional security tools. Darktrace understood that the download of a numeric file, coupled with the use of an anomalous new user agent, mean the incident should be treated with suspicion. Fortunately, Darktrace RESPOND was enabled in autonomous response mode during this attack, meaning it was able to automatically block the device from downloading the file, or any other files, from the suspicious external location for a two-hour period, potentially preventing the download of PlugX’s malicious tooling.

Conclusion

Amid the continued evolution of PlugX from an espionage tool to a more widely available malware, it is essential that threat detection does not rely on a set of characteristics or indicators, but rather is focused on anomalies. Throughout these cases, Darktrace demonstrated the efficacy of its detection and alerting on emerging activity pertaining to a particularly stealthy and versatile RAT. Over the years, PlugX has continually looked to evolve and survive in the ever-changing threat landscape by adapting new capabilities and TTPs through which it can infect a system and spread to new devices without being noticed by security teams and their tools.

However, Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI allows it to gain a strong understanding of customer networks, learning what constitutes expected network behavior which in turn allows it to recognize the subtle deviations indicative of an ongoing compromise.

Darktrace’s ability to identify emerging threats through anomaly-based detection, rather than relying on established threat intelligence, uniquely positions it to detect and respond to highly adaptable and dynamic threats, like the PlugX malware, regardless of how it may evolve in the future.

Credit to: Nahisha Nobregas, SOC Analyst & Dylan Hinz, Cyber Analyst

Appendices

MITRE ATT&CK Framework

Execution

T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell

Persistence and Privilege Escalation

T1547.001 Boot or Logon AutoStart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder
T1574.001 Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Search Order Hijacking
T1574.002 Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Side-Loading
T1543.003 Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service
T1140 Deobfuscate / Decode Files or Information
T1083 File and Directory Discovery

Defense Evasion

T1564.001 Hide Artifacts: Hidden Files and Directories
T1036.004 Masquerading: Task or Service
T1036.005 Masquerading: Match Legitimate Name or Location
T1027.006 Obfuscated Files or Information: HTML Smuggling

Credential Access

T1056.001 Input Capture: Keylogging

Collection

T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

Command and Control

T1573.001 Encrypted Channel: Symmetric Cryptography
T1070.003 Mail Protocols
T1071.001 Web Protocol

DETECT Model Breaches

Anomalous Connection / Multiple Failed Connections to Rare Endpoint
Anomalous Connection / New User Agent to IP Without Hostname
Anomalous File / New User Agent Followed By Numeric File Download
Anomalous Connection / Possible Callback URL

Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)

IoC - Type - Description + Confidence

45.142.166[.]112 - IP - PlugX C2 Endpoint / moderate - high

103.56.53[.]46 - IP - PlugX C2 Endpoint / moderate - high

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0;Win64;x64)AppleWebKit/537.36 - User Agent - PlugX User Agent / moderate – high

/8891431c - URI - PlugX URI / moderate-high

/ba12b866 - URI - PlugX URI / moderate -high

References

1. https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/dll-side-loading-how-to-combat-threat-actor-evasion-techniques/

2. https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/plugx-variants-in-usbs/

3. https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2023/03/09/border-hopping-plugx-usb-worm/

4. https://thehackernews.com/2023/07/chinese-hackers-use-html-smuggling-to.html

5. https://www.cyfirma.com/outofband/html-smuggling-a-stealthier-approach-to-deliver-malware/

Written by

Nahisha Nobregas

SOC Analyst

Inside the SOC

Written by

Nahisha Nobregas

SOC Analyst

Malware Research Lead

Watch the NIS2 Webinar

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Proactive Security

June 2, 2026

Stopping Stealth Attacks with Precision: How Núclea Prevented a Breach Without Disruption

Núclea is a Brazilian data and technology company that supports the country’s financial system by delivering digital services exclusively to banks and financial institutions. Operating in an environment where trust, availability, and data integrity are critical, the company faces a threat landscape that has evolved rapidly—particularly with the rise of AI-driven cyberattacks.

Brazil has experienced a wave of successful cyber incidents targeting financial institutions, many of them enabled by insiders or compromised credentials. The result was a noticeable shift in attacker strategy: instead of focusing on end customers, threat actors began targeting the institutions and platforms that underpin the financial ecosystem itself.

“Attacks became far more directed and contextual,” explains Guilherme, who leads incident response within Núclea’s security platform engineering team. “They weren’t noisy or obviously malicious—they were precise, patient, and designed to blend into normal operations.”

That precision was on full display in January 2026, when Núclea faced one of the most convincing phishing attacks the team had seen.

A real attack, built on trust and context

The attack began with a seemingly routine email.

It was sent from a real Brazilian government institution, using legitimate infrastructure and valid credentials that were later confirmed to have been compromised. Núclea had an established, ongoing relationship with this organization, and the email’s language, tone, and subject matter aligned perfectly with the type of communication the recipient team handled every day.

Attached to the email was a PDF document containing content that looked entirely legitimate.

The problem? A single URL embedded inside that PDF.

“The message itself was correct. The sender was real. The context was familiar. Even the document content made sense,” Guilherme explains. “There was just one small element that didn’t belong.”

That small detail was enough to initiate a full attack chain.

What the attackers were trying to do

If clicked, the URL would have downloaded a malicious payload designed to:

Collect information about the user and device
Identify where the system was located within the financial ecosystem
Install remote access tools to maintain control
Deploy an infostealer to extract sensitive data
Execute anti-forensic scripts to erase traces of the intrusion

In other words, it was a carefully engineered operation designed for persistence and stealth, not immediate disruption.

The attack also employed urgency—a classic social engineering technique. When the link didn’t open as expected, employees requested assistance from the security team, insisting the document was important and needed to be accessed quickly.

This is precisely the kind of scenario where traditional security tools struggle: almost everything about the interaction is legitimate.

Where Darktrace made the difference

Instead of blocking the entire message or relying on known indicators of compromise, Darktrace focused on behavioral context.

Darktrace recognized:

That the sending organization was normally trusted
That the communication pattern matched historical behavior
That the PDF content itself was not suspicious

But it also identified that the URL embedded within the document deviated from established behavioral patterns.

Rather than disrupting business operations, Darktrace took precise action: it rewrote the URL, preventing the malicious download while leaving the rest of the email untouched.

“When we analyzed it afterward, it became clear how dangerous the attack would have been,” says Guilherme. “But it never progressed—because Darktrace acted at exactly the right point.”

Subsequent forensic analysis confirmed the payload’s malicious intent. The attack never succeeded.

Precision over disruption

For Núclea, this incident reinforced a critical lesson: modern attacks don’t always look malicious—they hide within normal activity.

“What stands out to me is the precision,” Guilherme says. “Darktrace doesn’t rely on big, obvious signals. It’s effective in situations that fall outside the standard patterns we all know.”

Building resilience in a high trust ecosystem

For Núclea, cybersecurity is not just a defensive measure—it’s a business enabler.

Availability failures or successful breaches in the financial ecosystem can have immediate, large-scale consequences, from financial loss to reputational damage. Preventing those outcomes protects not just Núclea, but its partners and customers as well.

“Cyber resilience means keeping the business running—even under attack,” Guilherme explains. “And that requires people, processes, and technology working together.”

As AI continues to accelerate both attacks and defenses, the role of security is evolving. Precision, behavioral understanding, and intelligent automation are no longer optional—they’re essential.

“The easy days were yesterday,” Guilherme says. “The challenges ahead are bigger. We need to be prepared—internally and with partners that help us build resilience.”

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About the author

Mariana Pereira

VP, Field CISO

Blog

Proactive Security

June 1, 2026

Defend What You Trust: Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Cyber Defense

Modern attacks don’t always announce themselves, follow obvious patterns, or rely on known malware. Often, they move quietly inside trusted systems, authenticated sessions, and everyday behavior.

They don’t break in. They blend in.

That’s why an AI-powered defense is essential. It turns invisible signals into actionable insights at a scale neither analysts nor traditional tools can achieve alone.

Confidence is creating risk

One of the most dangerous assumptions in cybersecurity today is that strong controls equal strong protection.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), for example, is widely viewed as a foundational safeguard. But as the CISO for a professional sports organization explains, that confidence can be misplaced. “A lot of organizations assume that once you have MFA, those accounts are safe. That’s not true.”

In one instance, his team identified a sophisticated attack where a threat actor bypassed MFA entirely, not by breaking it, but by going around it. A user’s authenticated session was hijacked and re-used, allowing the attacker to impersonate them without triggering traditional controls.

“Darktrace picked up that a session had been re-injected by the hacker, and we were able to block it right away,” he explains.

Attackers anticipate what we miss

Even well-trained users can become entry points.

“An email bypassed our existing security tools,” shares the VP of IT at a U.S.-based risk management services provider. “The user missed one signal and entered their credentials into a malicious site. That’s what the bad guys count on.”

The organization responded quickly, but not before damage was done. Crucially, this occurred while Darktrace was in “watch mode,” before autonomous response was fully enabled. “Darktrace would have seen that and shut it down immediately,” he notes.

Mistakes and oversights like misconfigurations, forgotten machines, and missed patches can create serious vulnerabilities.

The CIO of a utility services organization shares an instance when Darktrace detected a breach to a client’s network via their ZTNA VPN due to misconfigured MFA. “Darktrace alerted us and autonomously blocked the scanning, preventing what could have been a ransomware-type incident.”

The most dangerous threats are already inside

The Head of Security at a global business services provider knows firsthand how blind spots can persist inside environments. His team uncovered evidence of dormant ransomware artifacts sitting unnoticed within a company’s environment ¬¬– long before modern detection was in place.

“During a routine file transfer, Darktrace flagged the suspicious activity, identified the ransomware, and immediately quarantined the server,” he recalls. While the attack was never executed, the implication was significant: the risk existed long before it was finally detected.

Cyber threats are also successful because they take advantage of normal human behavior, exploiting moments of cognitive overload, urgency, and trust.

The Executive Director of IT and Business Applications at a pharmaceutical lab describes the time Darktrace flagged an employee logging into Microsoft 365 from Singapore, despite him being physically located in the U.S. Darktrace immediately cut off his access and within minutes revealed that the employee’s son was using a VPN to play a video game.

While the threat was benign, it demonstrated the strength of AI to use contextual information to detect threats other tools miss. The information also saved security analysts hours of investigation and minimized downtime for the employee. “That level of precision and speed isn’t just convenient, it’s game changing.”

“Unusual” behavior is the new red flag

Detecting modern threats requires an understanding of what “normal” looks like and recognizing when something subtly deviates.

One security leader at an AI technology enterprise described a scenario in which an employee connected to a proxy service in China. The service itself was legitimate, and although traditional tools didn’t flag it, the behavior was unusual for that user specifically.

“That’s what Darktrace picked up on. The activity turned out to be benign, but without visibility into behavioral deviations, it could just as easily have been something more serious.”

AI shifts defense from reaction to anticipation

These stories point to a fundamental shift by cyber attackers, both tactically and strategically. Because traditional security tools were built to detect what’s already known, modern attacks are often:

Credential-based, not malware-based
Behavioral, not signature-based
Subtle, not overt

They may operate within the boundaries of what appears normal, exploiting what organizations trust, not what they block:

Trusted sessions
Legitimate services
Human error

This is where AI is changing the equation. Rather than relying on predefined rules or known threat signatures, AI can:

Establish a baseline of normal behavior
Detect subtle anomalies in real time
Act autonomously to contain potential threats

Resilience, not perfection, is the new security standard

As these frontline experiences show, the organizations that lead are those that move beyond reactive defense and embrace AI as a core part of their strategy.

It eliminates the blind spots and uncertainty, says the CISO of a professional sports organization. “If you lack visibility, you’re not managing risk, you’re assuming it. AI gives you the actionable insights needed to turn uncertainty into control.”

And it provides the speed and agility that are vital when seconds matter, says the Executive Director of IT and Business Applications. “When Darktrace alerted us at 3:00 am to a ransomware attack, it had already quarantined the affected systems, blocked the attacker’s access, and provided us with the critical details and time needed to investigate. That action likely saved us hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.”

The modern SOC has become a cornerstone of enterprise resilience, responsible for protecting data and operational continuity while enabling digital growth and innovation. For today’s security professional, that means success is no longer measured by what they keep out, but by what they protect: revenue, reputation, and trust.

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How PlugX Malware Has Evolved & Adapted

What is PlugX Remote Access Trojan?

Understanding remote access trojans (RATs)

How does PlugX work?

Key capabilities of PlugX

Darktrace Coverage of PlugX

C2 Communication

New User Agent

Numeric File Download

Conclusion

Appendices

MITRE ATT&CK Framework

Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)

References

Chinese APT Campaign Targets Entities with Updated FDMTP Backdoor

Stopping Stealth Attacks with Precision: How Núclea Prevented a Breach Without Disruption

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June 2, 2026

Stopping Stealth Attacks with Precision: How Núclea Prevented a Breach Without Disruption

A real attack, built on trust and context

What the attackers were trying to do

Where Darktrace made the difference

Precision over disruption

Blog

Proactive Security

June 1, 2026

Defend What You Trust: Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Cyber Defense

They don’t break in. They blend in.

Attackers anticipate what we miss

The most dangerous threats are already inside

“Unusual” behavior is the new red flag

AI shifts defense from reaction to anticipation

Resilience, not perfection, is the new security standard