• 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

Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

 | 

Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

 | 

U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

 | 

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 50

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 529 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Iran confirmed it shut down internet to protect the country against cyberattacks

 | 

Godfather Android trojan uses virtualization to hijack banking and crypto apps

 | 
  • 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
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • FireEye uncovered two cyber espionage campaigns operating in parallel from China

FireEye uncovered two cyber espionage campaigns operating in parallel from China

Pierluigi Paganini September 12, 2014

FireEye discovered two distinct groups of Chinese hackers operating cyber espionage campaigns on a large-scale in parallel.

Security experts at FireEye have discovered two hacking campaigns conducted by distinct groups operating in separate regions of China that seems to work in parallel.

The first team of hackers, named Moafee, is targeting military and government organizations which were in some way involved in South China sea dispute. The attackers targeted different organizations as explained by the researchers at FireEye in a blog post, and appears to operate from the Guangdong Province and hit entities working in the defense industry in the United States.

The second team, dubbed DragonOK, conducted corporate espionage operations on high-tech and manufacturing companies in Japan and Taiwan.

“FireEye researchers will be publishing a report that details two attack campaigns by different groups in separate regions of China, apparently operating in parallel.” states the post published by FireEye. “It seems that both groups, while operating in distinctly different regions, either 1) collaborate, 2) receive the same training), 3) share a common toolkit supply chain, or 4) some combination of these scenarios, which means they are employing a ‘production line’-type approach to initiating cyber attacks to breach defenses,” the researchers blogged. “Both campaigns use similar tools, techniques and procedures (TTPs) – including custom-built backdoors and remote-administration tools (RATs) to infiltrate their targets’ networks.”

Moafee and DragonOK teams use similar tools, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for their espionage campaigns, and further element that seems to confirm they are operating in parallel is that the both groups used custom-built backdoors and remote administration tools (RATs) to compromise the targeted networks.

“The two different operators seem to share backdoors and RATs – some of which are custom; others are publicly available. Overlapping tools include:

  • CT/NewCT/NewCT2
  • Mongall
  • Nflog
  • PoisonIvy“

Hackers of the two teams both use the HUC Packet Transmit Tool (HTRAN) proxy tool hide the origin of the attacks, the technique was already used by China based hackers in different campaign, including Beebus cyber espionage campaign, which targeted defense and aerospace industries to steal intellectual property and industrial secrets from US companies.

espionage China campaign

The hackers conducted spear-phishing attacks using most advanced social engineering techniques to deceive victims, the mail sent are written in victim’s native language and used password-protected documents and large file sizes to maqsuerade their attacks.

“Both Moafee and DragonOK favor spear-phishing emails as an attack vector, often employing a decoy to deceive the victim,” according to the researchers. “The emails are well crafted and audience specific, even written in the intended victim’s native language. Attachments are typically sent as an executable file embedded in a ZIP archive or a password-protected Microsoft Office document. We also observed both groups using decoy documents that are presented to the victim while the malware runs in the background.”

The experts of FireEye were able to track back the command and controls used by both groups, the Moafee group was running HTRAN proxies on multiple C&Cs operated on CHINANET and hosted in Guangdong Province the C&C servers operates by DragonOK were also operated on CHINANET but are hosted in the Jiangsu Province.

The experts also discovered a third hacking team operating with same techniques and tools, but there aren’t enough elements to link it to Moafee and DragonOK.

The experts closed the post highlighting that by sharing TTPs and coordinating joint attacks, the bad actors are leveraging China’s supply chain economic expertise to perform extensive worldwide espionage.

[adrotate banner=”9″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Cyber espionage, China)


facebook linkedin twitter

China corporate espionage Cyberespionage DragonOK FireEye Hacking HUC Packet Transmit Tool malwarem RAT Moafee

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2025
Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2025
U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

    Cyber Crime / June 26, 2025

    Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

    Security / June 26, 2025

    U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Security / June 26, 2025

    CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

    Hacking / June 26, 2025

    Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

    Hacking / June 25, 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