The Coordinated Embassy Hunt: Unmasking the DPRK-linked GitHub C2 Espionage Campaign

2025-08-18 Trellix

https://www.trellix.com/blogs/research/dprk-linked-github-c2-espionage-campaign/

Trellix attributes an active early-2025 espionage campaign against embassies and foreign ministries in Seoul to DPRK-linked actors, with infrastructure overlaps to known Kimsuky operations. The attackers sent at least 19 spear-phishing emails impersonating diplomats and officials, using password-protected ZIP files that contained disguised PDF/LNK shortcuts. Execution launched obfuscated PowerShell, performed host reconnaissance, abused GitHub APIs for exfiltration and C2 coordination, and retrieved payloads from cloud storage such as Dropbox and Daum. The final payload was a Confuser-obfuscated XenoRAT variant associated with MoonPeak patterns, giving operators remote access, keylogging, screenshots, file transfer, and shell capability. The campaign matters because it shows diplomatic espionage blending trusted cloud and developer platforms with rapidly rotated payload infrastructure to evade network defenses.

Indicators of Compromise

Type Value First Seen Last Seen
IPv4 158.247.230.196 2025-06-19 2026-04-17
HASH 9f5460850a3b5b53568cd450e834069… 2025-08-18 2025-08-29
HASH 488570af25f908e907c9732aae632b0f 2025-08-18 2025-08-29
HASH bca4cac80c436e813d93eba1b25257d0 2025-08-18 2025-08-29
HASH 9c5964753f8092a98f414a97cfb02cb… 2025-08-18 2025-08-29
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-29
HASH dfacbcf7ef2a3080f9cd785329e7896b 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 6dea2bf9512f618e3316f58d4f830e2… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH c72f52813110685fe16af777f4ea5da… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 48fe8b7c8ceb1575dcdb6cf9f717d32… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 1e10203174fb1fcfb47bb00cac2fe6f… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 7ac1cb59cf1d5167b4f545c5a49f1c3… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH cf2cba1859b2df4e927b8d52c630ce7… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 25595588106848b2054497ceba1a2d66 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 5b5d21904d4874da9a31d456c5bcef8f 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 60895bbfd40b902513afda50b28e80da 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 45bd30d3a52904a7fe64fd97c31e3a1c 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 0e0f720193204cbd1a2c847d76f9e82f 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 8b605de9d28c8c6477a996d4e5873e4e 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 8a94fe218e7970839b83b53a824ebc47 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 5f704db7552a0b6b535b9c7c5f240664 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 4bfd068156adbcaa9c9701abbd72d21… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 90f53ae46c789884cfddc0d1d8f1ee7… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH f372b16ec015767320a8334b7340594… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 892734d408626a9bb557346c5f80343… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH da19f3c42361ac84642e936e61c149a1 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 18ab9a5bd68314b8a91070f18ca9c2c… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH ff37eb655a96b71e7dc08b4d91e1daea 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 752b8fc6f69c8153d6945ff608ae6b4e 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 4a3e9f6b214effe5028a0bf36776190… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH 02430604d146e8e33554061344ca806e 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
HASH f462439a4590e9ee053573639a82e36… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
EMAIL [email protected] 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
URL https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
URL https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/k… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
URL https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
URL https://bp.nidnaver.cloud/forbh… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
URL https://dl.dropboxusercontent.c… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
URL https://bp.nidnaver.cloud/info.… 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
DOMAIN bp.nidnaver.cloud 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
DOMAIN isc-parliment.org 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
IPv4 165.154.52.140 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
IPv4 165.154.52.210 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
IPv4 141.164.40.239 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
IPv4 141.164.49.250 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
IPv4 158.247.249.243 2025-08-18 2025-08-18
IPv4 141.164.41.17 2025-06-19 2025-08-18

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Shares tags: Kimsuky, T1102.002, T1567.002
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