Newly Discovered PowMix Botnet Hits Czech Workers Using Randomized C2 Traffic
Newly Discovered PowMix Botnet Hits Czech Workers Using Randomized C2 Traffic
https://thehackernews.com/2026/04/newly-discovered-powmix-botnet-hits.html
Publish Date: 2026-04-16 13:52:00
Source Domain: thehackernews.com
Cybersecurity researchers have warned of an active malicious campaign that’s targeting the workforce in the Czech Republic with a previously undocumented botnet dubbed PowMix since at least December 2025.
“PowMix employs randomized command-and-control (C2) beaconing intervals, rather than persistent connection to the C2 server, to evade the network signature detections,” Cisco Talos researcher Chetan Raghuprasad said in a report published today.
“PowMix embeds the encrypted heartbeat data along with unique identifiers of the victim machine into the C2 URL paths, mimicking legitimate REST API URLs. PowMix has the capability to remotely update the new C2 domain to the botnet configuration file dynamically.”
The attack chain begins with a malicious ZIP file, likely delivered via a phishing email, to activate a multi-stage infection chain that drops PowMix. Specifically, it involves a Windows Shortcut (LNK) that’s used to launch a PowerShell loader, which then extracts the malware embedded within the archive, decrypts it, and runs it in memory.
The never-before-seen botnet is designed to facilitate remote access, reconnaissance, and remote code execution, while establishing persistence by means of a scheduled task. At the same time, it verifies the process tree to ensure that another instance of the same malware is not running on the compromised host.
PowMix’s remote management logic allows it to process two different kinds of commands sent from the C2 server. Any non #-prefixed response causes PowMix to shift to arbitrary execution mode, and decrypt and run the obtained payload.
- #KILL, to initiate a self-deletion routine and wipe traces of all malicious artifacts
- #HOST, to enable C2 migration to a new server URL.
In parallel, it also opens a decoy document with compliance-themed lures as a distraction mechanism. The lure documents reference legitimate brands like Edeka and include…
