Gentlemen Ransomware Affiliate Uses MCP as C2 Channel in Live Cyberattacks

CloudSEK investigated an operator calling himself Azazel — an affiliate of the Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service — who abused an MCP exec_in_session endpoint bound to localhost to run SSH-based verification and command execution via an AI coding assistant tool interface. The investigation found credential-harvesting chains targeting GitLab CI/CD and repo history, exfiltration of hundreds of gigabytes (staging infrastructure totaling >50TB), a leak site (LEAKNED), theft of >120,000 records in a government-linked breach, and multiple IOCs (notably 23.236.169.183, 162.220.163.26, forgitlab.com, 66.179.30.155); CloudSEK recommends treating MCP interfaces as privileged, rotating GitLab history secrets, and constraining service exposure.