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Permanent link APT group: Icefog, Dagger Panda

NamesIcefog (Kaspersky)
Dagger Panda (CrowdStrike)
ATK 23 (Thales)
Red Wendigo (PWC)
CountryChina China
SponsorState-sponsored
MotivationInformation theft and espionage
First seen2011
Description(Kaspersky) “Icefog” is an Advanced Persistent Threat that has been active since at least 2011, targeting mostly Japan and South Korea. Known targets include governmental institutions, military contractors, maritime and shipbuilding groups, telecom operators, industrial and high-tech companies and mass media. The name “Icefog” comes from a string used in the command-and-control server name in one of the samples. The command-and-control software is named “Dagger Three”, in the Chinese language.

During Icefog attacks, several other malicious tools and backdoors were uploaded to the victims’ machines, for data exfiltration and lateral movement.

The later group RedAlpha has infrastructure overlap with Icefog.
ObservedSectors: Aerospace, Defense, Government, High-Tech, Maritime and Shipbuilding, Media, Telecommunications, Utilities and others.
Countries: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, UK, USA, Uzbekistan.
Tools used8.t Dropper, Dagger Three, Icefog, Javafog, ShadowPad Winnti.
Operations performedJan 2014The Icefog APT Hits US Targets With Java Backdoor
Since the publication of our report, the Icefog attackers went completely dark, shutting down all known command-and-control servers. Nevertheless, we continued to monitor the operation by sinkholing domains and nalyzing victim connections. During this monitoring, we observed an interesting type of connection which seemed to indicate a Java version of Icefog, further to be referenced as “Javafog”.
<https://securelist.com/the-icefog-apt-hits-us-targets-with-java-backdoor/58209/>
2015“TOPNEWS” Campaign
Target: Government, media, and finance organizations in Russia and Mongolia.
2016“APPER” Campaign
Target: Kazach officials.
2018“WATERFIGHT” Campaign
Target: Water source provider, banks, and government entities in Turkey, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
2018“PHKIGHT” Campaign
Target: An unknown entity in the Philippines.
2018/2019“SKYLINE” Campaign
Target: Organizations in Turkey and Kazakhstan.
<https://www.zdnet.com/article/ancient-icefog-apt-malware-spotted-again-in-new-wave-of-attacks/>
Information<https://media.kaspersky.com/en/icefog-apt-threat.pdf>
<https://d2538mqrb7brka.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2018/03/20133739/icefog.pdf>
<https://speakerdeck.com/ashley920/into-the-fog-the-return-of-icefog-apt>

Last change to this card: 10 March 2024

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