SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS
win.cornflake (Back to overview)

CornFlake

Actor(s): APT29

VTCollection    

CornFlake is a Go-based Windows RAT attributed to Storm-2945, a subcluster of Midnight Blizzard. The implant communicates over TLS-wrapped TCP; inside the tunnel it performs a length-prefixed JSON hello/ack exchange (0xAB/0xAC), derives a per-session AES-256-GCM key from ephemeral P-256 ECDH and a built-in secret, and exchanges opcode-driven JSON/binary messages. Startup traffic includes system-information (0x5A) and persistence (0x9E) reports. An encrypted heartbeat (0xE7) with an empty payload is sent at a randomized 18–41-second interval, while commands and results are handled asynchronously.
Collection and exfiltration use a resumable upload state machine with optional gzip-compressed 64-KiB chunks, acknowledgements carrying resume offsets, and explicit completion messages. Runtime configuration supports server and collection-policy changes, hot reload, and DNS-based fallback. CornFlake maintains a machine identifier across reconnects and supports persistence, security-posture discovery, credential-hint collection, remote shell execution, keylogging, clipboard and USB monitoring, screenshots, audio/webcam capture, selective file collection, and encrypted uploads.

References
2026-07-31 ⋅ Microsoft Threat Intelligence
CaptiveCrunch: Midnight Blizzard targets travelers worldwide for malware delivery and credential theft
ChocoShell CornFlake Storm-2945
Yara Rules
[TLP:WHITE] win_cornflake_auto (20260917 | Detects win.cornflake.)
rule win_cornflake_auto {

    meta:
        author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com"
        date = "2026-09-17"
        version = "1"
        description = "Detects win.cornflake."
        info = "autogenerated rule brought to you by yara-signator"
        tool = "yara-signator v0.6.0"
        signator_config = "callsandjumps;datarefs;binvalue"
        malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.cornflake"
        malpedia_rule_date = "20260916"
        malpedia_hash = "53a643781c18e08f4a50949af60172d837a0b6f6"
        malpedia_version = "20260917"
        malpedia_license = "CC BY-SA 4.0"
        malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE"

    /* DISCLAIMER
     * The strings used in this rule have been automatically selected from the
     * disassembly of memory dumps and unpacked files, using YARA-Signator.
     * The code and documentation is published here:
     * https://github.com/fxb-cocacoding/yara-signator
     * As Malpedia is used as data source, please note that for a given
     * number of families, only single samples are documented.
     * This likely impacts the degree of generalization these rules will offer.
     * Take the described generation method also into consideration when you
     * apply the rules in your use cases and assign them confidence levels.
     */


    strings:
        $sequence_0 = { c3 488d05c3611d00 0f1f00 e8???????? 48c7400820000000 488d0d59d12400 488908 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   c3                   | xor                 eax, eax
            //   488d05c3611d00       | mov                 ebx, 8
            //   0f1f00               | dec                 eax
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   48c7400820000000     | lea                 edx, [0x1ab5d4]
            //   488d0d59d12400       | dec                 eax
            //   488908               | mov                 dword ptr [esp + 0x68], edx

        $sequence_1 = { e8???????? 498903 49894b08 48895c2440 488905???????? 31c9 eb16 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   498903               | mov                 dword ptr [eax], ecx
            //   49894b08             | dec                 eax
            //   48895c2440           | mov                 ebx, eax
            //   488905????????       |                     
            //   31c9                 | dec                 eax
            //   eb16                 | lea                 eax, [0x39535f]

        $sequence_2 = { e8???????? 488b942480000000 498913 48895048 31db 488d0dc36a3400 4889c7 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   488b942480000000     | dec                 eax
            //   498913               | lea                 ecx, [esp + 0x60]
            //   48895048             | dec                 eax
            //   31db                 | lea                 eax, [esp + 0xd8]
            //   488d0dc36a3400       | dec                 eax
            //   4889c7               | lea                 ebx, [esp + 0x168]

        $sequence_3 = { e9???????? 488d05e0d21e00 488d1d19362a00 e8???????? 4c894608 488b942460020000 4883c210 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e9????????           |                     
            //   488d05e0d21e00       | dec                 ebp
            //   488d1d19362a00       | test                edx, edx
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   4c894608             | jne                 0x42e
            //   488b942460020000     | dec                 eax
            //   4883c210             | mov                 dword ptr [esp + 0x28], eax

        $sequence_4 = { e9???????? 440fb6cf 4c31ca 49b9b301000000010000 490fafd1 48ffc0 c1ef08 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e9????????           |                     
            //   440fb6cf             | dec                 eax
            //   4c31ca               | mov                 ecx, dword ptr [esp + 0x28]
            //   49b9b301000000010000     | dec    eax
            //   490fafd1             | bswap               ecx
            //   48ffc0               | dec                 eax
            //   c1ef08               | inc                 edx

        $sequence_5 = { e8???????? 488d1d0cdd2700 b960000000 bf10000000 e8???????? 84db 0f84c0000000 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   488d1d0cdd2700       | pop                 ebp
            //   b960000000           | dec                 eax
            //   bf10000000           | mov                 dword ptr [eax + 8], 0xe
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   84db                 | dec                 eax
            //   0f84c0000000         | lea                 ecx, [0x18b197]

        $sequence_6 = { e8???????? 488d0d20901c00 48894c2428 4889442430 488d05b9d22400 bb34000000 488d4c2428 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   488d0d20901c00       | dec                 eax
            //   48894c2428           | lea                 ebx, [0x45c2ea]
            //   4889442430           | dec                 eax
            //   488d05b9d22400       | sar                 esi, 0x3f
            //   bb34000000           | and                 esi, 1
            //   488d4c2428           | dec                 eax

        $sequence_7 = { e8???????? 488d4601 4839442440 0f8ee0000000 4883f840 0f8370010000 4889442450 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   488d4601             | dec                 eax
            //   4839442440           | add                 esp, 0x100
            //   0f8ee0000000         | pop                 ebp
            //   4883f840             | dec                 eax
            //   0f8370010000         | mov                 dword ptr [eax + 8], 0x11
            //   4889442450           | dec                 eax

        $sequence_8 = { c644244301 488d05d79f1100 e8???????? 48898424f8000000 c70038020000 48898424f0000000 488d05f5e70a00 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   c644244301           | pop                 ebp
            //   488d05d79f1100       | ret                 
            //   e8????????           |                     
            //   48898424f8000000     | dec                 eax
            //   c70038020000         | lea                 eax, [0x1a710a]
            //   48898424f0000000     | dec                 eax
            //   488d05f5e70a00       | lea                 ebx, [0x1cbc9f]

        $sequence_9 = { ffd2 84c0 7406 4883c418 5d c3 488d05750d1d00 }
            // n = 7, score = 100
            //   ffd2                 | mov                 dword ptr [ecx + 0x180], eax
            //   84c0                 | dec                 eax
            //   7406                 | mov                 edx, ecx
            //   4883c418             | dec                 eax
            //   5d                   | mov                 eax, dword ptr [edx + 0x178]
            //   c3                   | dec                 ecx
            //   488d05750d1d00       | mov                 dword ptr [ebx + 0x10], edx

    condition:
        7 of them and filesize < 84067328
}
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