- 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.
Western sources
- MISP Galaxy (CFR tagging)Russia
- ThreatActor.info (Malpedia et al.)Russia · high
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- OutSteel
- Saint Bot
Sources
- MITRE ATT&CK attack.mitre.org
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de