Moonstone Sleet
Moonstone Sleet is a North Korea-attributed, state-sponsored threat actor. The provided content also associates it with the Microsoft temporary cluster name Storm-1789. Reported activity includes deployment of Qilin ransomware beginning in February, indicating overlap with financially motivated ransomware operations in addition to broader intrusion activity. Observed tradecraft in the content includes spearphishing attachments for delivery, reliance on user execution including trojanized software such as a trojanized PuTTY installer, use of registry Run keys and scheduled tasks for execution and persistence, use of curl to retrieve additional payloads from adversary-controlled infrastructure, and registration of virtual private servers to host payloads for download. The actor has used encrypted payloads within files, delivered payloads in pieces that are later combined into a PE file, embedded payloads in trojanized software, and used multiple rounds of obfuscation and encoding for defense evasion. The content also states that Moonstone Sleet gathered victim system information, deployed YouieLoader capable of capturing browser information, and used malware that can perform system user discovery actions. Known aliases in the provided content are moonstone sleet, moonstone_sleet, storm_1789, and storm-1789.
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Mallory correlates actor tradecraft and target patterns against your stack, your sector, and your geography. See overlap before they land.
Targeting
Who, where, and (when attributed) which flag flies behind the operation. Pulled from open-source reporting and Mallory's analyst review.
Where they're from
Attributed origin per open-source reporting.
- KP
Tradecraft
45 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
Associated malware families
6 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
1 additional family tracked in Mallory.
Associated vulnerabilities
2 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 2 of them exploited in the wild.
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.
This detection focuses on identifying vulnerable versions 18.12.407 and 18.12.416 of the 3CX desktop app... these specific versions have known vulnerabilities... CVE CVE-2023-29059
Observables
39 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
Recent activity
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Listed as a threat actor associated with the malicious file execution technique detected by this analytic.
Listed in the detection annotations as a threat actor associated with EFI volume mounting / installation-related behavior.
Listed as a threat actor associated with exploitation of public-facing applications and malware/tool upload activity relevant to Confluence exploitation detection.
Referenced as a threat actor associated with spearphishing attachment activity involving malicious file execution and potential credential capture via UDL files.
The version that knows your environment.
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.