Ember Bear — APT Profile
Ember Bear is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group that has been active since at least 2020, linked to Russia's General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 161st Specialist Training Center (Unit 29155). Ember Bear has primarily focused operations against Ukrainian government and telecommunication entities, but has also operated against critical infrastructure entities in Europe and the Americas. Ember Bear conducted the WhisperGate destructive wiper attacks against Ukraine in early 2022. There is some confusion as to whether Ember Bear overlaps with another Russian-linked entity referred to as Saint Bear. At present available evidence strongly suggests these are distinct activities with different behavioral profiles.Also tracked as
UNC2589, Bleeding Bear, DEV-0586, Cadet Blizzard, Frozenvista
Tools & malware
- BloodHound Network Reconnaissance
- CrackMapExec Network Toolkit
- Impacket Network Toolkit
- ngrok Tunneling Tool
- P.A.S. Webshell Web Shell
- PsExec Remote Execution
- Rclone Exfiltration Tool
- reGeorg Tunneling Tool
- Responder Network Toolkit
- Saint Bot Downloader
- WhisperGate Wiper
Vendor research
- Who is EMBER BEAR? Crowdstrike
- Cadet Blizzard emerges as a novel and distinct Russian threat actor Cadet Blizzard
- Responses to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Likely to Spur Retaliation Mandiant
- Spear Phishing Attacks Target Organizations in Ukraine, Payloads Include the Document Stealer OutSteel and the Downloader SaintBot Palo Alto
- Russian Military Cyber Actors Target U.S. and Global Critical Infrastructure CISA