SYMBOLCOMMON_NAMEaka. SYNONYMS

Tonto Team  (Back to overview)

aka: BRONZE HUNTLEY, COPPER, CactusPete, Earth Akhlut, G0131, KARMA PANDA, PLA Unit 65017, Red Beifang, TAG-74

Tonto Team is a Chinese-speaking APT group that has been active since at least 2013. They primarily target military, diplomatic, and infrastructure organizations in Asia and Eastern Europe. The group has been observed using various malware, including the Bisonal RAT and ShadowPad. They employ spear-phishing emails with malicious attachments as their preferred method of distribution.


Associated Families
win.8t_dropper win.calmthorn win.dexbia win.korlia win.quickmute win.shadowpad win.typehash

References
2024-03-18Trend MicroDaniel Lunghi, Joseph C Chen
Earth Krahang Exploits Intergovernmental Trust to Launch Cross-Government Attacks
DinodasRAT PlugX Reshell ShadowPad Earth Krahang
2024-03-05ReliaquestRELIAQUEST THREAT RESEARCH TEAM
Anxun and Chinese APT Activity
ShadowPad
2024-03-01HarfangLabHarfangLab CTI
A Comprehensive Analysis of i-SOON’s Commercial Offering
ShadowPad Winnti
2024-02-21YouTube (SentinelOne)Kris McConkey
LABSCon23 Replay | Chasing Shadows | The rise of a prolific espionage actor
9002 RAT PlugX ShadowPad Spyder Earth Lusca
2024-02-09Hunt.ioMichael R
Tracking ShadowPad Infrastructure Via Non-Standard Certificates
ShadowPad
2024-01-09Recorded FutureInsikt Group
2023 Adversary Infrastructure Report
AsyncRAT Cobalt Strike Emotet PlugX ShadowPad
2023-11-07Youtube (Virus Bulletin)Daniel Lunghi
Possible supply chain attack targeting South Asian government delivers Shadowpad
ShadowPad
2023-10-04Trend MicroDaniel Lunghi
Possible supply chain attack targeting Pakistan government delivers ShadowPad
ShadowPad
2023-10-04Trend MicroDaniel Lunghi
Possible supply chain attack targeting Pakistan government delivers Shadowpad (Slides)
ShadowPad
2023-09-22Palo Alto Networks Unit 42Lior Rochberger, Robert Falcone, Tom Fakterman
Cyberespionage Attacks Against Southeast Asian Government Linked to Stately Taurus, Aka Mustang Panda
Cobalt Strike MimiKatz RemCom ShadowPad TONESHELL
2023-09-19Recorded FutureInsikt Group
Multi-year Chinese APT Campaign Targets South Korean Academic, Government, and Political Entities
Korlia Tonto Team
2023-09-12SymantecThreat Hunter Team
Redfly: Espionage Actors Continue to Target Critical Infrastructure
ShadowPad Redfly
2023-08-07Recorded FutureInsikt Group
RedHotel: A Prolific, Chinese State-Sponsored Group Operating at a Global Scale
Winnti Brute Ratel C4 Cobalt Strike FunnySwitch PlugX ShadowPad Spyder Earth Lusca
2023-07-14Trend MicroDaniel Lunghi
Possible Supply-Chain Attack Targeting Pakistani Government Delivers Shadowpad
ShadowPad DriftingCloud Tonto Team
2023-05-15SymantecThreat Hunter Team
Lancefly: Group Uses Custom Backdoor to Target Orgs in Government, Aviation, Other Sectors
Merdoor PlugX ShadowPad ZXShell Lancefly
2023-04-05Medium IlanduIlan Duhin
PortDoor - APT Backdoor analysis
ACBackdoor 8.t Dropper PortDoor
2023-03-07Check Point ResearchCheck Point Research
Pandas with a Soul: Chinese Espionage Attacks Against Southeast Asian Government Entities
5.t Downloader 8.t Dropper Soul
2023-02-07MalGamyMalGamy
The Approach of TA413 for Tibetan Targets
8.t Dropper LOWZERO
2023-02-02ElasticAndrew Pease, Cyril François, Devon Kerr, Remco Sprooten, Salim Bitam, Seth Goodwin
Update to the REF2924 intrusion set and related campaigns
DoorMe ShadowPad SiestaGraph
2022-10-25VMware Threat Analysis UnitTakahiro Haruyama
Tracking the entire iceberg: long-term APT malware C2 protocol emulation and scanning
ShadowPad Winnti
2022-09-30NCC GroupMichael Mullen, Nikolaos Pantazopoulos, William Backhouse
A glimpse into the shadowy realm of a Chinese APT: detailed analysis of a ShadowPad intrusion
ShadowPad
2022-09-26Youtube (Virus Bulletin)Takahiro Haruyama
Tracking the entire iceberg long term APT malware C2 protocol emulation and scanning
ShadowPad Winnti
2022-09-22Recorded FutureInsikt Group®
Chinese State-Sponsored Group TA413 Adopts New Capabilities in Pursuit of Tibetan Targets
8.t Dropper LOWZERO
2022-09-19Virus BulletinTakahiro Haruyama
Tracking the entire iceberg - long-term APT malware C2 protocol emulation and scanning
ShadowPad Winnti
2022-09-13SymantecThreat Hunter Team
New Wave of Espionage Activity Targets Asian Governments
MimiKatz PlugX Quasar RAT ShadowPad Trochilus RAT
2022-09-06ESET ResearchThibaut Passilly
Worok: The big picture
MimiKatz PNGLoad reGeorg ShadowPad Worok
2022-07-07Sentinel LABSTom Hegel
Targets of Interest - Russian Organizations Increasingly Under Attack By Chinese APTs
8.t Dropper Korlia Tonto Team
2022-07-01RiskIQRiskIQ
ToddyCat: A Guided Journey through the Attacker's Infrastructure
ShadowPad ToddyCat
2022-06-27Kaspersky ICS CERTArtem Snegirev, Kirill Kruglov
Attacks on industrial control systems using ShadowPad
Cobalt Strike PlugX ShadowPad
2022-06-22Cert-UACert-UA
Cyberattacks by China-associated groups against Russian scientific and technical enterprises and government agencies (CERT-UA#4860)
QUICKMUTE
2022-05-17Positive TechnologiesPositive Technologies
Space Pirates: analyzing the tools and connections of a new hacker group
FormerFirstRAT PlugX Poison Ivy Rovnix ShadowPad Zupdax
2022-05-12TEAMT5Leon Chang, Silvia Yeh
The Next Gen PlugX/ShadowPad? A Dive into the Emerging China-Nexus Modular Trojan, Pangolin8RAT (slides)
KEYPLUG Cobalt Strike CROSSWALK FunnySwitch PlugX ShadowPad Winnti SLIME29 TianWu
2022-05-02Sentinel LABSAmitai Ben Shushan Ehrlich, Joey Chen
Moshen Dragon’s Triad-and-Error Approach | Abusing Security Software to Sideload PlugX and ShadowPad
PlugX ShadowPad Moshen Dragon
2022-04-08The RegisterLaura Dobberstein
China accused of cyberattacks on Indian power grid
ShadowPad
2022-04-06Recorded FutureInsikt Group
Continued Targeting of Indian Power Grid Assets by Chinese State-Sponsored Activity Group
ShadowPad
2022-04-06Recorded FutureInsikt Group®
Continued Targeting of Indian Power Grid Assets by Chinese State-Sponsored Activity Group (TAG-38)
ShadowPad
2022-02-23DragosDragos
2021 ICS OT Cybersecurity Year In Review
ShadowPad
2022-02-15The Hacker NewsRavie Lakshmanan
Researchers Link ShadowPad Malware Attacks to Chinese Ministry and PLA
ShadowPad
2022-02-15SecureworksCounter Threat Unit ResearchTeam
ShadowPad Malware Analysis
ShadowPad
2022-01-17Trend MicroCedric Pernet, Daniel Lunghi, Gloria Chen, Jaromír Hořejší, Joseph Chen, Kenney Lu
Delving Deep: An Analysis of Earth Lusca’s Operations
BIOPASS Cobalt Strike FunnySwitch JuicyPotato ShadowPad Winnti Earth Lusca
2021-12-17FBIFBI
AC-000159-MW: APT Actors Exploiting Newly-Identified Zero Day in ManageEngine Desktop Central (CVE-2021-44515)
ShadowPad
2021-12-16TEAMT5Aragorn Tseng, Charles Li, Peter Syu, Tom Lai
Winnti is Coming - Evolution after Prosecution
Cobalt Strike FishMaster FunnySwitch HIGHNOON ShadowPad Spyder
2021-12-08PWC UKAdam Prescott
Chasing Shadows: A deep dive into the latest obfuscation methods being used by ShadowPad
ShadowPad Earth Lusca
2021-11-19insomniacs(Medium)Asuna Amawaka
It’s a BEE! It’s a… no, it’s ShadowPad.
ShadowPad
2021-11-04Youtube (Virus Bulletin)Joey Chen, Yi-Jhen Hsieh
ShadowPad: the masterpiece of privately sold malware in Chinese espionage
PlugX ShadowPad
2021-10-26KasperskyKaspersky Lab ICS CERT
APT attacks on industrial organizations in H1 2021
8.t Dropper AllaKore AsyncRAT GoldMax LimeRAT NjRAT NoxPlayer Raindrop ReverseRAT ShadowPad Zebrocy
2021-09-01YouTube (Hack In The Box Security Conference)Joey Chen, Yi-Jhen Hsieh
SHADOWPAD: Chinese Espionage Malware-as-a-Service
PlugX ShadowPad
2021-08-23SentinelOneJoey Chen, Yi-Jhen Hsieh
ShadowPad: the Masterpiece of Privately Sold Malware in Chinese Espionage
PlugX ShadowPad
2021-08-19Sentinel LABSJoey Chen, Yi-Jhen Hsieh
ShadowPad | A Masterpiece of Privately Sold Malware in Chinese Espionage
ShadowPad
2021-08-12Sentinel LABSSentinelLabs
ShadowPad: A Masterpiece of Privately Sold Malware in Chinese Espionage
ShadowPad Earth Lusca
2021-07-08PTSecurityDenis Kuvshinov
How winnti APT grouping works
Korlia ShadowPad Winnti
2021-07-08Recorded FutureInsikt Group®
Chinese State-Sponsored Activity Group TAG-22 Targets Nepal, the Philippines, and Taiwan Using Winnti and Other Tooling
ShadowPad Spyder Winnti
2021-07-08YouTube (PT Product Update)Denis Kuvshinov
How winnti APT grouping works
Korlia ShadowPad Winnti
2021-04-29NTTThreat Detection NTT Ltd.
The Operations of Winnti group
Cobalt Strike ShadowPad Spyder Winnti Earth Lusca
2021-03-29The RecordCatalin Cimpanu
RedEcho group parks domains after public exposure
PlugX ShadowPad RedEcho
2021-03-10ESET ResearchMathieu Tartare, Matthieu Faou, Thomas Dupuy
Exchange servers under siege from at least 10 APT groups
Microcin MimiKatz PlugX Winnti APT27 APT41 Calypso Tick ToddyCat Tonto Team Vicious Panda
2021-02-28Recorded FutureInsikt Group®
China-Linked Group RedEcho Targets the Indian Power Sector Amid Heightened Border Tensions
Icefog PlugX ShadowPad
2021-02-28PWC UKPWC UK
Cyber Threats 2020: A Year in Retrospect
elf.wellmess FlowerPower PowGoop 8.t Dropper Agent.BTZ Agent Tesla Appleseed Ave Maria Bankshot BazarBackdoor BLINDINGCAN Chinoxy Conti Cotx RAT Crimson RAT DUSTMAN Emotet FriedEx FunnyDream Hakbit Mailto Maze METALJACK Nefilim Oblique RAT Pay2Key PlugX QakBot REvil Ryuk StoneDrill StrongPity SUNBURST SUPERNOVA TrickBot TurlaRPC Turla SilentMoon WastedLocker WellMess Winnti ZeroCleare APT10 APT23 APT27 APT31 APT41 BlackTech BRONZE EDGEWOOD Inception Framework MUSTANG PANDA Red Charon Red Nue Sea Turtle Tonto Team
2021-02-28Recorded FutureInsikt Group®
China-linked Group RedEcho Targets the Indian Power Sector Amid Heightened Border Tensions
PlugX ShadowPad RedEcho
2021-02-23CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike
2021 Global Threat Report
RansomEXX Amadey Anchor Avaddon BazarBackdoor Clop Cobalt Strike Conti Cutwail DanaBot DarkSide DoppelPaymer Dridex Egregor Emotet Hakbit IcedID JSOutProx KerrDown LockBit Mailto Maze MedusaLocker Mespinoza Mount Locker NedDnLoader Nemty Pay2Key PlugX Pushdo PwndLocker PyXie QakBot Quasar RAT RagnarLocker Ragnarok RansomEXX REvil Ryuk Sekhmet ShadowPad SmokeLoader Snake SUNBURST SunCrypt TEARDROP TrickBot WastedLocker Winnti Zloader Evilnum OUTLAW SPIDER RIDDLE SPIDER SOLAR SPIDER VIKING SPIDER
2021-02-05Twitter (@8th_grey_owl)8thGreyOwl
Tweet on CALMTHORN, used by Tonto Team
CALMTHORN
2021-01-14PTSecurityPT ESC Threat Intelligence
Higaisa or Winnti? APT41 backdoors, old and new
Cobalt Strike CROSSWALK FunnySwitch PlugX ShadowPad
2021-01-13AlienVaultTom Hegel
A Global Perspective of the SideWinder APT
8.t Dropper Koadic SideWinder
2021-01-04nao_sec blognao_sec
Royal Road! Re:Dive
8.t Dropper Chinoxy FlowCloud FunnyDream Lookback
2020-12-10ESET ResearchMathieu Tartare
Operation StealthyTrident: corporate software under attack
HyperBro PlugX ShadowPad Tmanger
2020-11-23Youtube (OWASP DevSlop)Negar Shabab, Noushin Shabab
Compromised Compilers - A new perspective of supply chain cyber attacks
ShadowPad
2020-11-03Kaspersky LabsGReAT
APT trends report Q3 2020
WellMail EVILNUM Janicab Poet RAT AsyncRAT Ave Maria Cobalt Strike Crimson RAT CROSSWALK Dtrack LODEINFO MoriAgent Okrum PlugX poisonplug Rover ShadowPad SoreFang Winnti
2020-10-30YouTube (Kaspersky Tech)Kris McConkey
Around the world in 80 days 4.2bn packets
Cobalt Strike Derusbi HyperBro Poison Ivy ShadowPad Winnti
2020-10-27Dr.WebDr.Web
Study of the ShadowPad APT backdoor and its relation to PlugX
Ghost RAT PlugX ShadowPad
2020-10-03Trend MicroCedric Pernet, Daniel Lunghi, Jaromír Hořejší, Kazuki Fujisawa
Earth Akhlut: Exploring the Tools, Tactics, and Procedures of an Advanced Threat Actor Operating a Large Infrastructure
Dexbia TypeHash
2020-09-18SymantecThreat Hunter Team
APT41: Indictments Put Chinese Espionage Group in the Spotlight
CROSSWALK PlugX poisonplug ShadowPad Winnti
2020-09-16RiskIQJon Gross
RiskIQ: Adventures in Cookie Land - Part 2
8.t Dropper Chinoxy Poison Ivy
2020-09-08PTSecurityPTSecurity
ShadowPad: new activity from the Winnti group
CCleaner Backdoor Korlia ShadowPad TypeHash
2020-08-19NTT SecurityFumio Ozawa, Rintaro Koike, Shogo Hayashi
Operation LagTime IT: Colorful Panda Footprint
8.t Dropper Cotx RAT Poison Ivy TA428
2020-08-19RiskIQCory Kennedy, Jon Gross
RiskIQ Adventures in Cookie Land - Part 1
8.t Dropper Chinoxy
2020-08-13Kaspersky LabsKonstantin Zykov
CactusPete APT group’s updated Bisonal backdoor
Korlia Tonto Team
2020-07-29Kaspersky LabsGReAT
APT trends report Q2 2020
PhantomLance Dacls Penquin Turla elf.wellmess AppleJeus Dacls AcidBox Cobalt Strike Dacls EternalPetya Godlike12 Olympic Destroyer PlugX shadowhammer ShadowPad Sinowal VHD Ransomware Volgmer WellMess X-Agent XTunnel
2020-07-14CrowdStrikeFalcon OverWatch Team
Manufacturing Industry in the Adversaries’ Crosshairs
ShadowPad Snake
2020-06-25Dr.WebDr.Web
BackDoor.ShadowPad.1
ShadowPad
2020-06-03Kaspersky LabsGiampaolo Dedola, GReAT, Mark Lechtik
Cycldek: Bridging the (air) gap
8.t Dropper NewCore RAT PlugX USBCulprit GOBLIN PANDA Hellsing
2020-03-21MalwareLab.plMaciej Kotowicz
On the Royal Road
8.t Dropper
2020-03-20Medium SebdravenSébastien Larinier
New version of chinoxy backdoor using COVID19 alerts document lure
8.t Dropper Chinoxy
2020-03-12Check Point ResearchCheck Point
Vicious Panda: The COVID Campaign
8.t Dropper Vicious Panda
2020-03-12Check PointCheck Point Research
Vicious Panda: The COVID Campaign
8.t Dropper BYEBY Enfal Korlia Poison Ivy
2020-03-11Virus BulletinGhareeb Saad, Michael Raggi
Attribution is in the object: using RTF object dimensions to track APT phishing weaponizers
8.t Dropper
2020-03-05Cisco TalosPaul Rascagnères, Vitor Ventura, Warren Mercer
Bisonal: 10 years of play
Korlia
2020-03-05AhnLabAhnLab ASEC Analysis Team
신천지 비상연락처 위장한 Bisonal 악성코드 유포 중
Korlia
2020-03-04CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike
2020 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report
MESSAGETAP More_eggs 8.t Dropper Anchor BabyShark BadNews Clop Cobalt Strike CobInt Cobra Carbon System Cutwail DanaBot Dharma DoppelDridex DoppelPaymer Dridex Emotet FlawedAmmyy FriedEx Gandcrab Get2 IcedID ISFB KerrDown LightNeuron LockerGoga Maze MECHANICAL Necurs Nokki Outlook Backdoor Phobos Predator The Thief QakBot REvil RobinHood Ryuk SDBbot Skipper SmokeLoader TerraRecon TerraStealer TerraTV TinyLoader TrickBot Vidar Winnti ANTHROPOID SPIDER APT23 APT31 APT39 APT40 BlackTech BuhTrap Charming Kitten CLOCKWORK SPIDER DOPPEL SPIDER FIN7 Gamaredon Group GOBLIN PANDA MONTY SPIDER MUSTANG PANDA NARWHAL SPIDER NOCTURNAL SPIDER PINCHY SPIDER SALTY SPIDER SCULLY SPIDER SMOKY SPIDER Thrip VENOM SPIDER VICEROY TIGER
2020-03-03PWC UKPWC UK
Cyber Threats 2019:A Year in Retrospect
KevDroid MESSAGETAP magecart AndroMut Cobalt Strike CobInt Crimson RAT DNSpionage Dridex Dtrack Emotet FlawedAmmyy FlawedGrace FriedEx Gandcrab Get2 GlobeImposter Grateful POS ISFB Kazuar LockerGoga Nokki QakBot Ramnit REvil Rifdoor RokRAT Ryuk shadowhammer ShadowPad Shifu Skipper StoneDrill Stuxnet TrickBot Winnti ZeroCleare APT41 MUSTANG PANDA Sea Turtle
2020-01-31ESET ResearchMathieu Tartare
Winnti Group targeting universities in Hong Kong
ShadowPad Winnti
2020-01-29nao_sec blognao_sec
An Overhead View of the Royal Road
BLACKCOFFEE Cotx RAT Datper DDKONG Derusbi Icefog Korlia NewCore RAT PLAINTEE Poison Ivy Sisfader
2020-01-17NTT SecurityTakai Hajime
Operation Bitter Biscuit
Korlia
2020-01-01SecureworksSecureWorks
BRONZE HUNTLEY
Korlia
2019-11-19FireEyeKelli Vanderlee, Nalani Fraser
Achievement Unlocked: Chinese Cyber Espionage Evolves to Support Higher Level Missions
APT1 APT10 APT2 APT26 APT3 APT30 APT41 Naikon Tonto Team
2019-10-07ESET ResearchMarc-Etienne M.Léveillé, Mathieu Tartare
CONNECTING THE DOTS: Exposing the arsenal and methods of the Winnti Group
LOWKEY shadowhammer ShadowPad
2019-09-23MITREMITRE ATT&CK
APT41
Derusbi MESSAGETAP Winnti ASPXSpy BLACKCOFFEE CHINACHOPPER Cobalt Strike Derusbi Empire Downloader Ghost RAT MimiKatz NjRAT PlugX ShadowPad Winnti ZXShell APT41
2019-09-22Check Point ResearchCheck Point Research
Rancor: The Year of The Phish
8.t Dropper Cobalt Strike
2019-07-23ProofpointDennis Schwarz, Michael Raggi, Proofpoint Threat Insight Team
Chinese APT “Operation LagTime IT” Targets Government Information Technology Agencies in Eastern Asia
8.t Dropper Cotx RAT Poison Ivy TA428
2019-05-09Youtube (FireEye Korea)Ryan Whelan
Over the Horizon: Innovating to confront evolving cyber threats
CALMTHORN
2019-04-25DATANETKim Seon-ae
Chinese-based hackers attack domestic energy institutions
CALMTHORN Ghost RAT
2019-04-23Kaspersky LabsAMR, GReAT
Operation ShadowHammer: a high-profile supply chain attack
shadowhammer ShadowPad
2019-04-22Trend MicroMohamad Mokbel
C/C++ Runtime Library Code Tampering in Supply Chain
shadowhammer ShadowPad Winnti
2019-03-22AhnLabAhnLab ASEC Analysis Team
ASEC REPORT VOL.93 Q4 2018
Korlia
2019-03-05AccentureAccenture
MUDCARP's Focus on Submarine Technologies
8.t Dropper APT40
2019-01-03m4n0w4r
Another malicious document with CVE-2017–11882
8.t Dropper
2018-11-03m4n0w4r
Là 1937CN hay OceanLotus hay Lazarus …
8.t Dropper
2018-07-31Medium SebdravenSébastien Larinier
Malicious document targets Vietnamese officials
8.t Dropper
2018-07-31Medium SebdravenSébastien Larinier
Malicious document targets Vietnamese officials
8.t Dropper PlugX 1937CN
2018-07-31Palo Alto Networks Unit 42Kaoru Hayashi, Vicky Ray
Bisonal Malware Used in Attacks Against Russia and South Korea
Korlia
2018-05-15BSides DetroitKeven Murphy, Stefano Maccaglia
IR in Heterogeneous Environment
Korlia Poison Ivy
2017-08-15Kaspersky LabsGReAT
ShadowPad in corporate networks
ShadowPad
2017-04-21The Wall Street JournalJonathan Cheng, Josh Chin
China Hacked South Korea Over Missile Defense, U.S. Firm Says
Tonto Team
2017-04-21The Wall Street JournalJonathan Cheng, Josh Chin
China Hacked South Korea Over Missile Defense, U.S. Firm Says
Tonto Team
2017-04-21Ars TechnicaSean Gallagher
Researchers claim China trying to hack South Korea missile defense efforts
Tonto Team
2014-11-25Adventures in SecurityNick Hoffman
Curious Korlia
Korlia
2014-02-24RSA ConferenceDmitri Alperovitch
The Art of Attribution Identifying and Pursuing your Cyber Adversaries
ANDROMEDA SPIDER APT19 DEXTOROUS SPIDER Ghost Jackal Silent Chollima SINGING SPIDER Tonto Team TOXIC PANDA UNION SPIDER
2013-01-01FireEyeAlex Lanstein
APTs By The Dozen: Dissecting Advanced Attacks
Korlia

Credits: MISP Project