GINC-APT-0232 · State

Red Dev 61

Also UNC5221, UTA0178, ARMORY CASTLE, UNC5221, UTA0178.

Category
State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
Origin
China(high confidence)
Motivation
Information theft and espionage
Seen
2022
Sources
7 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0232 · red-dev-61

What it is

While Volexity largely observed the attacker essentially living off the land, they still deployed a handful of malware files and tools during the course of the incident which primarily consisted of webshells, proxy utilities, and file modifications to allow credential harvesting. Once UTA0178 had access into the network via the ICS VPN appliance, their general approach was to pivot from system to system using compromised credentials. They would then further compromise credentials of users on any new system that was breached, and use these credentials to log into additional systems via RDP. Volexity observed the attacker obtaining credentials in a variety of ways.

Names

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

Mandiant
UNC5221
Other names
UTA0178, ARMORY CASTLE, UNC5221, UTA0178

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
Germany

Tools

The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.

  • BRICKSTORM
  • CloudDuke
  • Cyber Eye RAT
  • CyberGate
  • GLASSTOKEN
  • LIGHTWIRE
  • PySoxy
  • THINSPOOL
  • WARPWIRE
  • WIREFIRE
  • Xploit
  • ZIPLINE

Sources