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APT40, also known as Leviathan, is a China-government-backed cyberespionage actor that has targeted engineering and maritime organizations, including those in the United States, and conducted operations across multiple countries. Associated aliases include Bronze Mohawk, Feverdream, Gadolinium, Gingham Typhoon, JJDoor, Kryptonite Panda, MUDCARP, Red Ladon, TEMP.Jumper, and TEMP.Periscope. Its front company Hainan Xiandun recruited English-language graduates for espionage-related work without informing recruits of the company's true activities. APT40 gains initial access through spearphishing links and malicious document attachments, compromised valid accounts, and external remote services such as VPNs. Its phishing operations use lookalike domains, stolen branding, and compromised email accounts to increase credibility and evade defenses. The group relies on web shells for footholds and persistence, and has used JavaScript-created startup shortcuts and registry-based persistence. It harvests credentials and password hashes with tools including ProcDump, Windows Credential Editor, and HOMEFRY, and uses stolen RDP credentials for lateral movement. Its execution techniques include JavaScript, XML JavaScript Scriptlets, and the BADFLICK backdoor, which provides reverse-shell access. It has used SeDll to decrypt and execute JavaScript backdoors, Base64 encoding and gzip compression to obscure code, and multi-hop proxies to conceal malicious traffic origins. In a late-August 2023 phishing campaign targeting Papua New Guinea, APT40 exploited the WinRAR vulnerability CVE-2023-38831 and deployed ISLANDSTAGER and BOXRAT, with BOXRAT using the Dropbox API for command and control.
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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.
Geographies tied to known operations.
Attributed origin per open-source reporting.
53 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
39 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
34 additional families tracked in Mallory.
16 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 16 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
The Water Hydra group exploited the aforementioned CVE-2023-38831 as a zero-day to target cryptocurrency traders in April 2023 — months before disclosure.
The threat group KRYPTONITE PANDA exploited a critical Microsoft Office vulnerability (CVE-2018-0802) a month before its disclosure to the vendor by Qihoo 360, which initially discovered the flaw.
11 more CVEs tied to this actor tracked in Mallory.
181 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.
Chinese state-sponsored actor cited for targeting biomedical, healthcare, and virus-research organizations in the context of nation-state espionage.
Listed in the detection's technique annotations; the content does not attribute ShieldCrash exploitation to this group.
Leviathan is listed in the Annotations section of the Windows AD Computer SPN Modified By User Account detection.
Listed only in technique annotations. The content does not attribute ResetNightmare exploitation or a specific campaign to this group.
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.