Rewterz Threat Alert – Confucius APT group Targeting Pakistan – Active IOCs

Severity

High

Analysis Summary

Confucius APT group, an Indian state-sponsored APT group, first started operations in 2013. The group’s main target is Pakistani and other South Asian countries. The group started using mobile malware to infiltrate its victims before it used desktop malware. Android surveillanceware tools like SubBird, ChatSpy, and Hornbill have been used by the group to spy on the victims. Pakistan’s military officials, nuclear authorities, and Indian officials located in Kashmir have also been the chief targets of the threat group. Data that can be exfiltrated by the group is:

• Geolocation
• Call logs
• Device metadata including phone number, IMEI/Android ID, Model and Manufacturer and Android version
• Contacts
• And even WhatsApp voice notes.

The malware used by Confucius is able to take screenshots, scrape WhatsApp messages and contacts, take photos with the device camera, record the environment and call audio.

Impact

• Information Theft and Espionage

Indicators of Compromise

MD5

• eb3e7d94069786eceb34b683e671eec2

SHA-256

• 9115408ab7227f30cb6d3f785c208377b31da208171def1c3ec4d81c6f833585

SHA-1

• 137ba80e443610d9d733c160ccdb9870f3792fb8

Remediation

• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls
• Search for IOCs in your environment.