Threat actor
BRONZE STARLIGHT
Last fetched
BRONZE STARLIGHT is a threat actor tracked in WhisperGraph's MITRE ATT&CK corpus, observed using 19 techniques and also known as 4 other names.
Also known as
SLIME34, DEV-0401, Cinnamon Tempest, Emperor Dragonfly
Description
BRONZE STARLIGHT has been active since mid 2021 and targets organizations globally across a range of industry verticals. The group leverages HUI Loader to load Cobalt Strike and PlugX payloads for command and control. CTU researchers have observed BRONZE STARLIGHT deploying ransomware to compromised networks as part of name-and-shame ransomware schemes, and posted victim names to leak sites. CTU researchers assess with moderate confidence that BRONZE STARLIGHT is located in China based on observed tradecraft, including the use of HUI Loader and PlugX which are associated with China-based threat group activity. It is plausible that BRONZE STARLIGHT deploys ransomware as a smokescreen rather than for financial gain, with the underlying motivation of stealing intellectual property theft or conducting espionage.
Techniques by tactic
Attributed infrastructure
None published. WhisperGraph carries no ATTRIBUTED_TO edge to BRONZE STARLIGHT today — this states the absence of a published link, not that BRONZE STARLIGHT has no infrastructure.
References
- https://i.blackhat.com/Asia-22/Friday-Materials/AS-22-Li-To-Loot-Or-Not-To-Loot-That-Is-Not-a-Question.pdf
- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/05/09/ransomware-as-a-service-understanding-the-cybercrime-gig-economy-and-how-to-protect-yourself
- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/12/11/guidance-for-preventing-detecting-and-hunting-for-cve-2021-44228-log4j-2-exploitation
- https://www.sentinelone.com/labs/lockbit-ransomware-side-loads-cobalt-strike-beacon-with-legitimate-vmware-utility
- https://twitter.com/cglyer/status/1480734487000453121
- https://blog.sygnia.co/revealing-emperor-dragonfly-a-chinese-ransomware-group
- https://www.sentinelone.com/labs/chinese-entanglement-dll-hijacking-in-the-asian-gambling-sector/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2022/05/09/ransomware-as-a-service-understanding-the-cybercrime-gig-economy-and-how-to-protect-yourself/
- https://www.secureworks.com/research/bronze-starlight-ransomware-operations-use-hui-loader
- https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1021/
© The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation.
Related pages
Pivot from BRONZE STARLIGHT into its techniques, tactics and any attributed infrastructure.
Queries
Resolves the slug to this actor, merging every duplicate node sharing the same name.
MATCH (a:ACTOR)
WHERE a.name =~ $pattern OR any(x IN a.aliases WHERE x =~ $pattern)
RETURN a.id AS id, a.name AS name, a.aliases AS aliases, a.description AS description,
a.references AS references, a.campaigns AS campaigns
LIMIT 25Techniques this actor uses, grouped by the tactic each one serves.
MATCH (a:ACTOR {name: $name})-[:USES_TECHNIQUE]->(t:ATTACK_PATTERN)
OPTIONAL MATCH (t)-[:USES_TACTIC]->(tac:ATTACK_PATTERN)
RETURN t.id AS techniqueId, t.name AS techniqueName, tac.id AS tacticId, tac.name AS tacticName
LIMIT 1000Infrastructure publicly attributed to this actor.
MATCH (n)-[:ATTRIBUTED_TO]->(a:ACTOR {name: $name})
RETURN labels(n)[0] AS kind, n.name AS name
LIMIT 25Or query Whisper from your own LLM workflow via the Whisper MCP server.