Blue Mockingbird
Blue Mockingbird is a threat actor associated in the provided content with cryptocurrency mining activity, specifically deployment of XMRIG packaged as a DLL. The content describes the actor using multiple persistence mechanisms, including Windows Scheduled Tasks, modification of existing services, creation of new services, and abuse of .NET COR_PROFILER via machine-scope environment variables to force .NET processes to load a malicious profiler DLL. Red Canary reported observing this COR_PROFILER abuse in multiple incident response engagements and noted Blue Mockingbird used wmic.exe to set COR_ENABLE_PROFILING, COR_PROFILER, and COR_PROFILER_PATH for persistence. The actor is described as making XMRIG persistent as a Windows service and using additional persistence through registry modifications that specify a DLL payload. Blue Mockingbird also used batch scripts to automate payload deployment and execution, PowerShell reverse TCP shells for interactive command execution, and Remote Desktop to log on to servers interactively and manually copy files to remote hosts. The content states the actor obtained and used Mimikatz, collected victim hardware details including CPU and memory information, obfuscated the wallet address in the payload binary, and masqueraded its XMRIG payload as wercplsupporte.dll to resemble the legitimate wercplsupport.dll file. The provided content does not attribute Blue Mockingbird to a specific nation state. No additional aliases or sub-groups beyond "blue_mockingbird" are directly supported in the content.
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Tradecraft
42 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
Associated malware families
11 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
6 additional families tracked in Mallory.
Associated vulnerabilities
10 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 10 of them exploited in the wild.
Blue Mockingbird has gained initial access by exploiting CVE-2019-18935, a vulnerability within Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX.
This detection identifies instances where Windows Explorer.exe spawns PowerShell or cmd.exe processes, particularly focusing on executions initiated by LNK files. This behavior is associated with the ZDI-CAN-25373 Windows shortcut zero-day vulnerability, where specially crafted LNK files are used to trigger malicious code execution through cmd.exe or powershell.exe. This technique has been actively exploited by multiple APT groups in targeted attacks through both HTTP and SMB delivery methods.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
5 more CVEs tied to this actor tracked in Mallory.
Observables
6 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
Recent activity
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Listed as an associated threat actor in the detection annotation for exploitation of the public-facing PTC Windchill vulnerability CVE-2026-4681.
Listed as an associated threat actor for exploitation activity related to abuse of the Windows Cloud Files API / cldapi.dll detection.
Listed as a threat actor associated with PowerShell execution behavior relevant to this detection.
Listed as a threat actor associated with exploitation for privilege escalation and Windows service persistence/installation in the detection annotations.
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Match sector + geo + tech-stack targeting against your real footprint.
Every observed MITRE ATT&CK technique, grouped by tactic.
Families this actor is known to deploy, with IOCs and behavior.
CVEs this actor has used in known campaigns.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Domains, IPs, and hashes tied to this actor, refreshed continuously.