The Emotet malware was considered the most widely spread malware in the past, using spam campaigns and malicious attachments to distribute the malware.
Emotet would then use infected devices to perform other spam campaigns and install other payloads, such as the QakBot and Trickbot malware.
Today, researchers from Cryptolaemus, GData, and Advanced Intel have begun to see the TrickBot malware dropping a loader for Emotet on infected devices.
While in the past, Emotet installed TrickBot, the threat actors are now using a method dubbed “Operation Reacharound” to rebuild the Emotet botnet using TrickBot’s existing infrastructure.
Emotet expert and Cryptolaemus researcher Joseph Roosen told BleepingComputer that they had not seen any signs of the Emotet botnet performing spamming activity or found any malicious documents dropping the malware.
Advanced Intel’s Vitali Kremez has also analyzed the new Emotet dropper and warned that the rebirth of the malware botnet would likely lead to a surge in ransomware infections.
