GINC-APT-0162 · State

Wassonite

Category
State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
Origin
North Korea(high confidence)
Agency named
Lazarus
Motivation
Information theft and espionage
Seen
2018
Sources
8 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0162 · wassonite

What it is

WASSONITE is a North Korea-linked APT that has targeted industrial sectors, including electric generation, nuclear energy, manufacturing, and research entities in India, South Korea, and Japan since at least 2018. The group employs DTrack RAT for remote access, Mimikatz for credential capture, and various system tools for lateral movement and file transfers. WASSONITE has been observed using nuclear energy-themed spear phishing lures to deploy the AppleSeed backdoor, which can take screenshots, log keystrokes, and execute commands from a C2 server. Their operations focus on initial access, reconnaissance, and data collection without demonstrating disruptive capabilities.

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
India, Japan, South Korea
Sectors
Energy, Manufacturing, Oil and gas, Research

Tools

The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.

  • Backdoor.Oldrea
  • DTrack
  • Mimikatz
  • Nuclear RAT
  • Remote Utilities
  • RemoteCMD
  • RemotePC
  • Seed RAT

Sources