Rewterz Threat Alert – Thrip Continues To Hit High Level Targets In South Asia

Severity

High

Analysis Summary

Thrip group, the stealthy China-based espionage group has continued to mount attacks in South East Asia, hitting military organizations, satellite communications operators, and a diverse range of other targets in the region. Thrip has been hitting the same types of organizations as when Symantec researchers first discovered the group in June 2018. What caught the researchers’ attention last year was the group’s targeting of a satellite communications operator, infecting computers that included software designed to monitor and control satellites.

Many of its recent attacks have involved a previously unseen backdoor known as Hannotog (Backdoor.Hannotog) and another backdoor known as Sagerunex (Backdoor.Sagerunex). Analysis of the latter has revealed close links to another long-established espionage group called Billbug (aka Lotus Blossom). In all likelihood, Thrip and Billbug now appear to be one and the same.

Thrip appears to be part of another nation-state backed hacking gang called Billbug or Lotus Blossom that has been operating in Southeast Asia for the past 10 years, the researchers say.

Impact

Exposure of sensitive information

Indicators of Compromise

Malware Hash (MD5/SHA1/SH256)

• 9348eba0582b19c4580491a32457a1904c41c06dee27ed07c86d986d3c98d15c
• bd92ce8ef31cd40894b68338d9b71d371936b432b5347d944fad7d9381459761
• 0d1ecd92570b8ca7b2ffd60271c5f601c08a822197413cf4ffd552a7e2426ff6
• 19378dab8b242d94148ad5c48d57d9e45fec5f53b6724155488dd80566a66623
• 1e164da9ddd19d0b654e8a60b416c80e82f9bfc0ab35dd262733f4364610c9f4
• 27ccd12206d185bf3297df288febf7d47b93ccdc6ec0e5c389ae30da8cac4bf3
• 460e11159413b47399aac530433bb00132f54e3859da1f5305977275e37c6153
• 5174d45c4e64c5e6abe6639a6a1d6f64bb48b4fb0efdad2b0ea708be7cb82fce
• 523f28a364858bd7bb65de7c9e94bbdfbbdb9fe800421c990226662e293a05ea
• 76a309691661ed67808a9c438815e9a282495e2e8e0055f2fe40e42bcf002dab
• 868f0a1d3764e1c8e03a58caf1d4b8de946671d59b9145e30102ab6540349968
• 9530d2df7d340c74f061a1bff87bd2720ff11347b09f05cfb16e4dfd198f0168
• 9fd88a5d30fa36d8353cad6ea8b5f867429d39652bf85473de31c39466435775
• c0be532e9fb71e0462f9bfdc8754df320be960b9d510a0b3b6d6cf128c537658
• d45ad71497f48d0d2ebff8ecdcafc9e609b550c0ed76d540d7660dc27785d376
• d54de8e0dc2b58b140f8677be3f0ea3c902dc3f3b112c7350aa95a9cbe24a8af
• d7c6aa114df9be3a1e01c196ca44e929821d6a6316f4754b0933189f98af4fc7
• fe2046e479289b1013eb394f5b3d7a49a419cb98015add3ead0fa87614fe6e38
• 3228a0d40222548ea3476b43b13a18ef09f06a4402e3280640ee297533b5a3a0
• 6b236d3fc54d36e6dc2a26299f6ded597058fed7c9099f1a37716c5e4b162abc
• d9131bf2e2e2a80c319ed6ffbe5c726fe30eac50902705096d2610de52a774e2
• f14c9c859e12cf70099af098668f849b2ca0e99de6cc62b8569c230f35e36aa5
• 0fb583b98cb73bd1bda1d60398fc6587a9541fff43d4db6dd172b853dcac1b17
• 6b01d376b355c56ede966ccf5cca6c8d5616962e67bbf0ddbf7ad395d117fdee
• db921a575fa7fd4b0c1b405a54f77d10c73eb1cb1384a27d584d7323e72938b6

Remediation

• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Always be suspicious about emails sent by unknown senders.
• Never click on the link/attachments sent by unknown senders.