Threat actor
Ke3chang
Last fetched
Ke3chang is a threat actor tracked in WhisperGraph's MITRE ATT&CK corpus, observed using 46 techniques and also known as 8 other names.
Also known as
APT15, Mirage, Vixen Panda, GREF, Playful Dragon, RoyalAPT, NICKEL, Nylon Typhoon
Description
[Ke3chang](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0004) is a threat group attributed to actors operating out of China. [Ke3chang](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0004) has targeted oil, government, diplomatic, military, and NGOs in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America since at least 2010.(Citation: Mandiant Operation Ke3chang November 2014)(Citation: NCC Group APT15 Alive and Strong)(Citation: APT15 Intezer June 2018)(Citation: Microsoft NICKEL December 2021)
Techniques by tactic
Discovery
- T1007 · System Service Discovery
- T1016 · System Network Configuration Discovery
- T1018 · Remote System Discovery
- T1033 · System Owner/User Discovery
- T1049 · System Network Connections Discovery
- T1057 · Process Discovery
- T1069.002 · Domain Groups
- T1082 · System Information Discovery
- T1083 · File and Directory Discovery
- T1087.001 · Local Account
- T1087.002 · Domain Account
- T1614.001 · System Language Discovery
Attributed infrastructure
None published. WhisperGraph carries no ATTRIBUTED_TO edge to Ke3chang today — this states the absence of a published link, not that Ke3chang has no infrastructure.
References
- https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0004
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/intelligence/microsoft-threat-actor-naming?view=o365-worldwide
- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/12/06/nickel-targeting-government-organizations-across-latin-america-and-europe
- https://web.archive.org/web/20180615122133/https://www.intezer.com/miragefox-apt15-resurfaces-with-new-tools-based-on-old-ones/
- https://research.nccgroup.com/2018/03/10/apt15-is-alive-and-strong-an-analysis-of-royalcli-and-royaldns/
- https://www.mandiant.com/resources/operation-ke3chang-targeted-attacks-against-ministries-of-foreign-affairs
- https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/global/en/current-threats/pdfs/wp-operation-ke3chang.pdf
© The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation.
Related pages
Pivot from Ke3chang 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.