E4del and PINHOLE RATs Turn FTP Banners Into Dead Drops for Malware Commands

Cybersecurity researchers have identified a new campaign using FTP banners as a means to deliver malware commands. This campaign is associated with two previously unreported remote access trojans, known as E4del and PINHOLE. The technique involves using FTP banners as dead drop resolvers to point to additional command-and-control infrastructure. This approach allows threat actors to blend in with regular network traffic. The use of legitimate services in this way is not new, but the specific development of using FTP banners for this purpose has been highlighted by researchers.