{
	"id": "3f8e1da4-448d-4851-a7fc-bfd783f12492",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:17:22.078486Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:36:33.782407Z",
	"deleted_at": null,
	"sha1_hash": "9cd1ca5133ac7d86efbbf3b0700028b9b3524374",
	"title": "The Spring Dragon APT",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "The Spring Dragon APT\r\nBy Kurt Baumgartner\r\nPublished: 2015-06-17 · Archived: 2026-04-02 12:24:05 UTC\r\nAPT reports\r\nAPT reports\r\n17 Jun 2015\r\n 2 minute read\r\nhttps://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/\r\nPage 1 of 5\n\nMore Intrusion Techniques Rolled In\r\nLet’s examine a couple of interesting delivery techniques from an APT active for the past several years, the Spring\r\nDragon APT. A paper released today by our colleagues at Palo Alto Networks presented a portion of data on this\r\ncrew under the label “the Lotus Blossom Operation“, likely named for the debug string present in much of the\r\n“Elise” codebase since at least 2012: “d:\\lstudio\\projects\\lotus\\…”.\r\nThe group’s capabilities are more than the much discussed CVE-2012-0158 exploits over the past few years.\r\nInstead, the group is known to have employed half day spearphish exploits, strategic web compromises, and\r\nwatering holes employing fake Flash player update re-directions. The group’s spearphish toolset includes PDF\r\nexploits, Adobe Flash Player exploits, and the common CVE-2012-0158 Word exploits including those generated\r\nfrom the infamous “Tran Duy Linh” kit. While ongoing attacks by the Spring Dragon APT take us back to a focus\r\non Vietnam, they appear to have rolled out a steady mix of exploits against defense subcontractors around the\r\nworld and government related organizations in VN, TW, PH, and other locations over the past few years. Let’s\r\ntake a quick look at a couple more examples of their intrusion capabilities that haven’t been mentioned elsewhere.\r\nhttps://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/\r\nPage 2 of 5\n\nOrganizations located in Myanmar and targeted by Spring Dragon have gone unmentioned. But Spring Dragon’s\r\ninfiltration techniques there were not simply 0158 spearphish, they also compromised sites. In one case, they\r\nreplaced specialized font installers needed to render Myanma font. You can see an image here of the\r\n“Planet Myanmar” website in late 2012 distributing such a package. All of the zip links were redirected to a\r\npoisoned installer zip file. The download name was “Zawgyi_Keyboard_L.zip”, and it dropped a “setup.exe” that\r\ncontained several backdoor components, including an Elise “wincex.dll” (a42c966e26f3577534d03248551232f3,\r\ndetected as Backdoor.Win32.Agent.delp). It beacons out with the typical Elise GET request “GET\r\n/%x/page_%02d%02d%02d%02d.html”, as documented in the Lotus Blossom paper.\r\nAnother APT later abused this exact site to deliver malicious VBS (CVE-2014-6332) exploits in November of\r\n2014 with a Lurid variant payload. And that same group also served a malicious PDF exploit (CVE-2010-2883)\r\nfrom this site in June 2012 as “Zawgyi Unicode Keyboard.pdf”. Even earlier than that, they spearphished with that\r\nsame PDF exploit object later hosted on the website under different file names. In November 2011, they used\r\nfilenames appropriate for their spearphishing targets with this exploit like “台灣安保協會「亞太區域安全與台\r\n海和平」國際研討會邀 請 函_20110907.pdf” (“Taiwan Security Association International Seminar Invitation –\r\nthe Asia-Pacific regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait”), “china-central_asia.pdf”, “hydroelectric\r\nsector.pdf”, and various governmental related proposals. In this case, there was unexpected overlap from two APT.\r\nAnother interesting technique that we observed in use against government targets was a campaign that lured\r\nrecipients to a site redirecting users to a spoofed Flash installer site.\r\nhttps://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/\r\nPage 3 of 5\n\nThis site in turn redirected users to a Flash installer bundled with the common Elise backdoor, eventually\r\ncommunicating with 210.175.53.24 and its usual “GET /14111121/page_321111234.html HTTP/1.0”.\r\nhxxp://www.bkav2010.net/support/flashplayer/downloads.html → redirected to\r\nhxxp://96.47.234.246/support/flashplayer/install_flashplayer.exe (Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Agent.ilbq)\r\nWhile this particular actor effectively used their almost worn out CVE-2012-0158 exploits in the past, Spring\r\nDragon employs more involved and creative intrusive activity as well.\r\nhttps://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/\r\nPage 4 of 5\n\nLatest Posts\r\nLatest Webinars\r\nReports\r\nKaspersky researchers analyze updated CoolClient backdoor and new tools and scripts used in HoneyMyte (aka\r\nMustang Panda or Bronze President) APT campaigns, including three variants of a browser data stealer.\r\nKaspersky discloses a 2025 HoneyMyte (aka Mustang Panda or Bronze President) APT campaign, which uses a\r\nkernel-mode rootkit to deliver and protect a ToneShell backdoor.\r\nKaspersky GReAT experts analyze the Evasive Panda APT’s infection chain, including shellcode encrypted with\r\nDPAPI and RC5, as well as the MgBot implant.\r\nKaspersky expert describes new malicious tools employed by the Cloud Atlas APT, including implants of their\r\nsignature backdoors VBShower, VBCloud, PowerShower, and CloudAtlas.\r\nSource: https://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/\r\nhttps://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/\r\nPage 5 of 5",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"MISPGALAXY",
		"Malpedia"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://securelist.com/blog/research/70726/the-spring-dragon-apt/"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"the-spring-dragon-apt"
	],
	"threat_actors": [
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				"BRONZE HIGHLAND"
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				"China Chopper",
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				"PTSOCKET",
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				"Thrip"
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				"EVILNEST",
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				"Group Policy Results Tool",
				"Hannotog",
				"LOLBAS",
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				"Lurid",
				"Social Network Team",
				"Royal APT",
				"BRONZE DAVENPORT",
				"BRONZE IDLEWOOD",
				"VIXEN PANDA",
				"Ke3Chang",
				"Playful Dragon",
				"BRONZE PALACE",
				"G0004",
				"Red Vulture",
				"Nylon Typhoon"
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				"Digging Taurus",
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				"Storm Cloud",
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				"TAG-102",
				"TAG-112"
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				"Cobalt Strike",
				"CobaltStrike",
				"DazzleSpy",
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				"LOLBAS",
				"LOLBins",
				"Living off the Land",
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				"Macma",
				"MgBot",
				"Mgmbot",
				"NetMM",
				"Nightdoor",
				"OSX.CDDS",
				"POCOSTICK",
				"RELOADEXT",
				"Suzafk",
				"cobeacon"
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			"main_name": "Mustang Panda",
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				"Mustang Panda",
				"TA416",
				"RedDelta",
				"BRONZE PRESIDENT",
				"STATELY TAURUS",
				"FIREANT",
				"CAMARO DRAGON",
				"EARTH PRETA",
				"HIVE0154",
				"TWILL TYPHOON",
				"TANTALUM",
				"LUMINOUS MOTH",
				"UNC6384",
				"TEMP.Hex",
				"Red Lich"
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			"source_name": "MITRE:Mustang Panda",
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				"CANONSTAGER",
				"STATICPLUGIN",
				"ShadowPad",
				"TONESHELL",
				"Cobalt Strike",
				"HIUPAN",
				"Impacket",
				"SplatCloak",
				"PAKLOG",
				"Wevtutil",
				"AdFind",
				"CLAIMLOADER",
				"Mimikatz",
				"PUBLOAD",
				"StarProxy",
				"CorKLOG",
				"RCSession",
				"NBTscan",
				"PoisonIvy",
				"SplatDropper",
				"China Chopper",
				"PlugX"
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			"main_name": "BRONZE HIGHLAND",
			"aliases": [
				"Daggerfly",
				"Daggerfly ",
				"Evasive Panda ",
				"Evasive Panda ",
				"Storm Bamboo "
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			"source_name": "Secureworks:BRONZE HIGHLAND",
			"tools": [
				"Cobalt Strike",
				"KsRemote",
				"Macma",
				"MgBot",
				"Nightdoor",
				"PlugX"
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		{
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			"created_at": "2022-10-25T16:07:23.722884Z",
			"updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:04.72726Z",
			"deleted_at": null,
			"main_name": "Inception Framework",
			"aliases": [
				"ATK 116",
				"Blue Odin",
				"Clean Ursa",
				"Cloud Atlas",
				"G0100",
				"Inception Framework",
				"Operation Cloud Atlas",
				"Operation RedOctober",
				"The Rocra"
			],
			"source_name": "ETDA:Inception Framework",
			"tools": [
				"Lastacloud",
				"PowerShower",
				"VBShower"
			],
			"source_id": "ETDA",
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		},
		{
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			"updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:04.776949Z",
			"deleted_at": null,
			"main_name": "Mustang Panda",
			"aliases": [
				"Bronze President",
				"Camaro Dragon",
				"Earth Preta",
				"G0129",
				"Hive0154",
				"HoneyMyte",
				"Mustang Panda",
				"Operation SMUGX",
				"Operation SmugX",
				"PKPLUG",
				"Red Lich",
				"Stately Taurus",
				"TEMP.Hex",
				"Twill Typhoon"
			],
			"source_name": "ETDA:Mustang Panda",
			"tools": [
				"9002 RAT",
				"AdFind",
				"Agent.dhwf",
				"Agentemis",
				"CHINACHOPPER",
				"China Chopper",
				"Chymine",
				"ClaimLoader",
				"Cobalt Strike",
				"CobaltStrike",
				"DCSync",
				"DOPLUGS",
				"Darkmoon",
				"Destroy RAT",
				"DestroyRAT",
				"Farseer",
				"Gen:Trojan.Heur.PT",
				"HOMEUNIX",
				"Hdump",
				"HenBox",
				"HidraQ",
				"Hodur",
				"Homux",
				"HopperTick",
				"Hydraq",
				"Impacket",
				"Kaba",
				"Korplug",
				"LadonGo",
				"MQsTTang",
				"McRAT",
				"MdmBot",
				"Mimikatz",
				"NBTscan",
				"NetSess",
				"Netview",
				"Orat",
				"POISONPLUG.SHADOW",
				"PUBLOAD",
				"PVE Find AD Users",
				"PlugX",
				"Poison Ivy",
				"PowerView",
				"QMAGENT",
				"RCSession",
				"RedDelta",
				"Roarur",
				"SPIVY",
				"ShadowPad Winnti",
				"SinoChopper",
				"Sogu",
				"TIGERPLUG",
				"TONEINS",
				"TONESHELL",
				"TVT",
				"TeamViewer",
				"Thoper",
				"TinyNote",
				"WispRider",
				"WmiExec",
				"XShellGhost",
				"Xamtrav",
				"Zupdax",
				"cobeacon",
				"nbtscan",
				"nmap",
				"pivy",
				"poisonivy"
			],
			"source_id": "ETDA",
			"reports": null
		}
	],
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	"ts_updated_at": 1775792193,
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