Full Report
Between 10 and 13 November 2025, the latest phase of Operation Endgame was coordinated from Europol's headquarters in The Hague. The actions targeted one of the biggest infostealer Rhadamanthys, the Remote Access Trojan VenomRAT, and the botnet Elysium, all of which played a key role in international cybercrime. Authorities took down these three large cybercrime enablers and provided 2 million impacted email addresses and 7.4 million passwords to HIBP.
Analysis Summary
# Incident Report: Operation Endgame Takedown - Infostealer, RAT, and Botnet Disruption
## Executive Summary
Between November 10 and 13, 2025, a coordinated international law enforcement action, "Operation Endgame," successfully disrupted three major cybercrime enablers: the Rhadamanthys infostealer, the VenomRAT Remote Access Trojan, and the Elysium botnet. This response resulted in the seizure of infrastructure and the publication of 2 million compromised email addresses and 7.4 million passwords to HIBP for public notification.
## Incident Details
- Discovery Date: Not explicitly stated (Takedown coordinated by Europol)
- Incident Date: 10 November 2025 – 13 November 2025 (Period of coordinated action)
- Affected Organization: N/A (Law enforcement action targeting criminal infrastructure)
- Sector: Global Cybercrime Infrastructure
- Geography: Coordinated by Europol Headquarters in The Hague (Global impact from compromised data)
## Timeline of Events
### Initial Access
- Date/Time: Ongoing prior to November 2025 (Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium were active)
- Vector: Varied (Implied through the nature of the tools—phishing, exploits, malware distribution)
- Details: The coordinated action targeted the command, control, and distribution infrastructure utilized by these three major cybercrime tools.
### Lateral Movement
- Date/Time: N/A (No specific details provided regarding internal network movement)
- Vector: N/A
### Data Exfiltration/Impact
- Date/Time: Continuous prior to takedown
- Details: Compromise resulted in the theft of approximately 7.4 million passwords associated with 2 million unique email addresses, likely tied to the activities of the targeted malware.
### Detection & Response
- Date/Time: 10 - 13 November 2025 (Coordination window)
- Details: International authorities, coordinated by Europol, executed the takedown operation against the infrastructure enabling Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium. Subsequently, 2 million impacted email addresses and 7.4 million passwords were provided to HIBP on or around November 13, 2025.
## Attack Methodology
This section summarizes the *tools* targeted by the response, rather than the methodology of the response team.
- Initial Access: Varied/Unknown (Infostealers, RATs, and Botnets rely on broad methods like phishing, drive-by downloads, and exploitation.)
- Persistence: Relied on the underlying capabilities of VenomRAT and Elysium botnet agents.
- Privilege Escalation: Not specified for the reported elements.
- Defense Evasion: Built-in capabilities of the specified malware (Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT).
- Credential Access: Primary function of the Rhadamanthys infostealer.
- Discovery: Implicit within RAT functionality (VenomRAT).
- Lateral Movement: Implicit within network intrusion capabilities of the botnet/RAT.
- Collection: Data harvesting inherent to infostealers and RATs.
- Exfiltration: Handled by the malware infrastructure prior to takedown analysis.
- Impact: Financial fraud, espionage, and large-scale data theft enabled by the compromised elements.
## Impact Assessment
- Financial: Not assessed, but inferred high, as the targets were major enablers of international cybercrime.
- Data Breach: **2 million email addresses** and **7.4 million passwords** exposed/seized from the infrastructure.
- Operational: Disruption of significant cybercrime capabilities, leading to a sharp reduction in these specific threat vectors.
- Reputational: Positive for law enforcement agencies; negative for the victims whose data was compromised.
## Indicators of Compromise
*Note: As this was a successful law enforcement takedown of the *infrastructure*, specific artifacts of the successful victim compromise are not detailed here, only the derived data provided to HIBP.*
- Network Indicators: None provided (Infrastructure likely disabled by authorities).
- File Indicators: Not specified.
- Behavioral Indicators: Activity associated with Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, or Elysium infections prior to November 2025.
## Response Actions
- Containment: Takedown and seizure of the servers hosting the infrastructure for Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium (1,025 servers taken down, per linked source).
- Eradication: Disruption of C2 communications and malware distribution channels.
- Recovery: Law enforcement collaboration to analyze seized data and notify potentially impacted parties via HIBP notification on November 13, 2025.
## Lessons Learned
- Coordinated international action is highly effective against structured cybercrime infrastructure.
- The linkage of multiple major commodity threats (infostealer, RAT, botnet) suggests a high degree of infrastructure sharing or interdependency among cybercriminal groups.
- The immediate sharing of compromised credentials with public databases (HIBP) is a crucial step for immediate victim remediation.
## Recommendations
- **Victim Remediation:** All users identified via HIBP must immediately change affected passwords and enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).
- **Proactive Defense:** Implement robust endpoint detection and response (EDR) capable of detecting characteristics associated with known infostealers and RATs.
- **Credential Hygiene:** Individuals should utilize password managers to ensure unique, complex passwords for every online service.