- Category
- State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
- Origin
- China(high confidence)
- Motivation
- Information theft and espionage
- Seen
- 2014
- Status
- Dormant
- Sources
- 9 sources carry it
- Identifier
- GINC-APT-0089 · gelsemium
ChinaWhat it is
The Gelsemium group has been active since at least 2014 and was described in the past by a few security companies. Gelsemium’s name comes from one possible translation ESET found while reading a report from VenusTech who dubbed the group 狼毒草 for the first time. It’s the name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Gelsemiaceae, Gelsemium elegans is the species that contains toxic compounds like Gelsemine, Gelsenicine and Gelsevirine, which ESET choses as names for the three components of this malware family.
Names
The names each vendor, agency and source gives it. Naming differs by who tracks the actor, so one group carries many.
- Operations
- Operation NightScout, Operation “NightScout”, Operation “TooHash”
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
- Argentina, Brunei, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gaza, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Yemen
- Sectors
- Education, Electronics Manufacturers, Gaming, Government, High-Tech, NGOs, Religious organization, Universities
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- ASPXSpy
- BadPotato
- China Chopper
- Chrommme
- Cobalt Strike
- EarthWorm
- FireWood
- Gelsemine
- Gelsenicine
- Gelsevirine
- JuicyPotato
- OwlProxy
- Owowa
- SessionManager
- SpoolFool
- SweetPotato
- WolfsBane
- reGeorg
Sources
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de