Severity
High
Analysis Summary
The Konni APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) group has been a cyber espionage group since at least 2014. It is believed to be based in North Korea and is known for targeting government agencies and organizations in South Korea and the United States.
The North Korean hacker group distributes Konni RAT via phishing messages or emails. The infection chain begins when the victim accesses a weaponized file. Adversaries employ Konni RAT to gather information from victims, capture screenshots, steal files, and build a remote interactive shell. KONNI has been linked to various alleged North Korean attacks targeting political groups in Russia, East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. KONNI shares a significant code overlap with the NOKKI malware family. Konni's APT Group continues to attack malicious documents written in Russian. This threat actor group conducts attacks on Russian-North Korean trade and economic investment documents.
This APT group was detected targeting the Russian diplomatic sector in January 2022, employing a spear phishing theme for New Year's Eve festivities as bait. When the malicious email attachment is opened and processed, a series of events occur, allowing the actor to install an implant from the Konni RAT family as the final payload.
Impact
- Information Theft and Espionage
Indicators of Compromise
IP
- 64.20.59.148
MD5
6eb5cb9d898b93b831d8b4738ed6c2bd
95289ac289db6ad1fd9175992f498cd3
SHA-256
0505ee144d9445a0f50d577352b694e1d762bd6c34897c5100d8d0f7d6332729
2138f0837da8bb930cb15c7b587ff5a43e20708ec214963b66ba06322969ba39
SHA1
ffa66b25c30a6d62af5b6a31d68bb1bf694d1762
b1302e5815f7d74fefffdb7f3def7e362cd86292
Remediation
- Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
- Search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) in your environment utilizing your respective security controls.
- Do not download documents attached in emails from unknown sources and strictly refrain from enabling macros when the source isn’t reliable.
- Enable antivirus and anti-malware software and update signature definitions on time. Using multi-layered protection is necessary to secure vulnerable assets.
- Along with network and system hardening, code hardening should be implemented within the organization so that their websites and software are secure. Use testing tools to detect any vulnerabilities in the deployed codes.