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APT40 is a Chinese state-linked cyber espionage threat actor widely tracked under aliases including Leviathan, Gadolinium, TEMP.Periscope, TEMP.Jumper, Kryptonite Panda, Bronze Mohawk, Gingham Typhoon, Mudcarp, Red Ladon, Feverdream, and JJDoor. The group is commonly associated with operations aligned with the interests of the People’s Republic of China and has been linked to activity connected to Hainan. It is known primarily for long-running espionage campaigns against maritime, telecommunications, engineering, research, government, and other strategic sectors, with a particular historical focus on organizations in the South China Sea region and broader Asia-Pacific, while also targeting entities in Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. APT40 is known for combining targeted spearphishing, exploitation of public-facing applications, credential theft, web shell use, and lateral movement to establish and expand access in victim environments. Reported tradecraft includes delivery of spearphishing attachments to induce user execution, use of PowerShell and JavaScript-based tooling, deployment of backdoors, abuse of startup mechanisms for persistence, credential collection from files, and use of proxying or multi-hop command-and-control techniques to obscure operations. The group has also used malware components capable of decrypting and executing additional JavaScript backdoors, and has been associated with Windows persistence through Startup-folder shortcuts and service-based installation in some intrusions. APT40 has been tied to telecom-focused intrusion activity overlapping with Operation Soft Cell, where tooling and operational patterns were noted alongside other Chinese-affiliated groups such as APT10 and APT27. Public reporting has also described the group’s use of capture-the-flag competitions and university-linked ecosystems in Hainan to recruit operators and source software vulnerabilities. Overall, APT40 is regarded as a capable, persistent espionage actor that blends bespoke malware, modified public tools, and opportunistic exploitation in support of Chinese intelligence collection objectives.
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Who, where, and (when attributed) which flag flies behind the operation. Pulled from open-source reporting and Mallory's analyst review.
Sectors the actor has been observed targeting.
Attributed origin per open-source reporting.
49 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
34 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
29 additional families tracked in Mallory.
15 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 15 of them exploited in the wild.
...used exploits for... Word (CVE-2017-0199)...
APT40 leverages exploits in their phishing operations, often weaponizing vulnerabilities within days of their disclosure. Observed vulnerabilities include: CVE-2012-0158 CVE-2017-0199 CVE-2017-8759 CVE-2017-11882
APT40 leverages exploits in their phishing operations, often weaponizing vulnerabilities within days of their disclosure. Observed vulnerabilities include: CVE-2012-0158 CVE-2017-0199 CVE-2017-8759 CVE-2017-11882
This detection identifies instances where Windows Explorer.exe spawns PowerShell or cmd.exe processes, particularly focusing on executions initiated by LNK files. This behavior is associated with the ZDI-CAN-25373 Windows shortcut zero-day vulnerability, where specially crafted LNK files are used to trigger malicious code execution through cmd.exe or powershell.exe. This technique has been actively exploited by multiple APT groups in targeted attacks through both HTTP and SMB delivery methods.
APT40 leverages exploits in their phishing operations, often weaponizing vulnerabilities within days of their disclosure. Observed vulnerabilities include: CVE-2012-0158 CVE-2017-0199 CVE-2017-8759 CVE-2017-11882
10 more CVEs tied to this actor tracked in Mallory.
118 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Listed as an annotation/tag associated with privilege escalation techniques in the detection content; no campaign or activity by the group is described in this reference.
Listed in annotations associated with the credential-access technique.
Listed as an associated threat actor in the detection annotation for exploitation of the public-facing PTC Windchill vulnerability CVE-2026-4681.
Uses capture-the-flag competitions at Hainan University to recruit hackers and obtain software vulnerabilities for operational use.
Match sector + geo + tech-stack targeting against your real footprint.
Every observed MITRE ATT&CK technique, grouped by tactic.
Families this actor is known to deploy, with IOCs and behavior.
CVEs this actor has used in known campaigns.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Domains, IPs, and hashes tied to this actor, refreshed continuously.