GINC-APT-0571 · State

REF7707

Also CL-STA-0049, Jewelbug.

Category
State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
Origin
China(high confidence)
Sources
4 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0571 · ref7707

What it is

REF7707 is a cyber campaign targeting government entities, particularly a foreign ministry in South America, utilizing malware families such as FinalDraft, GuidLoader, and PathLoader for persistence and lateral movement. The threat actor employs the Microsoft Graph API for C2 communication, blending malicious traffic with legitimate activity to evade detection. Despite their technical sophistication, REF7707 operators exhibited poor operational security, leading to the exposure of their infrastructure and malware. Their tactics enable the extraction of sensitive data, including passwords and Active Directory information, facilitating ongoing espionage activities.

Names

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

Other names
CL-STA-0049, Jewelbug

Attribution

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

Tools

The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.

  • Cyber Eye RAT
  • CyberGate
  • GraphicBooting

Sources

  • Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de