ShadowPad — Malware Profile
ShadowPad is a modular backdoor that was first identified in a supply chain compromise of the NetSarang software in mid-July 2017. The malware was originally thought to be exclusively used by APT41, but has since been observed to be used by various Chinese threat activity groups.
MITRE ATT&CK techniques (21)
- T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery
- T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information
- T1027.011 Fileless Storage
- T1029 Scheduled Transfer
- T1033 System Owner/User Discovery
- T1055 Process Injection
- T1055.001 Dynamic-link Library Injection
- T1057 Process Discovery
- T1070 Indicator Removal
- T1071.001 Web Protocols
- T1071.002 File Transfer Protocols
- T1071.004 DNS
- T1082 System Information Discovery
- T1095 Non-Application Layer Protocol
- T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer
- T1112 Modify Registry
- T1124 System Time Discovery
- T1132.002 Non-Standard Encoding
- T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information
- T1568.002 Domain Generation Algorithms
- T1680 Local Storage Discovery
IntelFusions coverage
- DOJ Charges Two APT27 Hackers as Unit 42 Confirms Group Still Active Across 45 Countries in 2025 2026-02-16
- Stately Taurus (Mustang Panda) Conducts Two-Year Southeast Asian Government Espionage Operation: Three-DLL ToneShell Variant, ShadowPad, and Continuous File Exfiltration via Dropbox 2026-02-16
- Winnti Group Targets Hong Kong Universities with ShadowPad: HP Digital Imaging DLL Sideloading, Parent Process Patching, and 17-Module Backdoor with University Campaign IDs 2026-02-16
Attributed threat actors
- Mustang Panda
- RedEcho
- Tropic Trooper
- Tonto Team
- Earth Lusca
- BRONZE BUTLER
- APT41
- Aquatic Panda
- Space Pirates machine-inferred link
- I-Soon machine-inferred link
- Teleboyi machine-inferred link
- APT17 machine-inferred link
- Winnti Group machine-inferred link
- Earth Krahang machine-inferred link
- APT23 machine-inferred link