Rewterz Threat Alert – North Korea Linked Konni APT Group – Active IOCs

Severity

High

Analysis Summary

KONNI is a remote access tool that North Korean cyber attackers have been using since at least 2014. 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 with 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 a 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

MD5

7b27586c4b332c5e87784c8d3e45a523

SHA-256

9e916c4f58334aafcb033705e7fac6a217d8e2da131c8c1fd904edda7d026226

SHA-1

44f586c32b7b07e4dcb56bf04e213bfb565ff373

Remediation

• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Search for Indicators of compromise (IOCs) in your environment utilizing your respective security controls
• Always be suspicious about emails sent by unknown senders.
• Never click on the link/attachments sent by unknown senders.