APT37

Overview

APT37 is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber espionage group that has been active since at least 2012. The group has targeted victims primarily in South Korea, but also in Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Nepal, China, India, Romania, Kuwait, and other parts of the Middle East. APT37 has also been linked to the following campaigns between 2016-2018: Operation Daybreak, Operation Erebus, Golden Time, Evil New Year, Are you Happy?, FreeMilk, North Korean Human Rights, and Evil New Year 2018. North Korean group definitions are known to have significant overlap, and some security researchers report all North Korean state-sponsored cyber activity under the name Lazarus Group instead of tracking clusters or subgroups.

Targets

Government · Private sector

Regions

Japan · South Korea · Vietnam

Capabilities

• Destructive / data-wiping operations — ATT&CK T1561.002
• Exploitation of public-facing / client applications — ATT&CK T1203
• Custom malware/implant development — ATT&CK: 13 attributed custom malware families

TTPs — 29 techniques across 10 tactics

Tools & malware (13)

BLUELIGHT · CORALDECK · KARAE · SLOWDRIFT · ROKRAT · SHUTTERSPEED · POORAIM · HAPPYWORK · Final1stspy · Cobalt Strike · NavRAT · DOGCALL · WINERACK

Reporting (3)

• Adversary Profile - Ricochet Chollima — CrowdStrike
• North Korean APT InkySquid Infects Victims Using Browser Exploits — Cash, D., Grunzweig, J., Meltzer, M., Adair, S., Lancaster, T
• ScarCruft continues to evolve, introduces Bluetooth harvester — GReAT