Threat Group Cards: A Threat Actor Encyclopedia

APT group: GhostEmperor

Names	GhostEmperor (Kaspersky) Salt Typhoon (Microsoft)
Country	China
Motivation	Information theft and espionage
First seen	2020
Description	(Kaspersky) GhostEmperor is a Chinese-speaking threat actor that has mostly focused on targets in Southeast Asia, including several government entities and telecom companies. The group stands out because it uses a formerly unknown Windows kernel-mode rootkit. Rootkits provide remote control access over the servers they target. Acting covertly, rootkits are notorious for hiding from investigators and security solutions. To bypass the Windows Driver Signature Enforcement mechanism, GhostEmperor uses a loading scheme involving a component of an open-source project named “Cheat Engine.” This advanced toolset is unique and Kaspersky researchers see no similarity to already known threat actors. Kaspersky experts have surmised that the toolset has been in use since at least July 2020.
Observed	Sectors: Government, Telecommunications. Countries: Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
Tools used	certutil, Demodex, nbtscan, PsExec, PsList, ProcDump, WinRAR.
Operations performed	Late 2023	The Return of Ghost Emperor’s Demodex <https://www.sygnia.co/blog/ghost-emperor-demodex-rootkit/>
	Jul 2024	Chinese Hackers Infiltrate U.S. Internet Providers in Cyber Espionage Campaign <https://thehackernews.com/2024/09/chinese-hackers-infiltrate-us-internet.html>
	Sep 2024	AT&T, Verizon reportedly hacked to target US govt wiretapping platform <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/atandt-verizon-reportedly-hacked-to-target-us-govt-wiretapping-platform/>
Information	<https://securelist.com/ghostemperor-from-proxylogon-to-kernel-mode/104407/> <https://media.kasperskycontenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2021/09/30094337/GhostEmperor_technical-details_PDF_eng.pdf>

Last change to this card: 24 October 2024

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