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2024-04-16 06:00:54 | De l'ingénierie sociale aux abus DMARC: Ta427 \\'s Art of Information Gathering From Social Engineering to DMARC Abuse: TA427\\'s Art of Information Gathering (lien direct) |
Key takeaways TA427 regularly engages in benign conversation starter campaigns to establish contact with targets for long-term exchanges of information on topics of strategic importance to the North Korean regime. In addition to using specially crafted lure content, TA427 heavily leverages think tank and non-governmental organization-related personas to legitimize its emails and increase the chances that targets will engage with the threat actor. To craftily pose as its chosen personas, TA427 uses a few tactics including DMARC abuse in concert with free email addresses, typosquatting, and private email account spoofing. TA427 has also incorporated web beacons for initial reconnaissance of its targets, establishing basic information like that the email account is active. Overview Proofpoint researchers track numerous state-sponsored and state-aligned threat actors. TA427 (also known as Emerald Sleet, APT43, THALLIUM or Kimsuky), a Democratic People\'s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) aligned group working in support of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, is particularly prolific in email phishing campaigns targeting experts for insight into US and the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea) foreign policy. Since 2023, TA427 has directly solicited foreign policy experts for their opinions on nuclear disarmament, US-ROK policies, and sanction topics via benign conversation starting emails. In recent months, Proofpoint researchers have observed (Figure 1) a steady, and at times increasing, stream of this activity. While our researchers have consistently observed TA427 rely on social engineering tactics and regularly rotating its email infrastructure, in December 2023 the threat actor began to abuse lax Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) policies to spoof various personas and, in February 2024, began incorporating web beacons for target profiling. It is this initial engagement, and the tactics successfully leveraged by TA427, which this blog is focused on. Figure 1. Volume of TA427 phishing campaigns observed between January 2023 and March 2024. Social engineering TA427 is a savvy social engineering expert whose campaigns are likely in support of North Korea\'s strategic intelligence collection efforts on US and ROK foreign policy initiatives. Based on the targets identified and the information sought, it is believed that TA427\'s goal is to augment North Korean intelligence and inform its foreign policy negotiation tactics (example Figure 2). TA427 is known to engage its targets for extended periods of time through a series of benign conversations to build a rapport with targets that can occur over weeks to months. They do so by constantly rotating which aliases are used to engage with the targets on similar subject matter. Figure 2. Example of TA427 campaign focused on US policy during an election year. Using timely, relevant lure content (as seen in Figure 3) customized for each victim, and often spoofing individuals in the DPRK research space with whom the victim is familiar to encourage engagement, targets are often requested to share their thoughts on these topics via email or a formal research paper or article. Malware or credential harvesting are never directly sent to the targets without an exchange of multiple messages, and based on Proofpoint visibility, rarely utilized by the threat actor. It is possible that TA427 can fulfill its intelligence requirements by directly asking targets for their opinions or analysis rather than from an infection. Additionally, insight gained from the correspondence is likely used to improve targeting of the victim organization and establish rapport for later questions and engagement. Figure 3. Timeline of real-world events based on international press reporting, side-by-side with Proofpoint observed subject lures. Lure content often includes invitations to attend events about North Korean policies regarding international affairs, questions regarding topics such as how deterr | Malware Tool Threat Conference | APT 37 APT 43 | ★★ |
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