White Lynx Uses New "CAPTCHA Macro" Social Engineering Technique

    Date: 12/10/2025

    Severity: High

    Summary

    We identified a new social-engineering tactic employed by the Belarusian threat actor White Lynx (also known as Ghostwriter, Storm-0257, UNC1151). The method relies on a malicious macro embedded in a Word document designed to evade detection and analysis. Once macros are enabled, the user is presented with a fake CAPTCHA window prompting them to validate a six-character string. This added step introduces a layer of human interaction before the macro will execute. After the CAPTCHA is completed, the document displays decoy content while carrying out malicious activity in the background.

    Indicators of Compromise (IOC) List

    Domains\URLs :

    https://agelessinvesting.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/fahrenheit-451-book-cover.jpg

    Hash :

    6a22c0f7cafd717d4bc7408d7cf045f864939dd11f6d61a1b557e25a65fe4b7e

    d93e1c23d95446071c7347d17e7125155486f3d2b01fb7265a4d2453e409ea18

    Gurucul Threat Detection and Incident Response (TDIR) Queries for Detection

    Detection Query 1 :

    domainname like "https://agelessinvesting.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/fahrenheit-451-book-cover.jpg" or url like "https://agelessinvesting.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/fahrenheit-451-book-cover.jpg" or siteurl like "https://agelessinvesting.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/fahrenheit-451-book-cover.jpg"

    Detection Query 2 :

    sha256hash IN ("6a22c0f7cafd717d4bc7408d7cf045f864939dd11f6d61a1b557e25a65fe4b7e","d93e1c23d95446071c7347d17e7125155486f3d2b01fb7265a4d2453e409ea18")

    Reference: 

    https://github.com/PaloAltoNetworks/Unit42-timely-threat-intel/blob/main/2025-12-08-White-Lynx-uses-CAPTCHA-macros.txt


    Tags

    Threat ActorWhite Lynx (Ghostwriter, Storm-0257, UNC1151)Social Engineering

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