- Category
- State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
- Origin
- China(high confidence)
- Motivation
- Information theft and espionage
- Seen
- 2023
- Sources
- 5 sources carry it
- Identifier
- GINC-APT-0397 · earth-alux
What it is
Earth Alux is a China-linked APT group known for conducting cyberespionage attacks across various sectors, including government, technology, and telecommunications. They primarily exploit vulnerable services in exposed servers to gain initial access, implanting web shells like GODZILLA and deploying backdoors such as VARGEIT and COBEACON. The group employs tools like RSBINJECT and MASQLOADER for lateral movement and network discovery, while also utilizing RAILSETTER for persistence through mspaint injection. Their operations have predominantly targeted the APAC region and have extended to Latin America, with a focus on exfiltrating sensitive information to attacker-controlled cloud storage.
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
Targets
- Countries
- Brazil, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand
- Sectors
- Government, IT, Manufacturing, Retail, Shipping and Logistics, Technology, Telecommunications
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- Backdoor.Oldrea
- China Chopper
- CloudDuke
- Cobalt Strike
- CrossRat
- Cyber Eye RAT
- CyberGate
- Godzilla
- MASQLOADER
- RAILLOAD
- RAILSETTER
- RSBINJECT
- VARGEIT
- Xploit
Sources
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de