Disclosing new PebbleDash-based tools by Kimsuky

2026-05-14 Kaspersky

https://securelist.com/kimsuky-appleseed-pebbledash-campaigns/119785/

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Kimsuky has expanded its PebbleDash and AppleSeed-related operations with newly documented tooling, including the Rust-based HelloDoor backdoor, httpMalice, MemLoad/httpTroy, AppleSeed, HappyDoor, VSCode Remote Tunneling, and DWAgent. The campaigns use spear-phishing attachments and varied droppers to compromise mainly South Korean public and private entities, with PebbleDash-linked activity also observed against defense organizations in Brazil and Germany. Kaspersky found overlapping distribution methods, target sectors, certificates, mutex patterns, and infrastructure between the PebbleDash and AppleSeed clusters, supporting medium-high confidence attribution to Kimsuky-affiliated clusters. The report highlights Kimsuky's use of legitimate remote access and tunneling services, Korean-language host profiling behavior, possible LLM-assisted Rust malware development, and C2 infrastructure hosted through free Korean domains, compromised websites, Cloudflare tunnels, and Dropbox.

Indicators of Compromise

Type Value First Seen Last Seen
DOMAIN load.erasecloud.n-e.kr 2026-05-27 2026-05-27
URL https://www.pyrotech.co.kr/comm… 2026-05-15 2026-05-15
DOMAIN www.pyrotech.co.kr 2026-05-15 2026-05-15
DOMAIN www.yespp.co.kr 2026-01-21 2026-05-15
URL https://www.yespp.co.kr/common/… 2026-01-21 2026-05-15
DOMAIN node484265.dwservice.net 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN node828765.dwservice.net 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN node896147.dwservice.net 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
URL http://newjo-imd.com/common/inc… 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
URL https://file.bigcloud.n-e.kr/in… 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
URL http://female-disorder-beta-met… 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN female-disorder-beta-metropolit… 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN file.bigcloud.n-e.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN erp.spaceme.p-e.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN cms.spaceyou.o-r.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN load.supershop.o-r.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN attach.docucloud.o-r.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN load.yju.o-r.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN load.ssangyongcne.o-r.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN morames.r-e.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN opedromos1.r-e.kr 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 678fb1a87af525c33ba2492552d5c0e2 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 9ca5f93a732f404bbb2cee848f5bbda0 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH c42ae004badddd3017adadbdd1421e00 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 94faed9af49c98a89c8acc55e97276c9 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 08160acf08fccecde7b34090db18b321 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 7e0825019d0de0c1c4a1673f94043ddb 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH f73ba062116ea9f37d072aa41c7f5108 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 58ac2f65e335922be3f60e57099dc8a3 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 5c373c2116ab4a615e622f577e22e9be 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH f4465403f9693939fe9c439f0ab33610 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH a7f0a18ac87e982d6f32f7a715e12532 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 8983ffa6da23e0b99ccc58c17b9788c7 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH c19aeaedbbfc4e029f7e9bdface495b9 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 65fc9f06de5603e2c1af9b4f288bb22c 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 8e15c4d4f71bdd9dbc48cd2cabc87806 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 9fe43e08c8f446554340f972dac8a68c 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 52f1ff082e981cbdfd1f045c6021c63f 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
HASH 995a0a49ae4b244928b3f67e2bfd7a6e 2026-05-14 2026-05-14
DOMAIN newjo-imd.com 2026-03-19 2026-05-14
DOMAIN load.auraria.org 2025-10-30 2025-10-30
HASH d1ec20144c83bba921243e72c517da5e 2025-07-08 2025-07-08

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Shares tags: Kimsuky, Phishing, T1041 • Published within a month
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