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.Also tracked as
Labyrinth Chollima, HIDDEN COBRA, Guardians of Peace, ZINC, NICKEL ACADEMY, Diamond Sleet, TEMP.Hermit
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
- ESET Research ESET
- Media Alert - Secureworks Discovers North Korean Cyber Threat Group, Lazarus, Spearphishing Financial Executives of Cryptocurrency Companies Secureworks
- How Microsoft names threat actors Microsoft
- Operation Blockbuster: Unraveling the Long Thread of the Sony Attack Novetta
- 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
- CrowdStrike Adversary Labyrinth Chollima Crowdstrike
- MAR-10135536-8 – North Korean Trojan: HOPLIGHT US-CERT
- 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
- Alert (TA17-164A) HIDDEN COBRA – North Korea’s DDoS Botnet Infrastructure 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