GINC-APT-0086 · State

Ember Bear

Also Cadet Blizzard, DEV-0586, SaintBear, Bleeding Bear, Frozenvista, G1003 and 10 other names.

Category
State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
Origin
Russia(high confidence)
Sponsor
State-sponsored, GRU
Agency named
GRU, Unit 29155
Motivation
Information theft and espionage; Sabotage; Sabotage and destruction
Seen
2020–2026
Status
Active
ATT&CK
G1003 · 47 techniques
Sources
9 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0086 · ember-bear

What it is

Ember Bear is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group that has been active since at least 2020, linked to Russia's General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 161st Specialist Training Center (Unit 29155). Ember Bear has primarily focused operations against Ukrainian government and telecommunication entities, but has also operated against critical infrastructure entities in Europe and the Americas. Ember Bear conducted the WhisperGate destructive wiper attacks against Ukraine in early 2022. There is some confusion as to whether Ember Bear overlaps with another Russian-linked entity referred to as Saint Bear. At present available evidence strongly suggests these are distinct activities with different behavioral profiles.

Names

The names each vendor, agency and source gives it. Naming differs by who tracks the actor, so one group carries many.

CERT-UA
UAC-0056
CrowdStrike
Bleeding Bear
Mandiant
UNC2589
Microsoft
Cadet Blizzard, DEV-0586, Storm-0587
MITRE ATT&CK
G1003
Proofpoint
TA471
Operations
Operation “Bleeding Bear”
Other names
SaintBear, Frozenvista, Lorec53, Nascent Ursa, Nodaria, Ruinous Ursa, SaintBear, Lorec53

Attribution

Each attribution is a claim: who makes it, and to whom. Western and Eastern sources are kept apart, as they often disagree.

Targets

Countries
Georgia, Ukraine, United States
Sectors
Energy, Financial, Government, IT, Law enforcement, Media, NGOs, Transportation

Tools

The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.

  • Blizzard
  • BloodHound
  • CrackMapExec
  • Cyber Eye RAT
  • CyberGate
  • Impacket
  • P.A.S. Webshell
  • PsExec
  • Rclone
  • Responder
  • Saint Bot
  • WhisperGate
  • Wiper
  • ngrok
  • reGeorg

Sources