Description
[Leviathan](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0065) is a Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage group that has been attributed to the Ministry of State Security's (MSS) Hainan State Security Department and an affiliated front company.(Citation: CISA AA21-200A APT40 July 2021) Active since at least 2009, [Leviathan](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0065) has targeted the following sectors: academia, aerospace/aviation, biomedical, defense industrial base, government, healthcare, manufacturing, maritime, and transportation across the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.(Citation: CISA AA21-200A APT40 July 2021)(Citation: Proofpoint Leviathan Oct 2017)(Citation: FireEye Periscope March 2018)(Citation: CISA Leviathan 2024)
Techniques Used (TTPs)
- T1567.002 — Exfiltration to Cloud Storage (exfiltration)
- T1595.002 — Vulnerability Scanning (reconnaissance)
- T1102.003 — One-Way Communication (command-and-control)
- T1047 — Windows Management Instrumentation (execution)
- T1021.004 — SSH (lateral-movement)
- T1105 — Ingress Tool Transfer (command-and-control)
- T1547.001 — Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder (persistence, privilege-escalation)
- T1027.013 — Encrypted/Encoded File (defense-evasion)
- T1589.001 — Credentials (reconnaissance)
- T1003.001 — LSASS Memory (credential-access)
- T1586.001 — Social Media Accounts (resource-development)
- T1090.003 — Multi-hop Proxy (command-and-control)
- T1027.001 — Binary Padding (defense-evasion)
- T1583.001 — Domains (resource-development)
- T1585.002 — Email Accounts (resource-development)
- T1566.002 — Spearphishing Link (initial-access)
- T1189 — Drive-by Compromise (initial-access)
- T1546.003 — Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription (privilege-escalation, persistence)
- T1027.003 — Steganography (defense-evasion)
- T1585.001 — Social Media Accounts (resource-development)
- T1059.001 — PowerShell (execution)
- T1547.009 — Shortcut Modification (persistence, privilege-escalation)
- T1055.001 — Dynamic-link Library Injection (defense-evasion, privilege-escalation)
- T1566.001 — Spearphishing Attachment (initial-access)
- T1584.004 — Server (resource-development)
- T1203 — Exploitation for Client Execution (execution)
- T1059.005 — Visual Basic (execution)
- T1078 — Valid Accounts (defense-evasion, persistence, privilege-escalation, initial-access)
- T1553.002 — Code Signing (defense-evasion)
- T1559.002 — Dynamic Data Exchange (execution)
- T1587.004 — Exploits (resource-development)
- T1197 — BITS Jobs (defense-evasion, persistence)
- T1074.001 — Local Data Staging (collection)
- T1204.002 — Malicious File (execution)
- T1140 — Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information (defense-evasion)
- T1074.002 — Remote Data Staging (collection)
- T1534 — Internal Spearphishing (lateral-movement)
- T1190 — Exploit Public-Facing Application (initial-access)
- T1218.010 — Regsvr32 (defense-evasion)
- T1041 — Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (exfiltration)
- T1505.003 — Web Shell (persistence)
- T1021.001 — Remote Desktop Protocol (lateral-movement)
- T1584.008 — Network Devices (resource-development)
- T1027.015 — Compression (defense-evasion)
- T1560 — Archive Collected Data (collection)
- T1572 — Protocol Tunneling (command-and-control)
- T1204.001 — Malicious Link (execution)
- T1133 — External Remote Services (persistence, initial-access)
- T1003 — OS Credential Dumping (credential-access)
- T1586.002 — Email Accounts (resource-development)
Total TTPs: 50
Malware & Tools
Malware: BADFLICK, BLACKCOFFEE, China Chopper, Cobalt Strike, Derusbi, HOMEFRY, MURKYTOP, NanHaiShu, Orz, gh0st RAT
Tools: BITSAdmin, Empire, Net, PowerSploit, Tor, Windows Credential Editor, at