Lazarus Group — APT Profile
Lazarus Group is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). Lazarus Group has been active since at least 2009 and is reportedly responsible for the November 2014 destructive wiper attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, identified by Novetta as part of Operation Blockbuster. Malware used by Lazarus Group correlates to other reported campaigns, including Operation Flame, Operation 1Mission, Operation Troy, DarkSeoul, and Ten Days of Rain. North Korea’s cyber operations have shown a consistent pattern of adaptation, forming and reorganizing units as national priorities shift. These units frequently share personnel, infrastructure, malware, and tradecraft, making it difficult to attribute specific operations with high confidence. Public reporting often uses “Lazarus Group” as an umbrella term for multiple North Korean cyber operators conducting espionage, destructive attacks, and financially motivated campaigns.Description reproduced from MITRE ATT&CK. © The MITRE Corporation, reproduced and distributed with permission.
Also tracked as
Labyrinth Chollima, HIDDEN COBRA, Guardians of Peace, ZINC, NICKEL ACADEMY, Diamond Sleet, TEMP.Hermit, HERMIT NEPTUNE
IntelFusions coverage (15)
- North Korea's hacking machine is bigger than Lazarus 2026-09-07 · Nation-State
- Spies and ransomware crews exploit the same edge devices 2026-08-26 · Vulnerabilities
- Fake quote emails drop a stealer that kills antivirus 2026-08-18 · Cyber Incidents
- Microsoft fixes 421 flaws as new Defender zero-day drops 2026-08-12 · Vulnerabilities
- Lazarus used a Windows zero-day to hit defense firms 2026-08-11 · Nation-State
- Korean firms hit by backdoor tied to North Korean hackers 2026-08-06 · Nation-State
- State-backed hackers hide attacks inside AI tools and trusted cloud apps 2026-07-14 · Nation-State
- ScoringMathTea: Inside Lazarus Group's Modular RAT with Reflective Plugin Loading and PEB-Walking API Evasion 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- Lazarus Group Targets Aerospace and Defense with New Comebacker Variant: ChaCha20 Encryption and AES-Encrypted C2 Mark Evolving Tradecraft 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- Operation DreamJob Targets European UAV and Defense Manufacturers: Lazarus Deploys ScoringMathTea via Trojanized Open-Source Tools 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- TraderTraitor (Lazarus/UNC4899): JumpCloud Supply Chain Compromise, Bybit $1.5B Safe{Wallet} AWS Session Token Theft, and DMM Bitcoin $308M RN Stealer Campaign 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- Lazarus Contagious Interview Deploys Tsunami Framework: Modular Malware Uses TOR and Pastebin for C2 in Cryptocurrency Theft Campaign 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- Lazarus Group's LinkedIn Recruiting Scam Deploys Cross-Platform Stealer Chain Leading to Tsunami Framework and Tor C2 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- Operation Dream Magic: Lazarus Group Exploits MagicLine Vulnerability in Watering Hole Campaign Targeting 40 South Korean Organizations 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
- Lazarus Group (APT38): North Korea's Most Prolific Cyber Threat Actor Targets Banks, Crypto, and Critical Infrastructure 2026-02-16 · Nation-State
Tools & malware
- AppleJeus Backdoor
- AuditCred Backdoor
- BADCALL Backdoor
- Bankshot Backdoor
- BLINDINGCAN Backdoor
- Cryptoistic Ransomware
- Dacls Remote Access Trojan
- Dtrack Backdoor
- ECCENTRICBANDWAGON Backdoor
- FALLCHILL Backdoor
- HARDRAIN Backdoor
- HOPLIGHT Backdoor
- HotCroissant Loader
- KEYMARBLE Backdoor
- MagicRAT Remote Access Trojan
- netsh LOLBin
- Proxysvc Backdoor
- RATANKBA Backdoor
- RawDisk Driver
- Responder Network Toolkit
- route Network Reconnaissance
- TAINTEDSCRIBE Backdoor
- ThreatNeedle Backdoor
- TYPEFRAME Backdoor
- Volgmer Backdoor
- WannaCry Backdoor
Recent claimed victims
- Bybit 2025-02-21
Vendor research
- Media Alert - Secureworks Discovers North Korean Cyber Threat Group, Lazarus, Spearphishing Financial Executives of Cryptocurrency Companies Secureworks
- its analysis Check Point Research
- ESET Research ESET
- How Microsoft names threat actors Microsoft
- Microsoft and Facebook disrupt ZINC malware attack to protect customers and the internet from ongoing cyberthreats Microsoft
- Treasury Sanctions North Korean State-Sponsored Malicious Cyber Groups Treasury
- Alert (TA17-164A) HIDDEN COBRA – North Korea’s DDoS Botnet Infrastructure US-CERT
- CrowdStrike Adversary Labyrinth Chollima Crowdstrike
- Tempted to Classifying APT Actors: Practical Challenges of Attribution in the Case of Lazarus’s Subgroup JPCert
- Media Alert - Secureworks Discovers North Korean Cyber Threat Group, Lazarus, Spearphishing Financial Executives of Cryptocurrency Companies Secureworks
- MAR-10135536-8 – North Korean Trojan: HOPLIGHT US-CERT
- Assessed Cyber Structure and Alignments of North Korea in 2023 Mandiant
- Not So Lazarus: Mapping DPRK Cyber Threat Groups to Government Organizations Mandiant
- Operation Blockbuster: Unraveling the Long Thread of the Sony Attack Novetta
Countries linked to this actor
- Spain targets
- North Korea origin
- South Korea targets
- Japan targets
- India targets
- United States targets
- Mexico targets
- Australia targets
- Canada targets
- Nepal targets
- Chile targets