MAR-10322463-7.v1 - AppleJeus: Ants2Whale | CISA Published: 2021-02-17 · Archived: 2026-04-05 17:57:36 UTC body#cma-body { font-family: Franklin Gothic Medium, Franklin Gothic, ITC Franklin Gothic, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; } table#cma-table { width: 900px; margin: 2px; table-layout: fixed; border-collapse: collapse; } div#cma-exercise { width: 900px; height: 30px; text-align: center; line-height: 30px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px; } div.cma-header { text-align: center; margin-bottom: 40px; } div.cma-footer { text-align: center; margin-top: 20px; } h2.cma-tlp { background-color: #000; color: #ffffff; width: 180px; height: 30px; text-align: center; line-height: 30px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px; float: right; } span.cma-fouo { line-height: 30px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; } h3.cma-section-title { font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0 10px; margin-top: 10px; } h4.cma-object-title { font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 20px; } h5.cma-data-title { padding: 3px 0 3px 10px; margin: 10px 0 0 20px; background-color: #e7eef4; font-size: 15px; } p.cma-text { margin: 5px 0 0 25px !important; word-wrap: break-word !important; } div.cma-section { border-bottom: 5px solid #aaa; margin: 5px 0; padding-bottom: 10px; } div.cma-avoid-page-break { page-break-inside: avoid; } div#cma-summary { page-break-after: always; } div#cma-faq { page-break-after: always; } table.cma-content { border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 20px; } table.cma-hashes { table-layout: fixed; width: 880px; } table.cma-hashes td{ width: 780px; word-wrap: break-word; } .cma-left th { text-align: right; vertical-align: top; padding: 3px 8px 3px 20px; background-color: #f0f0f0; border-right: 1px solid #aaa; } .cma-left td { padding-left: 8px; } .cma-color-title th, .cma-color-list th, .cma-color-title-only th { text-align: left; padding: 3px 0 3px 20px; background-color: #f0f0f0; } .cma-color-title td, .cma-color-list td, .cma-color-title-only td { padding: 3px 20px; } .cma-color-title tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: #f0f0f0; } .cma-color-list tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: #f0f0f0; } td.cma-relationship { max-width: 310px; word-wrap: break-word; } ul.cma-ul { margin: 5px 0 10px 0; } ul.cma-ul li { line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; word-wrap: break-word; } #cma-survey { font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } div.cma-banner-container { position: relative; text-align: center; color: white; } img.cma-banner { max-width: 900px; height: auto; } img.cma-nccic-logo { max-height: 60px; width: auto; float: left; margin-top: -15px; } div.cma-report-name { position: absolute; bottom: 32px; left: 12px; font-size: 20px; } div.cma-report-number { position: absolute; bottom: 70px; right: 100px; font-size: 18px; } div.cma-report-date { position: absolute; bottom: 32px; right: 100px; font-size: 18px; } img.cma-thumbnail { max-height: 100px; width: auto; vertical-align: top; } img.cma-screenshot { margin: 10px 0 0 25px; max-width: 800px; height: auto; vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid #000; } div.cma-screenshot-text { margin: 10px 0 0 25px; } .cma-break-word { word-wrap: break-word; } .cma-tag { border-radius: 5px; padding: 1px 10px; margin-right: 10px; } .cma-tag-info { background: #f0f0f0; } .cma-tag-warning { background: #ffdead; } Notification This report is provided "as is" for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained herein. The DHS does not endorse any commercial product or service referenced in this bulletin or otherwise. This document is marked TLP:WHITE--Disclosure is not limited. Sources may use TLP:WHITE when information carries minimal or no foreseeable risk of misuse, in accordance with applicable rules and procedures for public release. Subject to standard copyright rules, TLP:WHITE information may be distributed without restriction. For more information on the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP), see http://www.us-cert.gov/tlp. Summary Description This Malware Analysis Report (MAR) is the result of analytic efforts among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of Treasury (Treasury) to highlight the cyber threat to cryptocurrency posed by North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and provide mitigation recommendations. Working with U.S. government partners, FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess that Lazarus Group—which these agencies attribute to North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actors—is targeting individuals and companies, including cryptocurrency exchanges and financial service companies, through the dissemination of cryptocurrency trading applications that have been modified to include malware that facilitates theft of cryptocurrency. This MAR highlights this cyber threat posed by North Korea and provides detailed indicators of compromise (IOCs) used by the North Korean government. The U.S. Government refers to malicious cyber activity by the North Korean government as HIDDEN COBRA. For more information on other versions of AppleJeus and recommended steps to mitigate this threat, see https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 1 of 8 Joint Cybersecurity Advisory AA21-048A: AppleJeus: Analysis of North Korea's Cryptocurrency Malware at https://www.us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/alerts/AA21-048A. There have been multiple versions of AppleJeus malware discovered since its initial discovery in August 2018. In most versions, the malware appears to be from a legitimate-looking cryptocurrency trading company and website, whereby an unsuspecting individual downloads a third-party application from a website that appears legitimate. The U.S. Government has identified AppleJeus malware version—Ants2Whale—and associated IOCs used by the North Korean government in AppleJeus operations. Ants2Whale, discovered in October 2020, is a legitimate-looking cryptocurrency trading software that is marketed and distributed by a company and website—Ants2Whale and ants2whale[.]com, respectively—that appear legitimate. Some information has been redacted from this report to preserve victim anonymity. For a downloadable copy of IOCs, see: MAR-10322463-7.v1.stix. Submitted Files (3) bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 (Ants2WhaleHelper) d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e (Ants2Whale) [Redacted] (Ants2Whale.dmg) Domains (2) ants2whale.com qnalytica.com IPs (1) 45.147.231.77 Findings [Redacted] Tags downloaderloader Details Name Ants2Whale.dmg Size [Redacted] bytes Type zlib compressed data MD5 [Redacted] SHA1 [Redacted] SHA256 [Redacted] SHA512 [Redacted] ssdeep [Redacted] Entropy [Redacted] Antivirus Avira OSX/Agent.denpi Ikarus OSX.Agent https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 2 of 8 Zillya! Downloader.Agent.OSX.390 YARA Rules No matches found. ssdeep Matches No matches found. Relationships [Redacted] Downloaded_By ants2whale.com [Redacted] Contains d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e [Redacted] Contains bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 Description This OSX program from the Ants2Whale site is an Apple DMG installer. The OSX program does not have a digital signature and will warn the user of that before installation. As all previous versions of AppleJeus, the Ants2Whale installer appears to be legitimate and installs “Ants2Whale”(D5AC680E14B013E0624470DA7F46E84809D00B59A7544F6A42B110CF0E29254E) in the “/Applications/Ants2whale.app/Contents/MacOS/Ants2whale” folder and a program named Ants2WhaleHelper (BB430087484C1F4587C54EFC75681EB60CF70956EF2A999A75CE7B563B8BD694) also in the “/Library/Application\ Support/Ants2WhaleSupport/” folder. Similar to all previous OSX AppleJeus variants, there is a postinstall script and a plist file which creates a LaunchDaemon to automatically run the Ants2WhaleHelper program. ants2whale.com Relationships ants2whale.com Downloaded [Redacted] Description The website appears to show a legitimate cryptocurrency company and application, though it does contain multiple spelling and grammar mistakes indicating the creator may not have English as a first language. The website states that in order to download, a user must contact the administrator as their product is “premium package." The domain ants2whale.com had a legitimately signed Sectigo Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, which was “Domain Control Validated” just as all previous AppleJeus domain certificates. The certificate was is valid from 09/21/2020 – 09/21/2021. The domain is registered with NameCheap at the IP address 198.54.114.237 with ASN 22612. This IP is on the same ASN as the CoinGoTrade (AppleJeus variant 5 and Dorusio IP addresses (AppleJeus variant 6). Screenshots Figure 1 - Screenshot the ants2whale.com site. Figure 2 - Screenshot of how to download Ants2Whale. d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e Tags trojan Details https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 3 of 8 Name Ants2Whale Size 77856 bytes Type Mach-O 64-bit x86_64 executable, flags: MD5 022298cf16c0c44d7b01b5de2cf84023 SHA1 939ec41183bbe1f4fb65c924323543ee91a35dbf SHA256 d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e SHA512 bda62d09606bbf5a0ee17dac06f1f3cfc77919f98e5fc14bd50b4f41f794df521aeced7b0f2a769a89498b7a6cd69be37689dab1652c3c16e7 ssdeep 768:jPoXPdCyI4jB5nvjILkTSF3TSFi5UeSj0OfpZDkm+UjnAT9vSs:cXPdLI6XbIOem0EpZDX+Ujnc9v3 Entropy 4.361681 Antivirus No matches found. YARA Rules No matches found. ssdeep Matches No matches found. Relationships d5ac680e14... Contained_Within [Redacted] d5ac680e14... Connected_To 45.147.231.77 Description This OSX sample was contained within Apple DMG installer "Ants2Whale.dmg." Ants2Whale is likely a copy of an open source cryptocurrency wallet application. When ran it loads a legitimate looking program which is fully functional and is very similar to the AppleJeus variant 5 "CoinGoTrade" application. Similar to CoinGoTrade there are references to “CryptoMex” in the Ants2Whale application. Similarly to the CoinGoTrade application, the strings from Ants2Whale reveal the C2 hxxp[:]//45.147.231.77:3000. Investigation revealed the IP address 45.147.231.77 was hosted at Combahton GMH. Screenshots Figure 3 - Screenshot of the "Ants2Whale" application. 45.147.231.77 Tags command-and-control Ports 3000 TCP Whois Queried whois.ripe.net with "-B 45.147.231.77"... % Information related to '45.147.228.0 - 45.147.231.255' % Abuse contact for '45.147.228.0 - 45.147.231.255' is 'abuse@combahton.net' https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 4 of 8 inetnum:        45.147.228.0 - 45.147.231.255 netname:        DE-COMBAHTON4-20190902 country:        DE org:            ORG-CG252-RIPE admin-c:        JH29913-RIPE tech-c:         JH29913-RIPE status:         ALLOCATED PA mnt-by:         mnt-de-combahton4-1 mnt-by:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT mnt-lower:     mnt-de-combahton4-1 mnt-routes:     mnt-de-combahton4-1 created:        2019-09-02T09:46:42Z last-modified: 2019-09-02T09:46:42Z source:         RIPE organisation: ORG-CG252-RIPE org-name:     combahton GmbH country:        DE org-type:     LIR address:        Mitterfeld 47 address:        85419 address:        Mauern address:        GERMANY e-mail:         decombahton4@combahton.net admin-c:        JH29913-RIPE tech-c:         JH29913-RIPE abuse-c:        AR55171-RIPE mnt-ref:        mnt-de-combahton4-1 mnt-by:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT mnt-by:         mnt-de-combahton4-1 created:        2019-08-30T08:08:51Z last-modified: 2020-12-16T13:30:44Z source:         RIPE phone:         +4987642589890 person:         Joseph Hofmann address:        Mitterfeld 47 address:        85419 address:        Mauern address:        GERMANY phone:         +4987642589890 nic-hdl:        JH29913-RIPE mnt-by:         mnt-de-combahton4-1 created:        2019-08-30T08:08:51Z last-modified: 2019-08-30T08:08:51Z source:         RIPE % Information related to '45.147.228.0/22AS30823' route:         45.147.228.0/22 origin:         AS30823 mnt-by:         mnt-de-combahton4-1 created:        2019-09-02T09:57:36Z last-modified: 2019-09-02T09:57:36Z source:         RIPE Relationships 45.147.231.77 Connected_From d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e Description https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 5 of 8 The C2 for Ants2Whale (D5AC680E14B013E0624470DA7F46E84809D00B59A7544F6A42B110CF0E29254E). bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 Tags downloaderloadertrojan Details Name Ants2WhaleHelper Size 69104 bytes Type Mach-O 64-bit x86_64 executable, flags: MD5 d4d1bcdfb67ee30303f30137db752b94 SHA1 34e134d614a0d5b0e4d94d63336aa8b898b0b104 SHA256 bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 SHA512 eb9b518f95658c605b1bb3a548d7bfe630f9bff93b1f84919476377f9aabcd187db28ead9bc504ffd5c982a3985d12708888505f3d70fa5ea ssdeep 1536:W1mJaIKMXBmyIZFED2enSoTVIV/3MpJy5T:XagpIsjnPTV03MpJy5T Entropy 4.831788 Antivirus Avira OSX/Dldr.NukeSped.efijh BitDefender Trojan.MAC.Generic.105439 ESET a variant of OSX/TrojanDownloader.NukeSped.B trojan Emsisoft Trojan.MAC.Generic.105439 (B) Ikarus Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Nukesped Lavasoft Trojan.MAC.Generic.105439 McAfee OSX/Nukesped.h Quick Heal MacOS.Trojan.40149.GC Symantec OSX.Trojan.Gen Zillya! Downloader.NukeSped.OSX.13 YARA Rules No matches found. ssdeep Matches No matches found. Relationships bb43008748... Contained_Within [Redacted] bb43008748... Connected_To qnalytica.com Description This OSX sample was contained within Apple DMG installer "Ants2Whale.dmg." Ants2WhaleHelper is similar to variants of AppleJeus. The Ants2WhaleHelper program contains the custom C++ "Barbeque" class for network communication as seen in the unioncryptoupater program. The C2 for this program is hxxps[:]//www[.]qnalytica.com/wp-rss.php. https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 6 of 8 qnalytica.com Tags command-and-control URLs qnalytica.com/wp-rss.php Whois Whois for qnalytica.com had the following information: Registrar: ENOM INC Creation Date: 2020-08-11 Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-08-11 Relationships qnalytica.com Connected_From bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 Description The domain qnalytica.com has a legitimately signed SSL certificate from cPanel. cPanel is a hosting platform and certificate authority which is a reseller for Sectigo. The domain is registered with NameCheap at the IP address 194.36.191.196 with ASN 60117. Relationship Summary [Redacted] Downloaded_By ants2whale.com [Redacted] Contains d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e [Redacted] Contains bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 ants2whale.com Downloaded [Redacted] d5ac680e14... Contained_Within [Redacted] d5ac680e14... Connected_To 45.147.231.77 45.147.231.77 Connected_From d5ac680e14b013e0624470da7f46e84809d00b59a7544f6a42b110cf0e29254e bb43008748... Contained_Within [Redacted] bb43008748... Connected_To qnalytica.com qnalytica.com Connected_From bb430087484c1f4587c54efc75681eb60cf70956ef2a999a75ce7b563b8bd694 Recommendations CISA recommends that users and administrators consider using the following best practices to strengthen the security posture of their organization's systems. Any configuration changes should be reviewed by system owners and administrators prior to implementation to avoid unwanted impacts. Maintain up-to-date antivirus signatures and engines. Keep operating system patches up-to-date. Disable File and Printer sharing services. If these services are required, use strong passwords or Active Directory authentication. Restrict users' ability (permissions) to install and run unwanted software applications. Do not add users to the local administrators group unless required. Enforce a strong password policy and implement regular password changes. Exercise caution when opening e-mail attachments even if the attachment is expected and the sender appears to be known. Enable a personal firewall on agency workstations, configured to deny unsolicited connection requests. Disable unnecessary services on agency workstations and servers. https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 7 of 8 Scan for and remove suspicious e-mail attachments; ensure the scanned attachment is its "true file type" (i.e., the extension matches the file header). Monitor users' web browsing habits; restrict access to sites with unfavorable content. Exercise caution when using removable media (e.g., USB thumb drives, external drives, CDs, etc.). Scan all software downloaded from the Internet prior to executing. Maintain situational awareness of the latest threats and implement appropriate Access Control Lists (ACLs). Additional information on malware incident prevention and handling can be found in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-83, "Guide to Malware Incident Prevention & Handling for Desktops and Laptops". Contact Information Document FAQ What is a MIFR? A Malware Initial Findings Report (MIFR) is intended to provide organizations with malware analysis in a timely manner. In most instances this report will provide initial indicators for computer and network defense. To request additional analysis, please contact CISA and provide information regarding the level of desired analysis. What is a MAR? A Malware Analysis Report (MAR) is intended to provide organizations with more detailed malware analysis acquired via manual reverse engineering. To request additional analysis, please contact CISA and provide information regarding the level of desired analysis. Can I edit this document? This document is not to be edited in any way by recipients. All comments or questions related to this document should be directed to the CISA at 1-844-Say-CISA or CISA Central . Can I submit malware to CISA? Malware samples can be submitted via three methods: Web: https://malware.us-cert.gov E-Mail: submit@malware.us-cert.gov FTP: ftp.malware.us-cert.gov (anonymous) CISA encourages you to report any suspicious activity, including cybersecurity incidents, possible malicious code, software vulnerabilities, and phishing-related scams. Reporting forms can be found on CISA's homepage at www.cisa.gov. Source: https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar21-048g Page 8 of 8