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Submitted URL:
http://sentinelone.com/labs/chinese-entanglement-dll-hijacking-in-the-asian-gambling-sector/
Effective URL:
https://www.sentinelone.com/labs/chinese-entanglement-dll-hijacking-in-the-asian-gambling-sector/
Submission: On August 21 via api (August 21st 2023, 3:04:24 pm UTC) from DE — Scanned from DE

Form analysis
6 forms found in the DOM

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Adversary


CHINESE ENTANGLEMENT | DLL HIJACKING IN THE ASIAN GAMBLING SECTOR

Aleksandar Milenkoski / August 17, 2023

By Aleksandar Milenkoski and Tom Hegel


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 * SentinelLabs has identified suspected-Chinese malware and infrastructure
   potentially involved in China-associated operations directed at the gambling
   sector within Southeast Asia.
 * The threat actors abuse Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Edge, and McAfee
   VirusScan executables vulnerable to DLL hijacking to deploy Cobalt Strike
   beacons.
 * We’ve observed related malware using the signature of a likely stolen code
   signing certificate issued to PMG PTE LTD, a Singapore-based vendor of Ivacy
   VPN services.
 * Indicators point to the China-aligned BRONZE STARLIGHT group; however, the
   exact grouping remains unclear due to the interconnected relationships among
   various Chinese APT groups.


OVERVIEW

Thriving after China’s crackdown on its Macao-based gambling industry, the
Southeast Asian gambling sector has become a focal point for the country’s
interests in the region, particularly data collection for monitoring and
countering related activities in China.

We observed malware and infrastructure likely related to China-aligned
activities targeting this sector. The malware and infrastructure we analyze are
related to indicators observed in Operation ChattyGoblin and are likely part of
the same activity cluster. Operation ChattyGoblin is ESET’s name for a series of
attacks by China-nexus actors targeting Southeast Asian gambling companies with
trojanized Comm100 and LiveHelp100 chat applications.

The targeting, used malware, and C2 infrastructure specifics point to past
activities that third parties have linked to the China-aligned BRONZE STARLIGHT
group (also known as DEV-0401 or SLIME34). This is a suspected Chinese
‘ransomware’ group whose main goal appears to be espionage rather than financial
gain, using ransomware as means for distraction or misattribution. Team T5 has
also reported on BRONZE STARLIGHT’s politically-motivated involvement in
targeting the Southeast Asian gambling industry.

Despite the indicators observed, accurate clustering remains challenging. The
Chinese APT ecosystem is plagued by extensive sharing of malware and
infrastructure management processes between groups, making high confidence
clustering difficult based on current visibility. Our analysis has led us to
historical artifacts that represent points of convergence between BRONZE
STARLIGHT and other China-based actors, which showcases the complexity of a
Chinese threat ecosystem composed of closely affiliated groups.


BACKGROUND

ESET reported that a ChattyGoblin-related attack in March 2023 targeted the
support agents of a gambling company in the Philippines. In the attack, a
trojanized LiveHelp100 application downloaded a .NET malware loader named
agentupdate_plugins.exe. The final payload was a Cobalt Strike beacon using the
duckducklive[.]top domain for C2 purposes. The hash of this malware loader was
not disclosed.

We subsequently identified malware loaders that we assess are closely related to
those observed as part of Operation ChattyGoblin and are likely part of the same
activity cluster – a .NET executable also named agentupdate_plugins.exe and its
variant AdventureQuest.exe.

This association is based on naming conventions, code, and functional overlaps
with the sample described in ESET’s report. Although we cannot conclusively
determine whether the agentupdate_plugins.exe we analyzed is the same as that
reported by ESET, we note that one of its VirusTotal submissions is dated March
2023 and originates from the Philippines. This aligns with the geolocation of
the target and the timeline of the ChattyGoblin-related attack involving
agentupdate_plugins.exe.


THE MALWARE LOADERS

agentupdate_plugins.exe and  AdventureQuest.exe  deploy .NET executables based
on the SharpUnhooker tool, which download second-stage data from Alibaba buckets
hosted at agenfile.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs[.]com and
codewavehub.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs[.]com. The second-stage data is stored
in password-protected zip archives.

The zip archives downloaded by agentupdate_plugins.exe and AdventureQuest.exe
contain sideloading capabilities. Each of the archives we were able to retrieve
consists of a legitimate executable vulnerable to DLL search order hijacking, a
malicious DLL that gets sideloaded by the executable when started, and an
encrypted data file named agent.data.

The executables are components of the software products Adobe Creative Cloud,
Microsoft Edge, and McAfee VirusScan. The malicious DLLs masquerade as their
legitimate counterparts:  They export functions with the same names, such that
specific functions, when invoked by the legitimate executables, decrypt and
execute code embedded in the data files. The data files we could retrieve
implement Cobalt Strike beacons.

Zip archive  Archive content Final payload adobe_helper.zip
(agentupdate_plugins.exe) Adobe CEF Helper.exe libcef.dll agent.data (not
available) / cefhelper.zip (AdventureQuest.exe) identity_helper.exe
msedge_elf.dll agent.data Cobalt Strike C2: www.100helpchat[.]com Agent_bak.zip
(AdventureQuest.exe) mfeann.exe LockDown.dll agent.data Cobalt Strike C2:
live100heip[.]com

The 100helpchat[.]com and live100heip[.]com C2 domains follow the naming
convention of the LiveHelp100 trojanized application used in operation
ChattyGoblin, possibly to make malicious network activity look like legitimate
LiveHelp100 activity.

agentupdate_plugins.exe and AdventureQuest.exe implement geofencing based on the
ifconfig.co IP-based geolocation service. The loaders are meant to stop their
execution if they are run on a machine located in the United States, Germany,
France, Russia, India, Canada, or the United Kingdom. This may indicate that the
threat actors have no interest in intrusions in these countries for this
campaign. Due to errors in implementation, the geofencing fails to work as
intended.


STOLEN IVACY VPN CERTIFICATE

AdventureQuest.exe is signed using a certificate issued to the Ivacy VPN vendor
PMG PTE LTD:

 * Thumbprint: 62E990CC0A26D58E1A150617357010EE53186707
 * Serial number: 0E3E037C57A5447295669A3DB1A28B8A.

Ivacy has been present on the market since 2007 and attracts users with
low-price offerings.

It is likely that at some point the PMG PTE LTD singing key has been stolen – a
familiar technique of known Chinese threat actors to enable malware signing. VPN
providers are critical targets, since they enable threat actors to potentially
gain access to sensitive user data and communications.

At the time of writing, we have not observed any public statements by PMG PTE
LTD clarifying the circumstances that have led to the use of their signing keys
for signing malware. The DigiCert Certificate Authority has revoked the
compromised certificate after a public discussion on the issue.


HUI LOADER

The malicious DLLs libcef.dll, msedge_elf.dll, and LockDown.dll distributed by
agentupdate_plugins.exe and AdventureQuest.exe are HUI Loader variants. HUI
Loader is a custom malware loader shared between several China-nexus groups. The
loader is executed through sideloading by legitimate executables vulnerable to
DLL hijacking and stages a payload stored in an encrypted file. HUI Loader
variants may differ in implemented payload staging and execution techniques as
well as additional functionalities, such as establishing persistence and
disabling security features.

libcef.dll, msedge_elf.dll, and LockDown.dll closely resemble HUI Loader
variants observed in a string of cyberespionage and ransomware operations that
third parties have linked to APT10, TA410, and BRONZE STARLIGHT.

Threat actor Description BRONZE STARLIGHT
Aliases: DEV-0401, SLIME34 A China-based ransomware operator active since 2021.
The group is known for deploying a variety of ransomware families, such as
LockFile, AtomSilo, NightSky, LockBit 2.0, and Pandora, and shares tooling with
APT10. BRONZE STARLIGHT’s main goal is suspected to be espionage rather than
financial gain, using ransomware as means for distraction or misattribution.
APT10
Aliases: BRONZE RIVERSIDE, MenuPass A China-nexus cyberespionage group active
since at least 2009. The group focuses on targeting entities considered
strategically important by the Chinese state. TA410 A China-nexus cyberespionage
group loosely linked to APT10, tracked as a distinct entity. The group is mostly
known for targeting the US utilities sector and Middle Eastern governments.


APT10 AND TA410 OPERATIONS

The cef_string_map_key function of libcef.dll downloaded by
agentupdate_plugins.exe references the C:\Users\hellokety.ini file.

The cef_string_map_key function

HUI Loader variants with this exact artifact have been reported as part of
several cyberespionage operations:

 * enSilo (now Fortinet) has disclosed cyberespionage activities in Southeast
   Asia observed in April 2019 and attributed them with medium confidence to
   APT10.

 * Researchers from Macnica, Secureworks, and Kaspersky have presented on A41APT
   campaign activity conducted throughout 2021. A41APT is a long-running
   cyberespionage campaign targeting Japanese companies and their overseas
   branches. Kaspersky has attributed earlier A41APT activity (from March 2019
   to the end of December 2020) with high confidence to APT10. TrendMicro has
   attributed A41APT activity over 2020 and 2021 to a group they track as Earth
   Tengshe, noting that Earth Tengshe is related to APT10 with some differences
   in employed TTPs.

 * ESET has presented on TA410 activities, noting the hellokety.ini artifact in
   this context. ESET also notes the possibility of misattribution the April
   2019 activities reported by Fortinet to APT10 instead of TA410.

HUI Loader variants (hellokety.ini) used in APT10 and TA410 operations


BRONZE STARLIGHT OPERATIONS

Since around 2021, HUI Loader variants have been deployed in operations
involving the ransomware families LockFile (Symantec, 2021; NSFOCUS, 2021),
AtomSilo (Sophos, 2021), NightSky (Microsoft, 2021), LockBit 2.0 (SentinelLabs,
2022), and Pandora (TrendMicro, 2022). Some of these operations have been
attributed to BRONZE STARLIGHT by the organizations disclosing them and all of
them collectively by Secureworks. All of these ransomware families have been
noted by Microsoft as being part of the BRONZE STARLIGHT arsenal in time
intervals aligning with those of the previously mentioned operations.


C2 INFRASTRUCTURE

The Cobalt Strike C2 GET and POST URIs associated with the Operation
ChattyGoblin domain duckducklive[.]top contain /functionalStatus and
/rest/2/meetings, respectively. Their uncommon full forms closely resemble those
observed by Secureworks in AtomSilo, Night Sky, and Pandora operations they
attribute to BRONZE STARLIGHT. The researchers reported that, as of June 2022,
they had not seen this Cobalt Strike configuration associated with other
ransomware families. The threat actors have likely adapted a public Cobalt
Strike malleable C2 profile available in a Github repository of the user xx0hcd.

Cobalt Strike C2 POST URI Relation /rest/2/meetingsmCRW64qPFqLKw7X56lR41fx
Operation ChattyGoblin /rest/2/meetingsVDcrCtBuGm8dime2C5zQ3EHbRE156AkpMu6W
AtomSilo /rest/2/meetingsQpmhJveuV1ljApIzpTAL Night Sky
/rest/2/meetingsKdEs85OkdgIPwcqbjS7uzVZKBIZNHeO4r5sKe Pandora

The C2 GET and POST URIs associated with the www.100helpchat[.]com and
live100heip[.]com domains we observed contain /owa followed by character
strings. The format of these strings resembles those in the URIs associated with
duckducklive[.]top and also those reported in past BRONZE STARLIGHT activities.
It is likely that the threat actors have adapted another open source Cobalt
Strike malleable C2 profile, which is also available in a Github repository of
the user xx0hcd.

Domain Cobalt Strike C2 URIs live100heip[.]com GET:
/owa/Z7bziD-BDtV9U1aLS9AhW4jyN1NEOelTEi
POST: /owa/LAC9kgQyM1HD3NSIwi–mx9sHB3vcmjJJm www.100helpchat[.]com GET:
/owa/aLgnP5aHtit33SA2p2MenNuBmYy
POST: /owa/XF0O-PjSCEslnDo51T0K4TOY

The Cobalt Strike profiles associated with the duckducklive[.]top,
www.100helpchat[.]com, and live100heip[.]com domains share a C2 port number
(8443) and a watermark (391144938). The earliest record of duckducklive[.]top
becoming active is dated 24 Feb 2023. The earliest records of live100heip[.]com
and 100helpchat[.]com becoming active are dated 24 Feb 2023 (overlapping with
that of duckducklive[.]top) and 28 Feb 2023, respectively.

The three domains are each hidden behind CloudFlare, who were quick in
remediation after we reported the service abuse. In this case, however, the
actors revealed their true-hosting locations due to an OPSEC mistake in their
initial deployment of the domain’s SSL certificates on their Alibaba Cloud
hosting servers at 8.218.31[.]103, 47.242.72[.]118, and 47.242.159[.]242.

Certificates use on Alibaba IPs

While the analysis of the Cobalt Strike profiles provides links to previous
BRONZE STARLIGHT activities, an assessment of the specific group attribution
based on current intelligence should be treated with caution. It is noteworthy
that Chinese cyber espionage threat actors are progressively refining their
operational tactics in manners that obfuscate clear attribution through publicly
available intelligence sources alone.

To illustrate this concept, consider the scenario where a broader array of
domains imitating various brands may be interconnected, such as those publicly
documented involving the BRONZE STARLIGHT, TA410, and APT10 threat actors.
Examples include microsofts[.]net, microupdate[.]xyz, microsofts[.]info,
microsofts[.]org, miscrosofts[.]com, microsofts[.]com, kaspresksy[.]com,
tencentchat[.]net, and microsoftlab[.]top.


CONCLUSION

China-nexus threat actors have consistently shared malware, infrastructure, and
operational tactics in the past, and continue to do so. The activities this post
discusses illustrate the intricate nature of the Chinese threat landscape.

Better understanding of this landscape is essential for keeping up with its
dynamics and improving defense strategies. Achieving this necessitates
consistent collaborative and information sharing efforts. SentinelLabs remains
dedicated to this mission and continues to closely monitor related threats.


INDICATORS OF COMPROMISE


FILES (SHA1)

Indicator Description 09f82b963129bbcc6d784308f0d39d8c6b09b293
agentupdate_plugins.exe 1a11aa4bd3f2317993cfe6d652fbe5ab652db151 LockDown.dll
32b545353f4e968dc140c14bc436ce2a91aacd82 mfeann.exe
4b79016d11910e2a59b18275c786682e423be4b4 Adobe CEF Helper.exe
559b4409ff3611adaae1bf03cbadaa747432521b identity_helper.exe
57bbc5fcfd97d25edb9cce7e3dc9180ee0df7111 agentdata.dat
6e9592920cdce90a7c03155ef8b113911c20bb3a AdventureQuest.exe
76bf5ab6676a1e01727a069cc00f228f0558f842 agentdata.dat
88c353e12bd23437681c79f31310177fd476a846 libcef.dll
957e313abaf540398af47af367a267202a900007 msedge_elf.dll


SECOND-STAGE DATA URLS

https[://]agenfile.oss-ap-southeast-1[.]aliyuncs.com/agent_source/temp1/cefhelper.zip
AdventureQuest.exe
https[://]agenfile.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com/agent_source/temp2/agent_bak.zip
AdventureQuest.exe
https[://]agenfile.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com/agent_source/temp3/adobe_helper.zip
agentupdate_plugins.exe
https[://]codewavehub.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs[.]com/org/com/file/CodeVerse.zip
AdventureQuest.exe


C2 DOMAINS

www.100helpchat[.]com Cobalt Strike live100heip[.]com Cobalt Strike


C2 IP ADDRESSES

8.218.31[.]103 Cobalt Strike 47.242.72[.]118 Cobalt Strike

adversary


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ALEKSANDAR MILENKOSKI

Aleksandar Milenkoski is a Senior Threat Researcher at SentinelLabs, with
expertise in reverse engineering, malware research, and threat actor analysis.
Aleksandar has a PhD in system security and is the author of numerous research
papers, book chapters, blog posts, and conference talks. His research has won
awards from SPEC, the Bavarian Foundation for Science, and the University of
Würzburg.

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www.sentinelone.com Open in urlscan Pro 104.26.2.18 Public Scan

Form analysis 6 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.sentinelone.com

GET https://www.sentinelone.com/

Text Content

www.sentinelone.com Open in urlscan Pro
104.26.2.18 Public Scan

Form analysis
6 forms found in the DOM