Hacker groupG0082
APT38
Also tracked as NICKEL GLADSTONE, BeagleBoyz, Bluenoroff, Stardust Chollima, Sapphire Sleet, COPERNICIUM
APT38 is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group that specializes in financial cyber operations; it has been attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Active since at least 2014, APT38 has targeted banks, financial institutions, casinos, cryptocurrency exchanges, SWIFT system endpoints, and ATMs in at least 38 countries worldwide. Significant operations include the 2016 Bank of Bangladesh heist, during which APT38 stole $81 million, as well as attacks against Bancomext and Banco de Chile; some of their attacks have been destructive. 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.
- Known attack methods
- 56
- Origin
- North Korea
- Motive
- Sabotage
- First seen
- 2014
- Source
- MITRE ATT&CK
How they break in
Techniques MITRE has documented this group using, mapped onto the ATT&CK matrix. Each one is a behaviour you can look for in your own logs, and a control you can test.
Used by this groupNot documented for this groupIn brackets: sub-techniques this group uses, of those that exist.
Reconnaissance
12 techniques
Resource Development
9 techniques · 2 used
Initial Access
11 techniques · 2 used
Execution
20 techniques · 5 used
Persistence
22 techniques · 2 used
Privilege Escalation
13 techniques · 1 used
Stealth
30 techniques · 7 used
Defense Impairment
18 techniques · 5 used
Credential Access
17 techniques · 1 used
Discovery
34 techniques · 8 used
Lateral Movement
9 techniques
Collection
17 techniques · 3 used
Command and Control
18 techniques · 2 used
Exfiltration
9 techniques
Impact
15 techniques · 5 used
Resource development2
Initial access2
Execution9
Persistence2
Privilege escalation1
Stealth12
Defense impairment7
Credential access1
Discovery8
Command and control2
Malware
Families MITRE records this group deploying. Detection names for these are a reasonable place to start.
DarkCometECCENTRICBANDWAGONHOPLIGHTKillDisk
Tools
Legitimate or dual-use software the group is documented using. Most of it is software your own administrators use too, which is the point.
MimikatzNet