group

APT19 G0073

Created: 17 October 2018
Last modified: 31 July 2026
Aliases: APT19 · Codoso · C0d0so0 · Codoso Team · Sunshop Group

APT19 is a Chinese-based threat group that has targeted a variety of industries, including defense, finance, energy, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, high tech, education, manufacturing, and legal services. In 2017, a phishing campaign was used to target seven law and investment firms. [1] Some analysts track APT19 and Deep Panda as the same group, but it is unclear from open source information if the groups are the same. [2] [3] [4]

Techniques55th pct

Tactics52nd pct

Tools & malware39th pct

CampaignsNone recorded

Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.

Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID	Refs
	Detects potential DLL sideloading of DLLs that are known to be abused from suspicious locations	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter	-	high	X__Junior (Nextron Systems)	2023-07-11	—	799a5f48-0ac1-4e0f-9152-71d137d48c2a
	Detects file access requests to files ending with either the ".hive"/".reg" extension, usually associated with Windows Registry backups.	Hunting	test	file_access	windows	-	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	low	frack113	2023-09-15	2024-07-29	337a31c6-46c4-46be-886a-260d7aa78cac
	Detect set Notification_Suppress to 1 to disable the Windows security center notification	Generic	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	medium	frack113	2022-08-19	2023-08-17	0c93308a-3f1b-40a9-b649-57ea1a1c1d63
	Detect set DisallowRun to 1 to prevent user running specific computer program	Generic	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	medium	frack113	2022-08-19	2023-08-17	275641a5-a492-45e2-a817-7c81e9d9d3e9
	Detects usage of winget to add a new insecure (http) download source. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-04-17	—	81a0ecb5-0a41-4ba1-b2ba-c944eb92bfa2
	Detects usage of winget to add new additional download sources	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-04-17	—	05ebafc8-7aa2-4bcd-a269-2aec93f9e842
	Detects usage of winget to add new potentially suspicious download sources	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-04-17	2023-12-04	c15a46a0-07d4-4c87-b4b6-89207835a83b
	Detect enable rdp feature to allow specific user to rdp connect on the targeted machine	Generic	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	medium	frack113	2022-08-19	2023-08-17	37b437cf-3fc5-4c8e-9c94-1d7c9aff842b
	Detects suspicious DACL modifications to allow access to a service from a suspicious trustee. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-02-28	2025-10-22	6c8fbee5-dee8-49bc-851d-c3142d02aa47
	Detects alternate PowerShell hosts potentially bypassing detections looking for powershell.exe	Generic	test	ps_module	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g	2019-08-11	2025-10-17	64e8e417-c19a-475a-8d19-98ea705394cc
	Detects alternate PowerShell hosts potentially bypassing detections looking for powershell.exe	Generic	test	pipe_created	windows	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g, Tim Shelton	2019-09-12	2025-10-07	58cb02d5-78ce-4692-b3e1-dce850aae41a
	Detects when AppLocker "Audit only" enforcement mode reports that an Application, DLL, Script, MSI, or Packaged-App would have been blocked if AppLocker "Enforce rules" enforcement mode was enabled.	Generic	experimental	-	windows	AppLocker	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Python Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	heyyanu	2026-03-26	—	557e3bd3-7f21-495d-8d50-7c8bdfb8041c
	Detects when AppLocker prevents the execution of an Application, DLL, Script, MSI, or Packaged-App from running.	Generic	test	-	windows	AppLocker	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Python Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Pushkarev Dmitry	2020-06-28	2025-12-03	401e5d00-b944-11ea-8f9a-00163ecd60ae
	Detects suspicious user agent strings used in APT malware in proxy logs	Generic	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis	2019-11-12	2024-02-15	6ec820f2-e963-4801-9127-d8b2dce4d31b
	Detects the execution of DLL side-loading malware used by threat group Emissary Panda aka APT27	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2018-09-03	2023-03-09	9aa01d62-7667-4d3b-acb8-8cb5103e2014
	Detects indicators of APT 29 (Cozy Bear) phishing-campaign as reported by mandiant	Emerging	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Rundll32	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), @41thexplorer	2018-11-20	2023-03-08	7453575c-a747-40b9-839b-125a0aae324b
	Detects indicators of APT 29 (Cozy Bear) phishing-campaign as reported by mandiant	Emerging	stable	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Rundll32	-	critical	@41thexplorer	2018-11-20	2023-02-20	3a3f81ca-652c-482b-adeb-b1c804727f74
	This method detects malicious services mentioned in APT29 report by FireEye. (...)	Unsupported	unsupported	process_creation	windows	WinEventLog System	Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service	-	high	Thomas Patzke	2017-11-01	2022-03-21	c069f460-2b87-4010-8dcf-e45bab362624
	Detects suspicious user agent string of APT40 Dropbox tool	Emerging	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	high	Thomas Patzke	2019-11-12	2023-05-18	5ba715b6-71b7-44fd-8245-f66893e81b3d
	The .SettingContent-ms file type was introduced in Windows 10 and allows a user to create "shortcuts" to various Windows 10 setting pages. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Initial Access Phishing Spearphishing Attachment Execution User Execution	-	medium	Sreeman	2020-03-13	2022-04-14	24de4f3b-804c-4165-b442-5a06a2302c7e
	Detects potential DLL sideloading activity via the Aruba Networks Virtual Intranet Access "arubanets (...)	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-01-22	2023-03-15	90ae0469-0cee-4509-b67f-e5efcef040f7
	Detects spawning of suspicious child processes by Atlassian Confluence server which may indicate suc (...)	Emerging	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application	CVE-2022-26134	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-06-03	—	7fb14105-530e-4e2e-8cfb-99f7d8700b66
	Detects automated lateral movement by Turla group	Unsupported	unsupported	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Network Share Discovery Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares	-	medium	Markus Neis	2017-11-07	2023-02-24	75925535-ca97-4e0a-a850-00b5c00779dc
	Detects changes to the EC2 instance startup script. (...)	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Unix Shell	-	high	faloker	2020-02-12	2022-06-07	1ab3c5ed-5baf-417b-bb6b-78ca33f6c3df
	Detects DNS queries for the malicious C2 domain associated with the plain-crypto-js/Axios npm package supply chain compromise. (...)	Emerging	experimental	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Command and Control Dynamic Resolution	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	73e5d24f-493f-4092-bd2f-c72cabda40ee
	Identifies when a new cloudshell is created inside of Azure portal.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Azure Activity Logs · Azure	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter	-	medium	Austin Songer	2021-09-21	2022-08-23	72af37e2-ec32-47dc-992b-bc288a2708cb
	Detects attackers using tooling with bad opsec defaults. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Rundll32	-	high	Oleg Kolesnikov @securonix invrep_de, oscd.community, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Christian Burkard (Nextron Systems)	2020-10-23	2024-08-15	a7c3d773-caef-227e-a7e7-c2f13c622329
	focuses on trivial artifacts observed in variants of prevalent offensive ps1 payloads, including Cob (...)	Generic	test	ps_module	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	critical	ok @securonix invrep_de, oscd.community	2020-10-09	2022-12-25	8d31a8ce-46b5-4dd6-bdc3-680931f1db86
	Detects usage of the "FromBase64String" function in the commandline which is used to decode a base64 (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information Stealth Obfuscated Files or Information	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2020-01-29	2023-01-26	e32d4572-9826-4738-b651-95fa63747e8a
Splunk	The following analytic detects the creation of a batch file (.bat) within the Windows system directory tree, specifically in the System32 or SysWOW64 folders. (...)	Anomaly	stable	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Steven Dick, Michael Haag, Rico Valdez, Splunk	2020-04-29	2026-07-02	503d17cb-9eab-4cf8-a20e-01d5c6987ae3	-
	Detects user data export activity.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Collection Data from Information Repositories Reconnaissance Gather Victim Org Information Identify Roles Discovery System Information Discovery	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	5259cbf2-0a75-48bf-b57a-c54d6fabaef3
	Detects user permission data export attempt.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Collection Data from Information Repositories Reconnaissance Gather Victim Org Information Identify Roles Discovery System Information Discovery	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	87cc6698-3e07-4ba2-9b43-a85a73e151e2
	Detects Bitsadmin connections to IP addresses instead of FQDN names	Generic	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Execution, Persistence, Stealth BITS Jobs	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-06-10	2022-08-24	8ccd35a2-1c7c-468b-b568-ac6cdf80eec3
	Detects Bitsadmin connections to domains with uncommon TLDs	Generic	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Execution, Persistence, Stealth BITS Jobs	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tim Shelton	2019-03-07	2026-09-30	9eb68894-7476-4cd6-8752-23b51f5883a7
	Detects specific windows registry modifications made by BlackByte ransomware variants. (...)	Emerging	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	high	frack113	2022-01-24	2025-10-21	83314318-052a-4c90-a1ad-660ece38d276
	Detects default file names outputted by the BloodHound collection tool SharpHound	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Domain Account Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Discovery Domain Trust Discovery Discovery Permission Groups Discovery Local Groups Domain Groups	-	high	C.J. May	2022-08-09	2026-02-19	02773bed-83bf-469f-b7ff-e676e7d78bab
	Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Trent Liffick (@tliffick)	2020-05-14	2022-10-09	c3198a27-23a0-4c2c-af19-e5328d49680e
	Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird	Emerging	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Trent Liffick (@tliffick)	2020-05-14	2023-08-17	92b0b372-a939-44ed-a11b-5136cf680e27
	detects BPFDoor .lock and .pid files access in temporary file storage facility	Generic	test	file_event	linux	Linux Auditd	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution Native API	-	high	Rafal Piasecki	2022-08-10	2026-03-30	808146b2-9332-4d78-9416-d7e47012d83d
	Detects execution of Chromium based browser in headless mode	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Stealth Hide Artifacts Hidden Window Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-09-12	—	ef9dcfed-690c-4c5d-a9d1-482cd422225c
	Detects powershell execution with that make use of to the bxor (Bitwise XOR). (...)	Hunting	test	ps_classic_start	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	low	Teymur Kheirkhabarov, Harish Segar	2020-06-29	2024-12-11	812837bb-b17f-45e9-8bd0-0ec35d2e3bd6
	Detects the use of the "capsh" utility to invoke a shell.	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter	-	high	Li Ling, Andy Parkidomo, Robert Rakowski, Blake Hartstein (Bloomberg L.P.)	2024-09-02	—	db1ac3be-f606-4e3a-89e0-9607cbe6b98a
	Detects calls to cmdlets that are used to export certificates from the local certificate store. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Credential Access Unsecured Credentials Private Keys	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-05-18	—	9e716b33-63b2-46da-86a4-bd3c3b9b5dfb
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of CertUtil.exe with the 'decode' argument, which may indicate an attempt to decode a previously encoded file, potentially containing malicious payloads. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Stealth Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-03-25	2026-10-02	bfe94226-8c10-11eb-a4b3-acde48001122
	Detects HTTP request used by Chafer malware to receive data from its C2.	Emerging	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2019-01-31	2024-02-15	fb502828-2db0-438e-93e6-801c7548686d
	Detects changing the PowerShell script execution policy to a potentially insecure level using the "-ExecutionPolicy" flag.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	frack113	2021-11-01	2025-10-07	87e3c4e8-a6a8-4ad9-bb4f-46e7ff99a180
	Detects changing the PowerShell script execution policy to a potentially insecure level using the "Set-ExecutionPolicy" cmdlet.	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	frack113	2021-10-20	2023-12-14	61d0475c-173f-4844-86f7-f3eebae1c66b
	Detect possible persistence using Fax DLL load when service restart	Generic	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	high	frack113	2022-07-17	2022-12-30	9e3357ba-09d4-4fbd-a7c5-ad6386314513
	Detect change of the user account associated with the FAX service to avoid the escalation problem.	Generic	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	high	frack113	2022-07-17	2022-12-30	e3fdf743-f05b-4051-990a-b66919be1743
	Adversaries may communicate using application layer protocols associated with web traffic to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. (...)	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols	-	medium	frack113	2022-01-23	2025-07-18	d4488827-73af-4f8d-9244-7b7662ef046e

Title

Description

APT19 G0073

APT19 G0073

APT19 MITRE reference G0073

APT19 MITRE reference G0073

Standing G0073

Reach

Coverage

APT19 detections G0073