• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • APT
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber warfare
  • Hacking
  • Intelligence
  • Malware
  • North Korea-Linked APT Group Kimsuky spotted using new malware

North Korea-Linked APT Group Kimsuky spotted using new malware

Pierluigi Paganini November 02, 2020

North Korea-linked APT group Kimsuky was recently spotted using a new piece of malware in attacks on government agencies and human rights activists.

North Korea-linked cyber espionage group Kimsuky (aka Black Banshee, Thallium, Velvet Chollima) was recently observed using a new malware in attacks aimed at government agencies and human rights activists.

The Kimsuky APT group has been analyzed by several security teams, it was first spotted by Kaspersky researcher in 2013, recently its activity was detailed by ESTsecurity and by the team of researchers at my former company Cybaze ZLab.

At the end of October, the US-CERT published a report on Kimusky’s recent activities that provided information of their TTPs and infrastructure.

The APT group mainly targeting think tanks and organizations in South Korea, other victims were in the United States, Europe, and Russia.

Researchers at Cybereason’s Nocturnus team published a new report that includes details on two new pieces of malware associated with the North-Korea linked APT, modular spyware called KGH_SPY and a downloader called CSPY Downloader. Experts also identified a new server infrastructure used by the cyberspies that overlaps with previously identified Kimsuky infrastructure.

“Kimsuky is known for their complex infrastructure that uses free-registered domains, compromised domains, as well as private domains registered by the group.” reads the report published by Cybereason. “Tracking down the infrastructure, the Nocturnus team was able to detect overlaps with BabyShark malware and other connections to different malware such as AppleSeed backdoor”

KGH_SPY is a modular suite of tools that allows attackers to perform reconnaissance, keylogging, information stealing and implements backdoor capabilities

CSPY Downloader is a tool designed to evade analysis and acts as a downloader to deliver additional payloads.

kimusky APT

The new malware appears to have been developed recently, but threat actors might have used Backdating, or timestomping to thwart analysis attempts (anti-forensics). The researchers believe that attackers have tampered with the creation date of most of the files employed in the attacks and backdated them to 2016.

The Kimsuky APT group delivered the malware via weaponized documents, the final goal was cyber espionage, the KGH-Browser Stealer was able to exfiltrate stored data from Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Thunderbird, Opera, Winscp. 

The CSPY Downloader implements anti-analysis techniques, it is able to determine whether it is running in a virtual environment or a debugger is used.

“The threat actors invested efforts in order to remain under the radar, by employing various anti-forensics and anti-analysis techniques which included backdating the creation/compilation time of the malware samples to 2016, code obfuscation, anti-VM and anti-debugging techniques. At the time of writing this report, some of the samples mentioned in the report are still not detected by any AV vendor,” the Nocturnus team concludes. “While the identity of the victims of this campaign remains unclear, there are clues that can suggest that the infrastructure targeted organizations dealing with human rights violations.”

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Kimsuky APT)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

APT Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security Kimsuky malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 27, 2025
Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 27, 2025
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers

    Data Breach / July 27, 2025

    SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

    Malware / July 27, 2025

    Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

    Breaking News / July 27, 2025

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT