Unwary Chinese Hackers Hardcoded Credentials into Backdoors

Eset Researchers Discover Trove of Go-Based Malware Tiffany Wang • April 23, 2026

Researchers were able to track a previously undetected but apparently very careless Chinese nation-state threat actor after discovering that hackers hard coded command and control credentials into backdoors.

See Also: AI Impersonation Is the New Arms Race-Is Your Workforce Ready?

The hacking group, dubbed GopherWhisper by Eset, used Slack, Discord and Microsoft Office accounts to control several backdoors written in the Go programming language. The cybersecurity firm found the tools while investigating an infection in an undisclosed Mongolia government agency in a campaign that started roughly in August 2024.

The same Slack and Discord servers used as command and control were among the first machines to receive infections, as tests. But, the hackers forgot to clear the logs. As a result ...