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Earth Lusca

Earth Lusca is a suspected China-based cyber espionage group that has been active since at least April 2019. Earth Lusca has targeted organizations in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Germany, France, and the United States. Targets included government institutions, news media outlets, gambling companies, educational institutions, COVID-19 research organizations, telecommunications companies, religious movements banned in China, and cryptocurrency trading platforms; security researchers assess some Earth Lusca operations may be financially motivated.[1]

Earth Lusca has used malware commonly used by other Chinese threat groups, including APT41 and the Winnti Group cluster, however security researchers assess Earth Lusca's techniques and infrastructure are separate.[1]

ID: G1006
ⓘ
Associated Groups: TAG-22, Charcoal Typhoon, CHROMIUM, ControlX
Version: 2.0
Created: 01 July 2022
Last Modified: 16 September 2024
Version Permalink

Associated Group Descriptions

Name Description
TAG-22

[2]
Charcoal Typhoon

[3]
CHROMIUM

[3] [4]
ControlX

[3]
Enterprise Layer
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Techniques Used

Domain ID Name Use
Enterprise T1548 .002 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Bypass User Account Control

Earth Lusca has used the Fodhelper UAC bypass technique to gain elevated privileges.[1]
Enterprise T1098 .004 Account Manipulation: SSH Authorized Keys

Earth Lusca has dropped an SSH-authorized key in the /root/.ssh folder in order to access a compromised server with SSH.[1]
Enterprise T1583 .001 Acquire Infrastructure: Domains

Earth Lusca has registered domains, intended to look like legitimate target domains, that have been used in watering hole attacks.[1]

.004 Acquire Infrastructure: Server

Earth Lusca has acquired multiple servers for some of their operations, using each server for a different role.[1]
.006 Acquire Infrastructure: Web Services

Earth Lusca has established GitHub accounts to host their malware.[1]
Enterprise T1595 .002 Active Scanning: Vulnerability Scanning

Earth Lusca has scanned for vulnerabilities in the public-facing servers of their targets.[1]
Enterprise T1560 .001 Archive Collected Data: Archive via Utility

Earth Lusca has used WinRAR to compress stolen files into an archive prior to exfiltration.[1]
Enterprise T1547 .012 Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Print Processors

Earth Lusca has added the Registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\UDPrint" /v Driver /d "spool.dll /f to load malware as a Print Processor.[1]
Enterprise T1059 .001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell

Earth Lusca has used PowerShell to execute commands.[1]
.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic

Earth Lusca used VBA scripts.[1]
.006 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Python

Earth Lusca used Python scripts for port scanning or building reverse shells.[1]
.007 Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript

Earth Lusca has manipulated legitimate websites to inject malicious JavaScript code as part of their watering hole operations.[1]
Enterprise T1584 .004 Compromise Infrastructure: Server

Earth Lusca has used compromised web servers as part of their operational infrastructure.[1]
.006 Compromise Infrastructure: Web Services

Earth Lusca has compromised Google Drive repositories.[1]
Enterprise T1543 .003 Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service

Earth Lusca created a service using the command sc create "SysUpdate" binpath= "cmd /c start "[file path]""&&sc config "SysUpdate" start= auto&&netstart SysUpdate for persistence.[1]
Enterprise T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information

Earth Lusca has used certutil to decode a string into a cabinet file.[1]
Enterprise T1482 Domain Trust Discovery

Earth Lusca has used Nltest to obtain information about domain controllers.[1]
Enterprise T1189 Drive-by Compromise

Earth Lusca has performed watering hole attacks.[1]
Enterprise T1567 .002 Exfiltration Over Web Service: Exfiltration to Cloud Storage

Earth Lusca has used the megacmd tool to upload stolen files from a victim network to MEGA.[1]
Enterprise T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application

Earth Lusca has compromised victims by directly exploiting vulnerabilities of public-facing servers, including those associated with Microsoft Exchange and Oracle GlassFish.[1]
Enterprise T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services

Earth Lusca has used Mimikatz to exploit a domain controller via the ZeroLogon exploit (CVE-2020-1472).[1]
Enterprise T1574 .002 Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Side-Loading

Earth Lusca has placed a malicious payload in %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\oci.dll so it would be sideloaded by the MSDTC service.[1]

Enterprise T1036 .005 Masquerading: Match Legitimate Name or Location

Earth Lusca used the command move [file path] c:\windows\system32\spool\prtprocs\x64\spool.dll to move and register a malicious DLL name as a Windows print processor, which eventually was loaded by the Print Spooler service.[1]
Enterprise T1112 Modify Registry

Earth Lusca modified the registry using the command reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment" /v UserInitMprLogonScript /t REG_SZ /d "[file path]" for persistence.[1]
Enterprise T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information

Earth Lusca used Base64 to encode strings.[1]
.003 Steganography

Earth Lusca has used steganography to hide shellcode in a BMP image file.[1]
Enterprise T1588 .001 Obtain Capabilities: Malware

Earth Lusca has acquired and used a variety of malware, including Cobalt Strike.[1]
.002 Obtain Capabilities: Tool

Earth Lusca has acquired and used a variety of open source tools.[1]
Enterprise T1003 .001 OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory

Earth Lusca has used ProcDump to obtain the hashes of credentials by dumping the memory of the LSASS process.[1]
.006 OS Credential Dumping: DCSync

Earth Lusca has used a DCSync command with Mimikatz to retrieve credentials from an exploited controller.[1]
Enterprise T1566 .002 Phishing: Spearphishing Link

Earth Lusca has sent spearphishing emails to potential targets that contained a malicious link.[1]
Enterprise T1057 Process Discovery

Earth Lusca has used Tasklist to obtain information from a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise T1090 Proxy

Earth Lusca adopted Cloudflare as a proxy for compromised servers.[1]
Enterprise T1018 Remote System Discovery

Earth Lusca used the command powershell "Get-EventLog -LogName security -Newest 500 | where {$_.EventID -eq 4624} | format-list -property * | findstr "Address"" to find the network information of successfully logged-in accounts to discovery addresses of other machines. Earth Lusca has also used multiple scanning tools to discover other machines within the same compromised network.[1]
Enterprise T1053 Scheduled Task/Job

Earth Lusca used the command schtasks /Create /SC ONLOgon /TN WindowsUpdateCheck /TR "[file path]" /ru system for persistence.[1]
Enterprise T1608 .001 Stage Capabilities: Upload Malware

Earth Lusca has staged malware and malicious files on compromised web servers, GitHub, and Google Drive.[1]
Enterprise T1218 .005 System Binary Proxy Execution: Mshta

Earth Lusca has used mshta.exe to load an HTA script within a malicious .LNK file.[1]
Enterprise T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery

Earth Lusca used the command ipconfig to obtain information about network configurations.[1]
Enterprise T1049 System Network Connections Discovery

Earth Lusca employed a PowerShell script called RDPConnectionParser to read and filter the Windows event log "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RDPClient/Operational"(Event ID 1024) to obtain network information from RDP connections. Earth Lusca has also used netstat from a compromised system to obtain network connection information.[1]
Enterprise T1033 System Owner/User Discovery

Earth Lusca collected information on user accounts via the whoami command.[1]
Enterprise T1007 System Service Discovery

Earth Lusca has used Tasklist to obtain information from a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise T1204 .001 User Execution: Malicious Link

Earth Lusca has sent spearphishing emails that required the user to click on a malicious link and subsequently open a decoy document with a malicious loader.[1]
.002 User Execution: Malicious File

Earth Lusca required users to click on a malicious file for the loader to activate.[1]
Enterprise T1047 Windows Management Instrumentation

Earth Lusca used a VBA script to execute WMI.[1]

Software

ID Name References Techniques
S0160 certutil [1] Archive Collected Data: Archive via Utility, Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information, Ingress Tool Transfer, Subvert Trust Controls: Install Root Certificate
S0154 Cobalt Strike [1] Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Sudo and Sudo Caching, Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Bypass User Account Control, Access Token Manipulation: Parent PID Spoofing, Access Token Manipulation: Token Impersonation/Theft, Access Token Manipulation: Make and Impersonate Token, Account Discovery: Domain Account, Application Layer Protocol: DNS, Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols, Application Layer Protocol: File Transfer Protocols, BITS Jobs, Browser Session Hijacking, Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript, Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic, Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell, Command and Scripting Interpreter: Python, Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell, Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service, Data Encoding: Standard Encoding, Data from Local System, Data Obfuscation: Protocol or Service Impersonation, Data Transfer Size Limits, Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information, Encrypted Channel: Asymmetric Cryptography, Encrypted Channel: Symmetric Cryptography, Exploitation for Client Execution, Exploitation for Privilege Escalation, File and Directory Discovery, Hide Artifacts: Process Argument Spoofing, Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools, Indicator Removal: Timestomp, Ingress Tool Transfer, Input Capture: Keylogging, Modify Registry, Native API, Network Service Discovery, Network Share Discovery, Non-Application Layer Protocol, Obfuscated Files or Information: Indicator Removal from Tools, Obfuscated Files or Information, Office Application Startup: Office Template Macros, OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory, OS Credential Dumping: Security Account Manager, Permission Groups Discovery: Domain Groups, Permission Groups Discovery: Local Groups, Process Discovery, Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection, Process Injection: Process Hollowing, Process Injection, Protocol Tunneling, Proxy: Domain Fronting, Proxy: Internal Proxy, Query Registry, Reflective Code Loading, Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol, Remote Services: SSH, Remote Services: Windows Remote Management, Remote Services: SMB/Windows Admin Shares, Remote Services: Distributed Component Object Model, Remote System Discovery, Scheduled Transfer, Screen Capture, Software Discovery, Subvert Trust Controls: Code Signing, System Binary Proxy Execution: Rundll32, System Network Configuration Discovery, System Network Connections Discovery, System Service Discovery, System Services: Service Execution, Use Alternate Authentication Material: Pass the Hash, Valid Accounts: Domain Accounts, Valid Accounts: Local Accounts, Windows Management Instrumentation
S0002 Mimikatz [1] Access Token Manipulation: SID-History Injection, Account Manipulation, Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Security Support Provider, Credentials from Password Stores, Credentials from Password Stores: Credentials from Web Browsers, Credentials from Password Stores: Windows Credential Manager, OS Credential Dumping: DCSync, OS Credential Dumping: Security Account Manager, OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory, OS Credential Dumping: LSA Secrets, Rogue Domain Controller, Steal or Forge Authentication Certificates, Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets: Golden Ticket, Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets: Silver Ticket, Unsecured Credentials: Private Keys, Use Alternate Authentication Material: Pass the Hash, Use Alternate Authentication Material: Pass the Ticket
S0590 NBTscan [1] Network Service Discovery, Network Sniffing, Remote System Discovery, System Network Configuration Discovery, System Owner/User Discovery
S0359 Nltest [1] Domain Trust Discovery, Remote System Discovery, System Network Configuration Discovery
S0194 PowerSploit [1] Access Token Manipulation, Account Discovery: Local Account, Audio Capture, Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder, Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Security Support Provider, Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell, Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service, Credentials from Password Stores: Windows Credential Manager, Data from Local System, Domain Trust Discovery, Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable, Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by Unquoted Path, Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Search Order Hijacking, Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by Search Order Hijacking, Input Capture: Keylogging, Obfuscated Files or Information: Indicator Removal from Tools, Obfuscated Files or Information: Command Obfuscation, OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory, Process Discovery, Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection, Query Registry, Reflective Code Loading, Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task, Screen Capture, Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets: Kerberoasting, Unsecured Credentials: Credentials in Registry, Unsecured Credentials: Group Policy Preferences, Windows Management Instrumentation
S0596 ShadowPad [1] Application Layer Protocol: DNS, Application Layer Protocol: File Transfer Protocols, Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols, Data Encoding: Non-Standard Encoding, Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information, Dynamic Resolution: Domain Generation Algorithms, Indicator Removal, Ingress Tool Transfer, Modify Registry, Non-Application Layer Protocol, Obfuscated Files or Information: Fileless Storage, Obfuscated Files or Information, Process Discovery, Process Injection, Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection, Scheduled Transfer, System Information Discovery, System Network Configuration Discovery, System Owner/User Discovery, System Time Discovery
S0057 Tasklist [1] Process Discovery, Software Discovery: Security Software Discovery, System Service Discovery
S0430 Winnti for Linux [1] Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols, Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information, Encrypted Channel: Symmetric Cryptography, Ingress Tool Transfer, Non-Application Layer Protocol, Obfuscated Files or Information: Encrypted/Encoded File, Rootkit, Traffic Signaling

References

  1. Chen, J., et al. (2022). Delving Deep: An Analysis of Earth Lusca’s Operations. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  2. INSIKT GROUP. (2021, July 8). Chinese State-Sponsored Activity Group TAG-22 Targets Nepal, the Philippines, and Taiwan Using Winnti and Other Tooling. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  1. Microsoft . (2023, July 12). How Microsoft names threat actors. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
  2. Insikt Group. (2023, August 8). RedHotel: A Prolific, Chinese State-Sponsored Group Operating at a Global Scale. Retrieved March 11, 2024.