COATHANGER — Malware Profile
COATHANGER is a remote access tool (RAT) targeting FortiGate networking appliances. First used in 2023 in targeted intrusions against military and government entities in the Netherlands along with other victims, COATHANGER was disclosed in early 2024, with a high confidence assessment linking this malware to a state-sponsored entity in the People's Republic of China. COATHANGER is delivered after gaining access to a FortiGate device, with in-the-wild observations linked to exploitation of CVE-2022-42475. The name COATHANGER is based on a unique string in the malware used to encrypt configuration files on disk: “She took his coat and hung it up”.
MITRE ATT&CK techniques (18)
- T1014 Rootkit
- T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information
- T1027.002 Software Packing
- T1055 Process Injection
- T1057 Process Discovery
- T1059.004 Unix Shell
- T1070.004 File Deletion
- T1071.001 Web Protocols
- T1083 File and Directory Discovery
- T1095 Non-Application Layer Protocol
- T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information
- T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
- T1222.002 Linux and Mac Permissions
- T1543.004 Launch Daemon
- T1564.001 Hidden Files and Directories
- T1573.002 Asymmetric Cryptography
- T1574 Hijack Execution Flow
- T1574.006 Dynamic Linker Hijacking