Turla Upgrades Kazuar Backdoor into Resilient P2P Botnet

Microsoft revealed on May 14 that Russian APT group Turla has transformed its Kazuar backdoor into a modular peer-to-peer botnet, targeting government and diplomatic networks in Europe and Central Asia. The new architecture uses encrypted P2P communication and a plugin system, making it harder to disrupt than traditional C2-based malware. Palo Alto Networks tracked the variant as Pensive Ursa, noting its design for long-term persistent access.