Threat Group Cards: A Threat Actor Encyclopedia

APT group: Gelsemium

Names	Gelsemium (ESET)
Country	China
Motivation	Information theft and espionage
First seen	2014
Description	(ESET) The Gelsemium group has been active since at least 2014 and was described in the past by a few security companies .Gelsemium’s name comes from one possible translation we found while reading a report from VenusTech who dubbed the group 狼毒草 for the first time .It’s the name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Gelsemiaceae, Gelsemium elegans is the species that contains toxic compounds like Gelsemine, Gelsenicine and Gelsevirine, which we chose as names for the three components of this malware family.
Observed	Sectors: Education, Gaming, Government, High-Tech, NGOs and religious organizations. Countries: Argentina, Brunei, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, Vietnam, Yemen.
Tools used	ASPXSpy, BadPotato, China Chopper, Chrommme, EarthWorm, Cobalt Strike, Gelsemine, Gelsenicine, Gelsevirine, JuicyPotato, Owowa, OwlProxy, reGeorg, SessionManager, SpoolFool, SweetPotato.
Operations performed	2014	Operation “TooHash” <https://public.gdatasoftware.com/Presse/Publikationen/Whitepaper/EN/GDATA_TooHash_CaseStudy_102014_EN_v1.pdf>
	Jan 2021	Operation “NightScout” A new supply-chain attack compromising the update mechanism of NoxPlayer, an Android emulator for PCs and Macs, and part of BigNox’s product range with over 150 million users worldwide. <https://www.welivesecurity.com/2021/02/01/operation-nightscout-supply-chain-attack-online-gaming-asia/>
	Dec 2021	Kaspersky discovers poorly detected backdoor, targeting governments and NGOs around the globe <https://www.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2022_kaspersky-discovers-poorly-detected-backdoor-targeting-governments-and-ngos-around-the-globe>
	Mid 2022	Rare Backdoors Suspected to be Tied to Gelsemium APT Found in Targeted Attack in Southeast Asian Government <https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/rare-possible-gelsemium-attack-targets-se-asia/>
Information	<https://www.welivesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/eset_gelsemium.pdf> <https://www.venustech.com.cn/uploads/2018/08/231401512426.pdf>

Last change to this card: 12 October 2023

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