- Category
- State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
- Origin
- China(high confidence)
- Motivation
- Information theft and espionage
- Seen
- 2021–2026
- Status
- Active
- ATT&CK
- G1021 · 19 techniques
- Sources
- 7 sources carry it
- Identifier
- GINC-APT-0182 · cinnamon-tempest
What it is
Cinnamon Tempest is a China-based threat group that has been active since at least 2021 deploying multiple strains of ransomware based on the leaked Babuk source code. Cinnamon Tempest does not operate their ransomware on an affiliate model or purchase access but appears to act independently in all stages of the attack lifecycle. Based on victimology, the short lifespan of each ransomware variant, and use of malware attributed to government-sponsored threat groups, Cinnamon Tempest may be motivated by intellectual property theft or cyberespionage rather than financial gain.
Names
The names each vendor, agency and source gives it. Naming differs by who tracks the actor, so one group carries many.
- Microsoft
- DEV-0401
- Secureworks
- BRONZE STARLIGHT
- Operations
- Operation ChattyGoblin
- Other names
- Emperor Dragonfly, HighGround, SLIME34
Attribution
Each attribution is a claim: who makes it, and to whom. Western and Eastern sources are kept apart, as they often disagree.
Western sources
- ETDA / ThaiCERTChina
- MISP Galaxy (CFR tagging)China
- MicrosoftChina
- ThreatActor.info (Malpedia et al.)China · high
Targets
- Countries
- Philippines
- Sectors
- Casinos and Gambling
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- Archelaus Beta
- Cheerscrypt
- China Chopper
- Cobalt Strike
- CrossRat
- HUI Loader
- Impacket
- Pandora
- PlugX
- Rclone
- Sliver
- Smoke Loader
- Starloader
Sources
- MITRE ATT&CK attack.mitre.org
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de