ESET Research: One of Russia's Most Notorious Groups, Sednit, Resurges with Spyware in Ukraine
Sednit uses two implants, BeardShell and Covenant, alongside SlimAgent keylogger for resilient long-term espionage targeting Ukrainian military personnel since April 2024, ESET reports.
7 Articles
7 Articles
ESET Research: One of Russia's most notorious groups, Sednit, resurges with spyware in Ukraine
ESET researchers have traced the reactivation of Sednit's advanced implant team to a 2024 case in Ukraine, where a keylogger named SlimAgent was deployed. During that operation, BeardShell, a second Sednit-developed implant, was deployed. Across 2025 and 2026, Sednit repeatedly deployed BeardShell together with Covenant, a third major piece of its modern toolkit. Sednit heavily reworked this open-source implant to support long-term espionage and…
This spy tool has been quietly stealing data for years - Cybernoz - Cybersecurity News
ESET researchers have traced the resurgence of Sednit through a modern toolkit built around two complementary implants, BeardShell and Covenant, each relying on a separate cloud provider to ensure operational resilience. This dual-implant architecture has enabled sustained surveillance of Ukrainian military personnel since at least April 2024. The Sednit group itself was tied to Unit 26165 of the GRU by the US Department of Justice in 2016, iden…
APT28 Uses BEARDSHELL and COVENANT Malware to Spy on Ukrainian Military
The Russian state-sponsored hacking group tracked as APT28 has been observed using a pair of implants dubbed BEARDSHELL and COVENANT to facilitate long‑term surveillance of Ukrainian military personnel. The two malware families have been put to use since April 2024, ESET said in a new report shared with The Hacker News. APT28, also tracked as Blue Athena, BlueDelta, Fancy Bear, Fighting Ursa,
ESET's laboratories have recently highlighted the revival of the Sednit group, which now relies on a modernised toolbox, which has two complementary implants, BeardShell and Covenant, each using a separate cloud provider to ensure their resilience. This dual-implanted strategy has allowed the group to maintain sustained surveillance of Ukrainian military personnel and will be active since April 2024. The US Department of Justice, as early as 201…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 100% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium



