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Blue Mockingbird is a financially motivated threat actor that compromises Windows servers to deploy XMRig for unauthorized Monero cryptocurrency mining. Its activity was publicly identified in May 2020. The group targets internet-facing applications using Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX and exploits the deserialization vulnerability CVE-2019-18935 to execute malicious DLL payloads on Microsoft IIS servers. Its geographic origin and specific victim countries and industries are not established. Blue Mockingbird uses Mimikatz to extract credentials from LSASS memory and Juicy Potato for privilege escalation. It conducts interactive operations through PowerShell reverse TCP shells and Remote Desktop, including manually transferring payloads to remote hosts. Batch scripts automate payload execution and deployment. The group establishes persistence through Windows services, scheduled tasks on local and remote systems, and COM hijacking associated with .NET runtime profiling. It also modifies the Windows Registry to specify DLL payloads and uses remote scheduled tasks for lateral movement. Its mining payloads obscure their embedded cryptocurrency wallet address.
Mallory correlates actor tradecraft and target patterns against your stack, your sector, and your geography. See overlap before they land.
Who, where, and (when attributed) which flag flies behind the operation. Pulled from open-source reporting and Mallory's analyst review.
Sectors the actor has been observed targeting.
37 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
13 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
8 additional families tracked in Mallory.
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.
6 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Previously exploited vulnerable Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX servers to execute malicious DLLs and distribute Monero cryptocurrency-mining malware.
Referenced only as an annotated actor associated with the detection technique.
Listed in the detection's Annotations section.
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.