* Proofpoint has observed recent espionage-related activity by TA473, including yet to be reported instances of TA473 targeting US elected officials and staffers. TA473 is a newly minted Proofpoint threat actor that aligns with public reporting on Winter Vivern. * TA473 since at least February 2023 has continuously leveraged an unpatched Zimbra vulnerability in publicly facing webmail portals that allows them to gain access to the email mailboxes of government entities in Europe. * TA473 recons and reverse engineers bespoke JavaScript payloads designed for each government targets’ webmail portal. * Proofpoint concurs with Sentinel One analysis that TA473 targeting superficially aligns with the support of Russian and/or Belarussian geopolitical goals as they pertain to the Russia-Ukraine War.

* Proofpoint has identified a likely nation-state sponsored phishing campaign using a possibly compromised Ukrainian armed service member’s email account to target European government personnel involved in managing the logistics of refugees fleeing Ukraine. * The email included a malicious macro attachment which attempted to download a Lua-based malware dubbed SunSeed. * The infection chain used in this campaign bears significant similarities to a historic campaign Proofpoint observed in July 2021, making it likely the same threat actor is behind both clusters of activity. * Proofpoint is releasing this report in an effort to balance accuracy with responsibility to disclose actionable intelligence during a time of high-tempo conflict.

* Proofpoint has identified a likely nation-state sponsored phishing campaign using a possibly compromised Ukrainian armed service member’s email account to target European government personnel involved in managing the logistics of refugees fleeing Ukraine. * The email included a malicious macro attachment which attempted to download a Lua-based malware dubbed SunSeed. * The infection chain used in this campaign bears significant similarities to a historic campaign Proofpoint observed in July 2021, making it likely the same threat actor is behind both clusters of activity. * Proofpoint is releasing this report in an effort to balance accuracy with responsibility to disclose actionable intelligence during a time of high-tempo conflict.