- Category
- State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
- Origin
- China(high confidence)
- Sponsor
- State-sponsored
- Motivation
- Espionage; Information theft and espionage
- Seen
- 2010–2026
- Status
- Active
- ATT&CK
- G0004 · 46 techniques
- Sources
- 8 sources carry it
- Identifier
- GINC-APT-0130 · ke3chang
ChinaWhat it is
Ke3chang is a threat group attributed to actors operating out of China. Ke3chang has targeted oil, government, diplomatic, military, and NGOs in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America since at least 2010.
Names
The names each vendor, agency and source gives it. Naming differs by who tracks the actor, so one group carries many.
- CrowdStrike
- Vixen Panda
- Mandiant
- APT15, APT 15
- Microsoft
- Nylon Typhoon
- MITRE ATT&CK
- G0004
- PwC
- Red Vulture
- Secureworks
- CTG-9246
- Operations
- Operation “Ke3chang”, Operation “MirageFox”
- Other names
- GREF, PurpleHaze, BackdoorDiplomacy, Bronze Davenport, Bronze Idlewood, Bronze Palace, Flea, Ke3chang, Vixen Panda, APT 15, GREF, Playful Dragon, Lurid, Metushy, Mirage, NICKEL, Playful Dragon, Playful Taurus, RedRiver, RIVER CASTLE, Royal APT, RoyalAPT, Social Network Team
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
- Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Barbados, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, European Union, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Montenegro, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela
- Sectors
- Aerospace, Aviation, Chemical, Defense, Embassies, Energy, Government, Government, Administration, High-Tech, Industrial, Manufacturing, Mining, Oil and gas, Telecommunications, Utilities
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- Backdoor.Oldrea
- China Chopper
- Cyber Eye RAT
- CyberGate
- Mimikatz
- MirageFox
- Neoichor
- Net
- Okrum
- Ping
- Systeminfo
- Tasklist
- ipconfig
- netstat
- spwebmember
Sources
- MITRE ATT&CK attack.mitre.org
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de