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HAFNIUM, also known as Silk Typhoon and Murky Panda, is a China-based, state-sponsored cyberespionage group associated with operations attributed to actors affiliated with China's Ministry of State Security. Its activities include compromising email systems and stealing sensitive information, including research from U.S. universities, immunologists, and virologists working on COVID-19 vaccines. HAFNIUM is particularly associated with the early-2021 exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server zero-day vulnerabilities known collectively as ProxyLogon: CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-26857, CVE-2021-26858, and CVE-2021-27065. These intrusions enabled mailbox access, data theft, and persistent remote access through web shells. The group has deployed SIMPLESEESHARP, SPORTSBALL, China Chopper, and ASPXSpy. Its post-exploitation techniques include dumping LSASS memory with ProcDump, stealing copies of the Active Directory database, creating privileged domain accounts, and compressing stolen files with 7-Zip and WinRAR before exfiltration. It has also used TCP for command-and-control communications. The group's exploitation activity extends beyond Exchange servers. HAFNIUM has exploited Log4Shell, CVE-2021-44228, against virtualization infrastructure and used DNS-based testing services to fingerprint systems. Activity tracked as Silk Typhoon has also exploited CVE-2024-3400 as a zero-day against Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect gateways to compromise multiple organizations.
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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.
Geographies tied to known operations.
Attributed origin per open-source reporting.
47 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
27 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
22 additional families tracked in Mallory.
15 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 15 of them exploited in the wild.
CVE-2021-26855 is a server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in Exchange which allowed the actor to send arbitrary HTTP requests and authenticate as the Exchange server.
CVE-2021-27065 is a post-authentication arbitrary file write vulnerability in Exchange. If an actor could authenticate with the Exchange server then they could use this vulnerability to write a file to any path on the server.
CVE-2021-26857 is an insecure deserialization vulnerability in the Unified Messaging service. ... Exploiting this vulnerability gave actors the ability to run code as SYSTEM on the Exchange server.
CVE-2021-26858 is a post-authentication arbitrary file write vulnerability in Exchange. If actors could authenticate with the Exchange server then they could use this vulnerability to write a file to any path on the server.
Silk Typhoon is believed to have exploited two zero-days (CVE-2024-12356 and CVE-2024-12686) to breach BeyondTrust's systems and use a stolen API key to compromise 17 Remote Support SaaS instances, including the Treasury's instance.
10 more CVEs tied to this actor tracked in Mallory.
120 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.
Chinese state-sponsored espionage group associated with the 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server breaches. The article identifies Zhang Yu as an alleged key figure and describes allegations that Zhang and Xu Zewei stole email data, including COVID-19 vaccine research, from US scientists and universities during February 2020–June 2021. Zhang allegedly operated under the direction of the Shanghai State Security Bureau.
Mentioned as background concerning a separate China-linked hacking operation. The article notes a reward for information about an associated individual linked to the 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server attacks; it does not connect Silk Typhoon to the Integrity Tech takedown.
Mentioned as background to the Flax Typhoon disruption. Associated activity concerns the 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server attacks and allegations of stealing COVID-19 research from U.S. universities and immunology and virology researchers.
Mentioned in a separate contextual update concerning U.S. rewards and prosecutions associated with the 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server attacks. A co-defendant allegedly stole COVID-19 research from U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists.
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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.