SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS

Earth Estries  (Back to overview)


Trend Micro found that Earth Estries relies heavily on DLL sideloading to load various tools within its arsenal. Aside from the backdoors previously mentioned, this intrusion set also utilizes commonly used remote control tools like Cobalt Strike, PlugX, or Meterpreter stagers interchangeably in various attack stages. These tools come as encrypted payloads loaded by custom loader DLLs.


Associated Families
elf.masol win.dracu_loader win.hemigate win.snappybee

References
2026-08-19 ⋅ Bitdefender ⋅ Gheorghe Adrian Schipor, Marius Andrei Baciu, Victor Vrabie
SilkParasite: Inside a China-nexus espionage cluster and its seven-family RAT ecosystem across Central Asia
BloodAlchemy ShadowPad SNAPPYBEE
2026-08-19 ⋅ Bitdefender ⋅ Martin Zugec
SilkParasite: Tracking a China-Nexus APT Across Central Asia
BloodAlchemy ShadowPad SNAPPYBEE SilkParasite
2026-05-05 ⋅ Cisco Talos ⋅ Asheer Malhotra, Brandon White, Jungsoo An
UAT-8302 and its box full of malware
SNOWLIGHT DracuLoader FINALDRAFT SNAPPYBEE STOWAWAY VShell UAT-8302
2026-02-03 ⋅ Darktrace ⋅ Nathaniel Bill
Darktrace Malware Analysis: Unpacking SnappyBee
Cobalt Strike SNAPPYBEE
2026-01-20 ⋅ ⋅ Rostelecom-Solar ⋅ Pandora Hive Mind
ShadowRelay – a unique backdoor in the public sector
ShadowPad SNAPPYBEE
2025-10-22 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Daniel Lunghi, Joseph C Chen, Lenart Bermejo, Leon M Chang, Vickie Su
The Rise of Collaborative Tactics Among China-aligned Cyber Espionage Campaigns
Cobalt Strike DracuLoader ShadowPad Earth Naga
2025-10-20 ⋅ Darktrace ⋅ Nathaniel Jones, Sam Lister
Salty Much: Darktrace’s view on a recent Salt Typhoon intrusion
SNAPPYBEE
2025-04-25 ⋅ Censys ⋅ Censys
The Persistent Threat of Salt Typhoon: Tracking Exposures of Potentially Targeted Devices
MASOL
2025-01-29 ⋅ Google ⋅ Conor Quigley, Luke Jenkins, Nino Isakovic
ScatterBrain: Unmasking the Shadow of PoisonPlug's Obfuscator
POISONPLUG ShadowPad SNAPPYBEE
2025-01-21 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Leon Chang, Theo Chen
Game of Emperor: Unveiling Long Term Earth Estries Cyber Intrusions
Cobalt Strike HemiGate ShadowPad SNAPPYBEE SparrowDoor UNC4841
2024-11-25 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Lenart Bermejo, Leon M Chang, Ted Lee, Theo Chen
Game of Emperor: Unveiling Long Term Earth Estries Cyber Intrusions
MASOL SNAPPYBEE
2024-01-25 ⋅ JSAC 2024 ⋅ Hara Hiroaki, Kawakami Ryonosuke, Shota Nakajima
The Secret Life of RATs: connecting the dots by dissecting multiple backdoors
DracuLoader GroundPeony HemiGate PlugX
2023-09-21 ⋅ Sentinel LABS ⋅ Tom Hegel
Cyber Soft Power | China’s Continental Takeover
Earth Estries
2023-08-30 ⋅ Trend Micro ⋅ Gilbert Sison, Hara Hiroaki, Lenart Bermejo, Leon M Chang, Ted Lee
Earth Estries Targets Government, Tech for Cyberespionage
Cobalt Strike HemiGate Earth Estries

Credits: MISP Project