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The Chinese nation-state group dubbed Alloy Taurus is using a Linux variant of a backdoor called PingPull as well as a new undocumented tool codenamed Sword2033.

That's according to findings from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which discovered recent malicious cyber activity carried out by the group targeting South Africa and Nepal.

Alloy Taurus is the constellation-themed moniker assigned to a threat actor that's known for its attacks targeting telecom companies since at least 2012. It's also tracked by Microsoft as Granite Typhoon (previously Gallium).

Last month, the adversary was attributed to a campaign called Tainted Love targeting telecommunication providers in the Middle East as part of a broader operation referred to as Soft Cell.

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