Cyber Threat Report: 'Evasive Panda leverages Monlam Festival to target Tibetans'

This report by researchers at ESET describes a campaign which they attribute to the China-aligned APT Evasive Panda. The report describes a campaign against Tibetans in multiple countries and territories, by compromising a website associated with the Monlam Festival. The report provides technical analysis, and discusses the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) associated with the campaign. The researchers also provide indicators of compromise (IoCs) to help defenders detect related activity.

User Account Management

Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to user accounts.

Privileged Account Management

Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to privileged accounts, including SYSTEM and root.

Audit

Perform audits or scans of systems, permissions, insecure software, insecure configurations, etc. to identify potential weaknesses.

Operating System Configuration

Make configuration changes related to the operating system or a common feature of the operating system that result in system hardening against techniques.

Restrict File and Directory Permissions

Restrict access by setting directory and file permissions that are not specific to users or privileged accounts.

Remote Data Storage

Use remote security log and sensitive file storage where access can be controlled better to prevent exposure of intrusion detection log data or sensitive information.

Pre-compromise

This category is used for any applicable mitigation activities that apply to techniques occurring before an adversary gains Initial Access, such as Reconnaissance and Resource Development techniques.

Restrict Web-Based Content

Restrict use of certain websites, block downloads/attachments, block Javascript, restrict browser extensions, etc.

Data Loss Prevention

Use a data loss prevention (DLP) strategy to categorize sensitive data, identify data formats indicative of personal identifiable information (PII), and restrict exfiltration of sensitive data.(Citation: PurpleSec Data Loss Prevention)

Encrypt Sensitive Information

Protect sensitive information with strong encryption.

Network Intrusion Prevention

Use intrusion detection signatures to block traffic at network boundaries.

Filter Network Traffic

Use network appliances to filter ingress or egress traffic and perform protocol-based filtering. Configure software on endpoints to filter network traffic.

Network Segmentation

Architect sections of the network to isolate critical systems, functions, or resources. Use physical and logical segmentation to prevent access to potentially sensitive systems and information. Use a DMZ to contain any internet-facing services...

Code Signing

Enforce binary and application integrity with digital signature verification to prevent untrusted code from executing.

Execution Prevention

Block execution of code on a system through application control, and/or script blocking.

Antivirus/Antimalware

Use signatures or heuristics to detect malicious software.

Behavior Prevention on Endpoint

Use capabilities to prevent suspicious behavior patterns from occurring on endpoint systems. This could include suspicious process, file, API call, etc. behavior.

Update Software

Perform regular software updates to mitigate exploitation risk.

Exploit Protection

Use capabilities to detect and block conditions that may lead to or be indicative of a software exploit occurring.

Application Isolation and Sandboxing

Restrict execution of code to a virtual environment on or in transit to an endpoint system.

Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning is used to find potentially exploitable software vulnerabilities to remediate them.

Restrict Registry Permissions

Restrict the ability to modify certain hives or keys in the Windows Registry.

Application Developer Guidance

This mitigation describes any guidance or training given to developers of applications to avoid introducing security weaknesses that an adversary may be able to take advantage of.