The QakBot modular malware has been operational since 2007, features have continued to be developed which has attracted threat actors to use the commodity malware.
In recent activity, QakBot has been using valid code signing certificates, stolen from smaller “micro-organizations” attempting to evade detection.
The initial attack vector remains spear-phishing attachments that lead to target infection, it is suspected that the use of Cobalt Strike and built-in modules for MimiKatz capabilities may have been used to dump the code signing certificate from victims however it is still not clear if those modules were active during the reported attacks involving QakBot.