GINC-APT-0149 · State

RedNovember

Also Storm-2077, TAG-100.

Category
State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
Origin
China(high confidence)
Sponsor
State-sponsored
Motivation
Information theft and espionage
Seen
2024
Sources
8 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0149 · rednovember

What it is

TAG-100 is a cyber-espionage APT that targets government and private sector organizations globally, exploiting vulnerabilities in internet-facing devices such as Citrix NetScaler and F5 BIG-IP for initial access. The group employs open-source tools like Pantegana and SparkRAT for persistence and post-exploitation activities, including credential theft and email data exfiltration. TAG-100 has compromised entities in at least ten countries, including two Asia-Pacific intergovernmental organizations, and focuses on sectors like education, finance, and local government. Their operations highlight the challenges of attribution due to the use of off-the-shelf tools and techniques that overlap with other state-sponsored groups.

Names

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

Microsoft
Storm-2077
Recorded Future
TAG-100

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
Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Fiji, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam
Sectors
Embassies, Financial, Government, High-Tech

Tools

The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.

  • Cobalt Strike
  • CrossC2
  • Cyber Eye RAT
  • CyberGate
  • LESLIELOADER
  • Pantegana
  • SparkRAT
  • Xploit

Sources