GINC-APT-0237 · State

Saint Bear

Also SaintBear, Bleeding Bear, Cadet Blizzard, DEV-0587, EMBER BEAR, FROZENVISTA and 8 other names.

Category
State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
Origin
Russia(high confidence)
Seen
2022–2026
Status
Active
ATT&CK
G1031 · 18 techniques
Sources
7 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0237 · saint-bear

What it is

Saint Bear is a Russian-nexus threat actor active since early 2021, primarily targeting entities in Ukraine and Georgia. The group is notable for a specific remote access tool, Saint Bot, and information stealer, OutSteel in campaigns. Saint Bear typically relies on phishing or web staging of malicious documents and related file types for initial access, spoofing government or related entities. Saint Bear has previously been confused with Ember Bear operations, but analysis of behaviors, tools, and targeting indicates these are distinct clusters.

Names

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

CERT-UA
UAC-0056
CrowdStrike
Bleeding Bear, EMBER BEAR, Lorec Bear
Mandiant
UNC2589
Microsoft
Cadet Blizzard, DEV-0587, Storm-0587
Proofpoint
TA471
Other names
SaintBear, FROZENVISTA, Lorec53, Nascent Ursa, Nodaria

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.

  • OutSteel
  • Saint Bot

Sources