Threat Intelligence Directory

Codefinger is a ransomware group that targets Amazon S3 buckets by exploiting AWS’s Server-Side Encryption with Customer Provided Keys to encrypt victim data. They utilize compromised AWS credentials to gain access and demand Bitcoin ransoms for the decryption keys, threatening to delete files if negotiations fail. The group has been observed abusing publicly disclosed AWS keys with permissions to read and write S3 objects, making recovery impossible without their cooperation. Halcyon has documented multiple incidents linked to Codefinger's data extortion campaign against organizations with unsecured infrastructure.

COBALT KATANA has been active since at least March 2018, and it focuses many of its operations on organizations based in or associated with Kuwait. The group has targeted government, logistics, and shipping organizations. The threat actors gain initial access to targets using DNS hijacking, strategic web compromise with SMB forced authentication, and password brute force attacks. COBALT KATANA operates a custom platform referred to as the Sakabota Framework, also referred to as Sakabota Core, with a complimentary set of modular backdoors and accessory tools including Gon, Hisoka, Hisoka Netero, Killua, Diezen, and Eye. The group has implemented DNS tunnelling in its malware and malicious scripts and also operates the HyphenShell web shell to strengthen post-intrusion access. CTU researchers assess with moderate confidence that COBALT KATANA operates on behalf of Iran, and elements of its operations such as overlapping infrastructure, use of DNS hijacking, implementation of DNS-based C2 channels in malware and web shell security mechanisms suggest connections to COBALT GYPSY and COBALT EDGEWATER.

COBALT JUNO has operated since at least 2013 and focused on targets located in the Middle East including Iran, Jordan, Egypt & Lebanon. COBALT JUNO custom spyware families SABER1 and SABER2, include surveillance functionality and masquerade as legitimate software utilities such as Adobe Updater, StickyNote and ASKDownloader. CTU researchers assess with moderate confidence that COBALT JUNO operated the ZooPark Android spyware since at least mid-2015. ZooPark was publicly exposed in 2018 in both vendor reporting and a high profile leak of C2 server data. COBALT JUNO is linked to a private security company in Iran and outsources aspects of tool development work to commercial software developers. CTU researchers have observed the group using strategic web compromises to deliver malware. CTU researchers’ discovery of new C2 domains in 2019 suggest the group is still actively performing operations.

A criminal group dubbed Cobalt is behind synchronized ATM heists that saw machines across Europe, CIS countries (including Russia), and Malaysia being raided simultaneously, in the span of a few hours. The group has been active since June 2016, and their latest attacks happened in July and August.

CloudSorcerer is a sophisticated APT targeting Russian government entities, utilizing cloud infrastructure for stealth monitoring and data exfiltration. The malware leverages APIs and authentication tokens to access cloud resources for command and control, with GitHub serving as its initial C2 server. CloudSorcerer operates as separate modules depending on the process it's running in, executing from a single executable and utilizing complex inter-process communication through Windows pipes. The actor behind CloudSorcerer shows similarities to the CloudWizard APT in modus operandi, but the unique code and functionality suggest it is a new threat actor inspired by previous techniques.

Opportunistic actor that installs custom root certificate on victim to support man-in-the-middle network monitoring.

Threat actor tracked by Malpedia.

[Cleaver](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0003) is a threat group that has been attributed to Iranian actors and is responsible for activity tracked as Operation Cleaver. (Citation: Cylance Cleaver) Strong circumstantial evidence suggests Cleaver is linked to Threat Group 2889 (TG-2889). (Citation: Dell Threat Group 2889)

CL-STA-1009 is a threat activity cluster associated with a suspected nation-state actor utilizing the Airstalk malware family, which includes both PowerShell and .NET variants. The .NET variant features a multi-threaded C2 protocol, versioning, and complex tasks, employing defense evasion techniques such as signed binaries with a revoked certificate and manipulation of PE timestamps. The malware is believed to have been used in supply chain attacks, with a development timeline established through signed timestamps. The persistent threat posed by this actor is underscored by the adaptive nature of the malware.

CL-STA-0048 is a Chinese state-backed APT that targets strategic sectors in South Asia, particularly government and telecommunications entities, with a focus on espionage. The group has been linked to SAP NetWeaver intrusions and employs techniques such as DNS beaconing using ping commands and exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities in services like IIS, Apache Tomcat, and MSSQL. Analysts have observed its use of reverse shell commands and command-and-control traffic directed to specific IP addresses. The actor adapts its methods to evade detection and maintain persistent access to high-value networks.

CL-STA-0043 is a highly skilled and sophisticated threat actor, believed to be a nation-state, targeting governmental entities in the Middle East and Africa. They exploit vulnerabilities in on-premises Internet Information Services and Microsoft Exchange servers to infiltrate target networks. They engage in reconnaissance, locate vital assets, and have been observed using native Windows tools for privilege escalation.

According to Crowdstrike, the NetWalker ransomware is being developed and maintained by a Russian-speaking actor designated as CIRCUS SPIDER. Initially discovered in September 2019and havinga compilation timestamp dating back to 28 August 2019, NetWalker has been found to be used in Big Game Hunting (BGH)-style operations while also being distributed via spam. CIRCUS SPIDER is advertising NetWalkeras being a closed-affiliate program,and verifies applicants before they are being accepted as an affiliate. The requirements rangefrom providing proof of previous revenue in similar affiliates programs, experience in the field and what type of industry the applicantis targeting.

CiberInteligenciaSV is a threat actor that leaked 5.1 million Salvadoran records on Breach Forums. They have also compromised El Salvador's state Bitcoin wallet, Chivo, leaking its source code and VPN credentials. The group aims to obscure their involvement by associating with the Guacamaya group and its proxies.

Adversaries abusing ICS (based on Dragos Inc adversary list). This threat actor targets organizations involved in oil, gas, and electricity production, primarily in the Gulf region, for espionage purposes. According to one cybersecurity company, the threat actor “compromises a target machine and passes it off to another threat actor for further exploitation.”

Chernovite is a highly capable and sophisticated threat actor group that has developed a modular ICS malware framework called PIPEDREAM. They are known for targeting industrial control systems and operational technology environments, with the ability to disrupt, degrade, and potentially destroy physical processes. Chernovite has demonstrated a deep understanding of ICS protocols and intrusion techniques, making them a significant threat to critical infrastructure sectors.

Chaya_004 is a Chinese threat actor identified through malicious infrastructure, including a network of servers hosting Supershell backdoors and various pen testing tools of Chinese origin. The actor's activities are linked to the exploitation of a specific vulnerability, with a focus on using Chinese cloud providers. Analysis of the infrastructure has revealed TTPs associated with Chaya_004, indicating a sophisticated approach to cyber operations. Mitigation recommendations and proactive response measures have been developed in light of these findings.

In Q2 2021, the PT Expert Security Center incident response team conducted an investigation in an energy company. The investigation revealed that the company's network had been compromised by an unknown group for the purpose of data theft. They gave the group the name ChamelGang (from the word "chameleon"), because the group disguised its malware and network infrastructure under legitimate services of Microsoft, TrendMicro, McAfee, IBM, and Google.

ChainedShark is an APT group targeting China's scientific research sector, particularly professionals in international relations and marine technology, with the intent to steal sensitive data. The group employs advanced techniques, including executable file reconstruction to create fragmented shellcode, and utilizes social engineering tactics to exploit professional scenarios for deceptive attacks. ChainedShark demonstrates a high level of technical sophistication, integrating N-day vulnerability exploits and custom trojans within meticulously designed attack chains. Its operations reflect a mature attack infrastructure and a clear evolutionary trajectory in tactics and execution.

CeranaKeeper is a China-aligned APT that has been active since at least early 2022, primarily targeting governmental institutions in Asian countries. The group employs custom backdoors like TONESHELL and OneDoor, leveraging cloud services such as Dropbox and OneDrive for data exfiltration. CeranaKeeper utilizes techniques like side-loading, brute-force attacks, and the deployment of BAT scripts to extend its reach within compromised networks. Their operations are characterized by a relentless pursuit of sensitive data, adapting their toolset and methods to evade detection.

Carmine Tsunami is a threat actor linked to an Israel-based private sector offensive actor called QuaDream. QuaDream sells a platform called REIGN to governments for law enforcement purposes, which includes exploits, malware, and infrastructure for data exfiltration from mobile devices. Carmine Tsunami is associated with the iOS malware called KingsPawn and has targeted civil society victims, including journalists, political opposition figures, and NGO workers, in various regions. They utilize domain registrars and inexpensive cloud hosting providers, often using single domains per IP address and deploying free Let's Encrypt SSL certificates.

CardinalLizard, a cyber threat actor linked to China, has targeted entities in Asia since 2018. Their methods include spear-phishing, custom malware with anti-detection features, and potentially shared infrastructure with other actors.

Symantec recently reported on activity attributed to a threat actor group dubbed Carderbee. In the campaign, the threat actors target entities in Hong Kong and other regions of Asia via a supply chain attack leveraging the legitimate Cobra DocGuard software. The activity began as early as September 2022.

Caramel Tsunami is a threat actor that specializes in spyware attacks. They have recently resurfaced with an updated toolset and zero-day exploits, targeting specific victims through watering hole attacks. Candiru has been observed exploiting vulnerabilities in popular browsers like Google Chrome and using third-party signed drivers to gain access to the Windows kernel. They have also been linked to other spyware vendors and have been associated with extensive abuses of their surveillance tools.

Caracal Kitten is an APT group that has been targeting activists associated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party. They employ a mobile remote access Trojan to gain unauthorized access to victims' devices. The group disguises their malware as legitimate mobile apps, tricking users into installing them and granting the hackers access to their personal data.

In early 2023, the Check Point Incident Response Team (CPIRT) team investigated a malware incident at a European healthcare institution involving a set of tools mentioned in the Avast report in late 2022. The incident was attributed to Camaro Dragon, a Chinese-based espionage threat actor whose activities overlap with activities tracked by different researchers as Mustang Panda and LuminousMoth, whose focus is primarily on Southeast Asian countries and their close peers.

For the first time, the activity of the Calypso group was detected by specialists of PT Expert Security Center in March 2019, during the work to detect cyber threats. As a result, many malware samples of this group were obtained, affected organizations and control servers of intruders were identified. According to our data, the group has been active since at least September 2016. The main goal of the group is to steal confidential data, the main victims are government agencies from Brazil, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Thailand, Turkey. Our data suggest that the group has Asian roots. Description translated from Russian.

The Callisto Group is an advanced threat actor whose known targets include military personnel, government officials, think tanks, and journalists in Europe and the South Caucasus. Their primary interest appears to be gathering intelligence related to foreign and security policy in the Eastern Europe and South Caucasus regions.

Caliente Bandits is a highly active threat group that targets multiple industries, including finance and entertainment. They distribute the Bandook remote access trojan using Spanish-language lures through low-volume email campaigns. The group primarily impacts individuals with Spanish surnames and conducts reconnaissance to obtain employee data. They masquerade as companies in South America and use Hotmail or Gmail email addresses.

Symantec telemetry identified Cadelle and Chafer activity dating from as far back as July 2014, however, it’s likely that activity began well before this date. Command-and-control (C&C) registrant information points to activity possibly as early as 2011, while executable compilation times suggest early 2012. Their attacks continue to the present day. Symantec estimates that each team is made up of between 5 and 10 people.

ByteToBreach is a prolific cybercriminal who operates across multiple platforms, including DarkForums and Telegram, and has been active since at least June 2025. He exploits known vulnerabilities in cloud and corporate infrastructure, reuses stolen credentials, and employs brute force or misconfiguration tactics for initial access, focusing on data exfiltration of sensitive information from high-value targets. ByteToBreach has established a professional-looking website to promote his services and has demonstrated credible activity, with many of his claims supported by verifiable proof.

Based on the evidence we have presented Symantec attributed the activity involving theDripion malware to the Budminer advanced threat group. While we have not seen newcampaigns using Taidoor malware since 2014, we believe the Budminer group has changedtactics to avoid detection after being outed publicly in security white papers and blogs over thepast few years.

BRONZE VAPOR is a targeted threat group assessed with moderate confidence to be of Chinese origin. Artefacts from tools associated with this group and open source reporting on related incidents indicate that BRONZE VAPOR have operated since at least 2017. The group conducts espionage against multiple industries including semiconductors, aviation and telecommunications. CTU researchers assess BRONZE VAPOR's intent to be information theft, with operations focused on intellectual property (semiconductors) and personally identifiable information such as traveller records (aviation). Compromise of telecommunications companies can yield personally identifiable information and meta data on client communications such as Call Data Records (CDR). Prior to 2019 their operational focus, with some exceptions, revolved around targets in East Asia particularity Taiwan with it's thriving semiconductor industry. In 2021 details emerged in open source of attacks on at least one European semiconductor company believed to date back to 2017. In 2019 BRONZE VAPOR attacked one of more entities in the European airlines sector. The group gains initial access via VPN services, may use spearphishing with 'Letter of Appointment' themed lures, and deploys Cobalt Strike along with custom data exfiltration tools to target organizations. Post-intrusion activity involves living-of-the-land using legitimate tools and commands available within victim environment as well as using AceHash for credential harvesting, WATERCYCLE for data exfiltration and STOCKPIPE for proxying information through Microsoft Exchange servers over email. BRONZE VAPOR uses a set of tactics that, although not individually unique, when viewed in aggregate create a relatively distinct playbook. Intrusions begin with credential based attacks against an existing remote access solution (Citrix, VPN etc.) or B2B network access. Cobalt Strike is deployed into the environment and further access is then conducted via Cobalt Strike Beacon and other features of the platform. Sharphound is deployed to map out the victim's Active Directory infrastructure and and collect critical information about the domain including important account names. Command and control infrastructure is hosted on subdomains of Azure and Appspot services to blend in with legitimate traffic. The threat actor also registers their own domains for command and control, often with a "sync" or "update" related theme. WinRAR is commonly used for compressing data prior to exfiltration. Filenames for these archives often involve a string of numbers and variations of the word "update". Data is exfiltrated using WATERCYCLE to cloud based platforms such as OneDrive and GoogleDrive.

BRONZE STARLIGHT has been active since mid 2021 and targets organizations globally across a range of industry verticals. The group leverages HUI Loader to load Cobalt Strike and PlugX payloads for command and control. CTU researchers have observed BRONZE STARLIGHT deploying ransomware to compromised networks as part of name-and-shame ransomware schemes, and posted victim names to leak sites. CTU researchers assess with moderate confidence that BRONZE STARLIGHT is located in China based on observed tradecraft, including the use of HUI Loader and PlugX which are associated with China-based threat group activity. It is plausible that BRONZE STARLIGHT deploys ransomware as a smokescreen rather than for financial gain, with the underlying motivation of stealing intellectual property theft or conducting espionage.

BRONZE SPRING is a threat group that CTU researchers assess with high confidence operates on behalf of China in the theft of intellectual property from defense, engineering, pharmaceutical and technology companies. The threat group typically uses scan-and-exploit for initial access, deploys the China Chopper webshell for remote execution and persistence, and creates RAR archives with a '.jpg' file extension for data exfiltration. In July 2020 the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two Chinese hackers CTU researchers assess are members of the BRONZE SPRING threat group. The Department of Justice allege these hackers were responsible for compromising networks of hundreds of organisations and individuals in the U.S. and abroad since 2009, and that exfiltrated data would be passed to the Chinese Ministry of State Security or sold for financial gain.

In December 2020, the IT management software provider SolarWinds announced that an unidentified threat actor had exploited a vulnerability in their Orion Platform software to deploy a web shell dubbed SUPERNOVA. CTU researchers track the operators of the SUPERNOVA web shell as BRONZE SPIRAL and assess with low confidence that the group is of Chinese origin. SUPERNOVA was likely deployed through exploitation of CVE-2020-10148, and CTU researchers observed post-exploitation reconnaissance commands roughly 30 minutes before the web shell was deployed. This may have been indicative of the threat actor conducting scan-and-exploit activity and then triaging for victims of particular interest, before deploying SUPERNOVA and attempting to dump credentials and move laterally. BRONZE SPIRAL has been associated with previous intrusions involving the targeting of ManageEngine servers, maintenance of long-term access to periodically harvest credentials and exfiltrate data, and espionage or theft of intellectual property. The threat group makes extensive use of native system tools and 'living off the land' techniques.

In early 2021 CTU researchers observed BRONZE EDGEWOOD exploiting the Microsoft Exchange Server of an organization in Southeast Asia. The threat group deployed a China Chopper webshell and ran the Nishang Invoke-PowerShellTcp.ps1 script to connect back to C2 infrastructure. The threat group is publicly linked to malware families Chinoxy, PCShare and FunnyDream. CTU researchers have discovered that BRONZE EDGEWOOD also leverages Cobalt Strike in its intrusion activity. BRONZE EDGEWOOD has been active since at least 2018 and targets government and private enterprises across Southeast Asia. CTU researchers assess with moderate confidence that BRONZE EDGEWOOD operates on behalf the Chinese government and has a remit that covers political espionage.

BreachLaboratory is a cybercrime actor that specializes in the extraction and sale of sensitive financial and identity datasets from various organizations. They have claimed to exfiltrate approximately 950,000 records from Grupo Catalana Occidente and over 18,000 records from Bank Mandiri, with data including customer names, account details, and SWIFT codes. The actor operates on underground forums, selling structured datasets such as CSV files and SQL dumps, and emphasizes the validity and financial utility of the data. Their activities indicate a focus on monetization through direct database sales and potential downstream fraud enablement.

BrazenBamboo is a Chinese state-affiliated threat actor known for developing the LIGHTSPY, DEEPDATA, and DEEPPOST malware families. Their infrastructure includes capabilities for zero-day exploitation, specifically targeting vulnerabilities like FortiClient, and employs a command-and-control architecture that supports multi-platform operations. Volexity's analysis indicates that BrazenBamboo is a well-resourced entity with a focus on domestic targets, utilizing custom analyst software to manage data collected from their malware. The ongoing development of their malware families is evidenced by the timestamps associated with their latest payloads.

First observed activity in December 2013.

Throughout 2018, CrowdStrike Intelligence tracked BOSS SPIDER as it regularly updated Samas ransomware and received payments to known Bitcoin (BTC) addresses. This consistent pace of activity came to an abrupt halt at the end of November 2018 when the U.S. DoJ released an indictment for Iran-based individuals Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, alleged members of the group.