Hackers Use Microsoft Teams to Deploy “Snow” Malware

Security researchers have identified a new cyberattack campaign where threat actors use Microsoft Teams to impersonate IT helpdesk staff and trick employees into installing a malicious “patch” that deploys a new malware toolkit called Snow.

The attack relies on social engineering rather than software exploits, making it harder to detect and more effective against enterprise users.

How the Snow Malware Attack Works

The attack typically follows these steps:

1. Attacker impersonates IT support
2. Contacts employee via Microsoft Teams
3. Claims system issue or required update
4. Sends malicious file or link
5. User installs fake patch
6. Snow malware is deployed

Once installed, attackers gain remote access and begin lateral movement within the network.

Snow Malware Capabilities

Snow is a modular malware toolkit designed for enterprise compromise, including:

• Remote access backdoor
• Credential harvesting
• Malicious browser extensions
• Network tunneling
• Lateral movement
• Data exfiltration
• Persistence mechanisms

These features allow attackers to maintain long-term access to corporate environments.

Why Microsoft Teams Is Being Abused

Microsoft Teams is increasingly targeted because:

• Internal chats are trusted
• Limited security filtering
• Easy file sharing
• External communication allowed
• Hard to distinguish fake IT messages

This makes Teams an effective platform for social engineering attacks.

Targeted Organizations

The campaign primarily targets:

• Enterprise environments
• Microsoft 365 organizations
• IT and finance departments
• Corporate employees
• High-privilege users

Attackers typically compromise one user before expanding across the network.

How to Protect Against Snow Malware

For Employees

• Do not install files from Teams
• Verify IT requests
• Avoid unknown links
• Never grant remote access blindly

For Organizations

• Restrict external Teams access
• Enable MFA and Conditional Access
• Deploy EDR/XDR monitoring
• Block executable downloads
• Conduct security awareness training

The Snow malware campaign highlights a growing trend where attackers abuse collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams for social engineering attacks. Organizations must strengthen Teams security controls and user awareness to reduce risk.

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