Merlin
- First seen
- 2019-01-01 00:00:00
- Malware type
- rat, backdoor
- Family
- Malware family
- Last IoC activity
- 2026-07-21 04:35:31
- Profile updated
- 2026-07-07 14:45:51
Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector defense-and-aerospace technology-and-telecommunications
Context
Merlin is a cross-platform post-exploitation HTTP/2 Command & Control server and agent written in golang.
Detection coverage
- 4 YARA rules
Detection rules
- SEKOIA_Merlin_Crossplatform (yara-rule)
- SEKOIA_Apt_Backdoordiplomaty_Custommerlinagent_Strings (yara-rule)
- SEKOIA_Merlin_Win_Dll (yara-rule)
- SEKOIA_Merlin_Win_Exe (yara-rule)
Reports & references
- jsac.jpcert.or.jp — Jsac2024 1 9 Takeda Furukawa En (report)
- michaelkoczwara.medium.com — Hunting C2 With Shodan 223Ca250D06F (report)
- Trend Micro — Taoth Campaign (report)
- malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de — Win.Merlin (report)
- github.com — Merlin (report)
- lockboxx.blogspot.com — Merlin For Red Teams (report)
- securonix.com — Threat Labs Security Advisory New Starkvortex Attack Campaign Threat Actors Use Drone Manual Lures To Deliver Merlinagent Payloads (report)
- lockboxx.blogspot.com — Intro To Using Gscript For Red Teams (report)