US-CERT- AA21-200A: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of Indicted APT40 Actors Associated with China’s MSS Hainan State Security Department

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AA21-200A: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of Indicted APT40 Actors Associated with China's MSS Hainan State Security Department

Original release date: July 19, 2021

Summary

This Joint Cybersecurity Advisory was written by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to provide information on a Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group known in open-source reporting as APT40. This advisory provides APT40's tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) to help cybersecurity practitioners identify and remediate APT40 intrusions and established footholds.

APT40—aka BRONZE MOHAWK, FEVERDREAM, G0065, Gadolinium, GreenCrash, Hellsing, Kryptonite Panda, Leviathan, MUDCARP, Periscope, Temp.Periscope, and Temp.Jumper—is located in Haikou, Hainan Province, People's Republic of China (PRC), and has been active since at least 2009. APT40 has targeted governmental organizations, companies, and universities in a wide range of industries—including biomedical, robotics, and maritime research—across the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the South China Sea area, as well as industries included in China's Belt and Road Initiative.

On July 19, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment against four APT40 cyber actors for their illicit computer network exploitation (CNE) activities via front company Hainan Xiandun Technology Development Company (Hainan Xiandun). Hainan Xiandun employee Wu Shurong cooperated with and carried out orders from PRC Ministry of State Security (MSS) Hainan State Security Department (HSSD) intelligence officers Ding Xiaoyang, Zhu Yunmin, and Cheng Qingmin to conduct CNE. Wu's CNE activities resulted in the theft of trade secrets, intellectual property, and other high-value information from companies and organizations in the United States and abroad, as well as from multiple foreign governments. These MSS-affiliated actors targeted victims in the following industries: academia, aerospace/aviation, biomedical, defense industrial base, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, maritime, research institutes, and transportation (rail and shipping).

Click here for a PDF version of this report.

(Updated July 19, 2021) 

Click here for indicators of compromise (IOCs) in STIX format. Note: to uncover malicious activity, incident responders search for IOCs in network- and host-based artifacts and assess the results—eliminating false positives during the assessment. For example, some MD5 IOCs in the STIX file identify legitimate tools—such as Putty, cmd.exe, svchost.exe, etc.—as indicators of compromise. Although the tools themselves are not malicious, APT 40 attackers placed and used them from non-standard folders on victim systems during computer intrusion activity. If a legitimate tool is identified by an incident responder, then the location of the tool should be assessed to eliminate false positives or to uncover malicious activity. See Technical Approaches to Uncovering and Remediating Malicious Activity for more incident handling guidance.

Technical Details

This Joint Cybersecurity Advisory uses the MITRE ATT&CK® framework, version 9. See the ATT&CK for Enterprise framework for all referenced threat actor tactics and techniques.

APT40 [G0065] has used a variety of tactics and techniques and a large library of custom and open-source malware—much of which is shared with multiple other suspected Chinese groups—to establish initial access via user and administrator credentials, enable lateral movement once inside the network, and locate high value assets in order to exfiltrate data. Table 1 provides details on these tactics and techniques. Note: see the appendix for a list of the domains, file names, and malware MD5 hash values used to facilitate this activity.

Table 1: APT40 ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques

Tactics	Activities and Techniques
Reconnaissance [TA0043]  and  Resource Development [TA0042]	Gathered victim identity information [T1589] by collecting compromised credentials [T1589.001]  Acquire infrastructure [T1583] to establish domains that impersonate legitimate entities [T1583.001], aka 'typosquatting', to use in watering hole attacks and as command and control (C2) [TA0011] infrastructure Establish new [T1585.002] and compromise existing [T1586.002] email and social media accounts [1585.001] to conduct social engineering attacks
Initial Access [TA0001]	External remote services (e.g., virtual private network [VPN] services) [T1133] Spearphishing emails with malicious attachments [T1566.001] and links [T1566.002] Drive-by compromises [T1189] and exploitation of public-facing applications [T1190] Access to valid [T1078], compromised administrative [T1078.001] accounts
Execution [TA0002]	Command and scripting interpreters [T1059] such as PowerShell [T1059.001] Exploitation of software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code [T1203] using lure documents that dropped malware exploiting various Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) User execution [T1204] of malicious files [T1204.002] and links [T1566.002] attached to spearphishing emails [T1566.001]
Persistence [TA0003],  Privilege Escalation [TA0004],  Credential Access [TA0006],  Discovery [TA0007],  and  Lateral Movement [TA0008]	APT40 has used a combination of tool frameworks and malware to establish persistence, escalate privileges, map, and move laterally on victim networks. Additionally, APT40 conducted internal spearphishing attacks [T1534]. BADFLICK/Greencrash China Chopper [S0020] Cobalt Strike [S0154] Derusbi/PHOTO [S0021] Gh0stRAT [S0032] GreenRAT jjdoor/Transporter jumpkick Murkytop (mt.exe) [S0233] NanHaiShu [S0228] Orz/AirBreak [S0229] PowerShell Empire [S0363] PowerSploit [S0194] Server software component: Web Shell [TA1505.003]
Defense Evasion [TA0005],  Command and Control [TA0011],  Collection [TA0009],  and  Exfiltration [TA0010]	Use of steganography [T1027.003] to hide stolen data inside other files stored on GitHub Protocol impersonation [T1001.003] by using Application Programming Interface (API) keys for Dropbox accounts in commands to upload stolen data to make it appear that the activity was a legitimate use of the Dropbox service Protocol tunneling [T1572] and multi-hop proxies [T1090.003], including the use of Tor [S0183] Use of domain typosquatting for C2 infrastructure [T1583.001] Archive [T1560], encrypt [T1532], and stage collected data  locally [T1074.001] and remotely [T1074.002] for exfiltration Exfiltration over C2 channel [T1041]

Mitigations

Network Defense-in-Depth

Proper network defense-in-depth and adherence to information security best practices can assist in mitigating the threat and reducing the risk. The following guidance may assist organizations in developing network defense procedures.

Patch and Vulnerability Management

• Install vendor-provided and verified patches on all systems for critical vulnerabilities, prioritizing timely patching of internet-connected servers and software processing internet data—such as web browsers, browser plugins, and document readers.


• Ensure proper migrating steps or compensating controls are implemented for vulnerabilities that cannot be patched in a timely manner.


• Maintain up-to-date antivirus signatures and engines.


• Routinely audit configuration and patch management programs to ensure the ability to track and mitigate emerging threats. Implementing a rigorous configuration and patch management program will hamper sophisticated cyber threat actors' operations and protect resources and information systems.


• Review the articles in the References section for more information on Chinese APT exploitation of common vulnerabilities.

Protect Credentials

• Strengthen credential requirements, regularly change passwords, and implement multi-factor authentication to protect individual accounts, particularly for webmail and VPN access and for accounts that access critical systems. Do not reuse passwords for multiple accounts. 


• Audit all remote authentications from trusted networks or service providers.


• Detect mismatches by correlating credentials used within internal networks with those employed on external-facing systems.


• Log use of system administrator commands such as net, ipconfig, and ping.


• Enforce principle of least privilege.

Network Hygiene and Monitoring

• Actively scan and monitor internet-accessible applications for unauthorized access, modification, and anomalous activities. 


• Actively monitor server disk use and audit for significant changes.


• Log Domain Name Service (DNS) queries and consider blocking all outbound DNS requests that do not originate from approved DNS servers. Monitor DNS queries for C2 over DNS.


• Develop and monitor the network and system baselines to allow for the identification of anomalous activity. Audit logs for suspicious behavior.


• Identify and suspend access of users exhibiting unusual activity.


• Use allowlist or baseline comparison to monitor Windows event logs and network traffic to detect when a user maps a privileged administrative share on a Windows system.


• Leverage multi-sourced threat-reputation services for files, DNS, URLs, IP addresses, and email addresses.


• Network device management interfaces—such as Telnet, Secure Shell (SSH), Winbox, and HTTP—should be turned off for wide area network (WAN) interfaces and secured with strong passwords and encryption when enabled.


• When possible, segment critical information on air-gapped systems. Use strict access control measures for critical data. 

APPENDIX: APT40 Indicators of Compromise

APT40 used the following domains, file names, and malware MD5 hash values to facilitate the CNE activity outlined in this CSA between 2009 through 2018.

 

Domains

airbusocean[.]com	https://pastebin[.]com/vfb5mbbu	pacifichydrologic[.]org
cargillnotice[.]com	huntingtomingalls[.]com	philippinenewss[.]com
ccidmeekparry[.]info	indiadigest[.]in	philstarnotice[.]com
ccvzvhjhdf[.]website	jack-newnb[.]com	porndec143.chickenkiller[.]com
cdigroups[.]com	kAty197.chickenkiller[.]com	santaclarasystem[.]us
checkecc[.]com	louisdreyfu[.]com	scsnewstoday[.]com
chemscalere[.]com	mail2.ignorelist[.]com	secbkav[.]com
cnnzapmeta[.]com	masterroot[.]pw	Soure7788.chickenkiller[.]com
corycs[.]com	microsql-update[.]info	tccoll[.]com
deltektimes[.]com	mihybb[.]com	teledynegroup[.]com
Engaction[.]com	mlcdailynews[.]com	teledyneinstrument[.]com
ens-smithjonathan.rhcloud[.]com	movyaction[.]net	testdomain2019.chickenkiller[.]com
fishgatesite.wordpress[.]com	msusanode[.]com	thestar[.]live
goo2k88yyh2.chickenkiller[.]com	newbb-news[.]com	thrivedataview[.]com
gttdoskip[.]com	nfmybb[.]com	thyssemkrupp[.]com
http://gkimertds.wordpress[.]com/feed/	nmw4xhipveaca7hm[.]onion.link/en_US/all.js	thyssenkrupp-marinesystems[.]org
http://stackoverflow[.]com/users/3627469/angle-swift	nobug[.]uk.to	togetno992.mooo[.]com
http://stackoverflow[.]com/users/3804206/swiftr-angle	notesof992.wordpress[.]com	tojenner97.chickenkiller[.]com
http://stackoverflow[.]com/users/3863346/gkimertdssdads	onlinenewspapers[.]club	trafficeco[.]com
vser.mooo[.]com	onlineobl[.]com	transupdate[.]com
https://pastebin[.]com/p1mktQpD	oyukg43t[.]website	troubledate[.]com
ultrasocial[.]info	wsmcoff[.]com	xbug.uk[.]to
usdagroup[.]com	www.yorkshire-espana-sa[.]com/english/servicios/	yootypes[.]com
	https://github[.]com/slotz/sharp-loader/commit/f9de338fb474fd970a7375030642d04179b9245d

 

MD5 Malware Hashes

(Updated July 19, 2021) Note: to uncover malicious activity, incident responders search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) in network- and host-based artifacts and assess the results—eliminating false positives during the assessment. For example, some MD5 IOCs in the table below identify legitimate tools—such as PuTTY, cmd.exe, svchost.exe, etc.—as indicators of compromise. Although the tools themselves are not malicious, APT 40 attackers placed and used them from non-standard folders on victim systems during computer intrusion activity. If a legitimate tool is identified by an incident responder, then the location of the tool should be assessed to eliminate false positives or to uncover malicious activity. See Technical Approaches to Uncovering and Remediating Malicious Activity for more incident handling guidance.

 

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Contact Information

To report suspicious or criminal activity related to information found in this Joint Cybersecurity Advisory, contact your local FBI field office at www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field, or the FBI's 24/7 Cyber Watch (CyWatch) at (855) 292-3937 or by email at CyWatch@fbi.gov. When available, please include the following information regarding the incident: date, time, and location of the incident; type of activity; number of people affected; type of equipment used for the activity; the name of the submitting company or organization; and a designated point of contact. To request incident response resources or technical assistance related to these threats, contact CISA at CISAServiceDesk@cisa.dhs.gov.

                   

References

       

           
• DOJ Press Release
           
• Talos Intelligence: China Chopper Still Active 9 Years Later
           
• CISA China Cyber Threat Overview webpage
           
• CISA Alert TA15-314A: Compromised Web Servers and Web Shells - Threat Awareness and Guidance
           
• CISA Alert AA20-133A: Top 10 Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities
           
• CISA Alert AA20-275A: Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.-China Tensions
           
• NSA Cybersecurity Advisory U/OO/179811-20: Chinese State-Sponsored Actors Exploit Publicly Known Vulnerabilities
       

           

Revisions

           
• July 19, 2021: Initial version
           
• Updated July 19, 2021: Added note and STIX file

           

This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

Source: AA21-200A: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of Indicted APT40 Actors Associated with China's MSS Hainan State Security Department