Home/ Threat Actors/ APT28

🇷🇺APT28

🇷🇺 APT28 is a tracked threat actor in the Clankerusecase corpus. Attributed to RU. Primary motivation: State. We map 26 detection use cases to this actor across 137 MITRE ATT&CK techniques, with 5 threat-intel articles citing them. Active in our corpus from 2026-03-10 to 2026-05-28.

crit 5

View full actor card → All threat actors MITRE ATT&CK group spec (G0007) ↗

26Use cases

5Articles

137Techniques

1IOCs

Known aliases

APT28Fancy BearSofacySednitSTRONTIUMForest BlizzardPawn StormTsar TeamGRU Unit 26165IRON TWILIGHTSNAKEMACKERELSwallowtailGroup 74Threat Group-4127TG-4127FROZENLAKEGruesomeLarch

Top techniques

T1190 · Exploit Public-Facing Application T1204.002 · Malicious File T1566 · Phishing

All other tracked techniques

T1001 · Data Obfuscation T1001.001 · Junk Data T1003 · OS Credential Dumping T1003.001 · LSASS Memory T1003.003 · NTDS T1005 · Data from Local System T1014 · Rootkit T1021.002 · SMB/Windows Admin Shares T1025 · Data from Removable Media T1027 · Obfuscated Files or Information T1027.002 · Software Packing T1027.005 · Indicator Removal from Tools T1027.009 · Embedded Payloads T1027.013 · Encrypted/Encoded File T1030 · Data Transfer Size Limits T1036 · Masquerading T1036.005 · Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location T1037.001 · Logon Script (Windows)T1039 · Data from Network Shared Drive T1040 · Network Sniffing T1048.002 · Exfiltration Over Asymmetric Encrypted Non-C2 Protocol T1055 · Process Injection T1055.012 · Process Hollowing T1056.001 · Keylogging T1057 · Process Discovery T1059.001 · PowerShell T1059.003 · Windows Command Shell T1059.005 · Visual Basic T1059.007 · JavaScript T1068 · Exploitation for Privilege Escalation T1070.004 · File Deletion T1070.006 · Timestomp T1071 · Application Layer Protocol T1071.001 · Web Protocols T1071.003 · Mail Protocols T1071.004 · DNS T1074.001 · Local Data Staging T1074.002 · Remote Data Staging T1078 · Valid Accounts T1078.004 · Cloud Accounts T1082 · System Information Discovery T1083 · File and Directory Discovery T1090.002 · External Proxy T1090.003 · Multi-hop Proxy T1091 · Replication Through Removable Media T1092 · Communication Through Removable Media T1095 · Non-Application Layer Protocol T1098.002 · Additional Email Delegate Permissions T1102 · Web Service T1102.002 · Bidirectional Communication T1105 · Ingress Tool Transfer T1110 · Brute Force T1110.001 · Password Guessing T1110.003 · Password Spraying T1113 · Screen Capture T1114.002 · Remote Email Collection T1115 · Clipboard Data T1119 · Automated Collection T1120 · Peripheral Device Discovery T1129 · Shared Modules T1133 · External Remote Services T1134.001 · Token Impersonation/Theft T1137.002 · Office Test T1140 · Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information T1189 · Drive-by Compromise T1195.002 · Compromise Software Supply Chain T1199 · Trusted Relationship T1203 · Exploitation for Client Execution T1204.001 · Malicious Link T1204.004 · Malicious Copy and Paste T1210 · Exploitation of Remote Services T1211 · Exploitation for Stealth T1213 · Data from Information Repositories T1213.002 · Sharepoint T1218 · System Binary Proxy Execution T1218.011 · Rundll32 T1221 · Template Injection T1417.002 · T1417.002 T1437.001 · T1437.001 T1456 · T1456 T1480 · Execution Guardrails T1486 · Data Encrypted for Impact T1489 · Service Stop T1490 · Inhibit System Recovery T1498 · Network Denial of Service T1505.003 · Web Shell T1528 · Steal Application Access Token T1542.003 · Bootkit T1543.003 · Windows Service T1546.015 · Component Object Model Hijacking T1546.016 · Installer Packages T1547.001 · Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder T1550.001 · Application Access Token T1550.002 · Pass the Hash T1555.003 · Credentials from Web Browsers T1557.004 · Evil Twin T1559.002 · Dynamic Data Exchange T1560 · Archive Collected Data T1560.001 · Archive via Utility T1562.001 · T1562.001 T1562.004 · T1562.004 T1562.006 · T1562.006 T1562.009 · T1562.009 T1564 · Hide Artifacts T1564.001 · Hidden Files and Directories T1564.003 · Hidden Window T1566.001 · Spearphishing Attachment T1566.002 · Spearphishing Link T1567 · Exfiltration Over Web Service T1567.002 · Exfiltration to Cloud Storage T1568.002 · Domain Generation Algorithms T1569.002 · Service Execution T1573.001 · Symmetric Cryptography T1573.002 · Asymmetric Cryptography T1574.002 · T1574.002 T1583.001 · Domains T1583.003 · Virtual Private Server T1583.006 · Web Services T1584.008 · Network Devices T1586.002 · Email Accounts T1587.001 · Malware T1588.002 · Tool T1588.007 · Artificial Intelligence T1589.001 · Credentials T1591 · Gather Victim Org Information T1595.002 · Vulnerability Scanning T1596 · Search Open Technical Databases T1598 · Phishing for Information T1598.003 · Spearphishing Link T1646 · T1646 T1660 · T1660 T1669 · Wi-Fi Networks T1684.001 · Impersonation T1685.005 · Clear Windows Event Logs

Detection use cases (26)

APT28 (Fancy Bear/STRONTIUM) distributed password-spray against M365/Exchange from anonymized infrastructure AI · profile SDD APT28 Forest Blizzard GooseEgg print-spooler privilege escalation (CVE-2022-38028) AI · profile SΣDD Trojanized axios npm package postinstall: node.exe spawned from plain-crypto-js dependency Bespoke axios RAT Windows persistence: %PROGRAMDATA%\wt.exe drop + %TEMP%\6202033.vbs/.ps1 staging Bespoke axios RAT C2 callout to sfrclak.com / 142.11.206.73:8000 Bespoke Phishing-link click correlated to endpoint execution Internal Email attachment opened from external sender Internal Office app spawning script/LOLBin child process Internal Ransomware-style mass file rename / extension change Internal LSASS process access / dump (credential theft) Internal Remote service execution — PsExec / SMB lateral movement Internal Trusted vendor binary / installer launching unusual children Internal Non-browser process posting to Slack Web API (LaxGopher C2) Bespoke Non-browser process posting to Discord API (RatGopher C2) Bespoke 1Password activity from Tor exit node MITRE match 1Password failed sign-in burst MITRE match 1Password impossible-travel sign-in MITRE match AI-Agent Server (PraisonAI/MCP) Spawns OS Shell or Recon LOLBin — Unauthenticated RCE Exploitation MITRE match AI/LLM Agent Framework Runtime Spawning Shell, Recon, or Egress Child Process MITRE match AI/LLM Framework Web Service Spawns Shell or Network Tool (Agent-Framework Unauthenticated RCE) MITRE match Auth-Bypass on Public-Facing Service → Post-Exploit Action on Same Host (≤10 min) MITRE match Brand-Impersonation Domain Fetch Followed by User-Context Loader Within 10 Minutes MITRE match Cross-Platform ClickFix Paste-to-Pipe Loader (UI-Parent Shell with Decode-and-Execute Payload) MITRE match Developer interpreter / package-manager process exfiltrating tokens to public code-hosting / worker domains MITRE match Developer package install spawning script-host with non-registry C2 within 5 minutes MITRE match Developer/Data-tooling Daemon Spawns Shell Child Seconds After POST to Runner/Exec Endpoint MITRE match

Threat-intel articles (5)

crit ESET APT Activity Report Q4 2025–Q1 2026 · 2026-05-28

crit GopherWhisper: A burrow full of malware · 2026-04-23

crit New NGate variant hides in a trojanized NFC payment app · 2026-04-21

crit EDR killers explained: Beyond the drivers · 2026-03-19

crit Sednit reloaded: Back in the trenches · 2026-03-10

Tracked indicators

IP addresses (1)

43.231.113.50