Examining Code Reuse Reveals Undiscovered Links Among North Korea’s Malware Families
2018-08-06 • Intezer •
Intezer and McAfee link multiple malware families attributed to North Korean operations through reused code, shared infrastructure, and artifacts embedded in binaries. The research maps overlaps across campaigns and tools including Brambul, Fallchill, WannaCry, Joanap, DeltaAlfa, NavRAT, Gold Dragon, KorDllBot, Operation Troy, and DarkHotel-related samples. Examples include shared SMB-module code across WannaCry, Mydoom, Joanap, and DeltaAlfa; XOR file-mapping logic in NavRAT, Gold Dragon, and a South Korean gambling-campaign DLL; and command-launching code reused in Brambul/SierraBravo and KorDllBot. The findings matter because they help separate and relate DPRK-linked activity clusters, showing long-running code reuse while cautioning that Lazarus is a broad label covering multiple North Korean cyber operations.
Indicators of Compromise
| Type | Value | First Seen | Last Seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOMAIN | m.mtn.co.kr | 2018-08-06 | 2018-08-09 |