Introduction
Saint Bear is a Russian-nexus threat actor active since early 2021, primarily targeting entities in Ukraine and Georgia. The group is notable for a specific remote access tool, Saint Bot, and information stealer, OutSteel in campaigns. Saint Bear typically relies on phishing or web staging of malicious documents and related file types for initial access, spoofing government or related entities. Palo Alto Unit 42 OutSteel SaintBot February 2022 Cadet Blizzard emerges as novel threat actor Saint Bear has previously been confused with Ember Bear operations, but analysis of behaviors, tools, and targeting indicates these are distinct clusters.
Activities and Tactics
Country of Origin: 🇷🇺 Russia
First Seen: 2022
Last Activity: 2022
Notable Campaigns
Information pending cataloguing.
Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)
- T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment
- T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution
- T1059.007 JavaScript
- T1589.002 Email Addresses
- T1497 Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion
- T1059.003 Windows Command Shell
- T1553.002 Code Signing
- T1204.001 Malicious Link
- T1027.013 Encrypted/Encoded File
- T1685 Disable or Modify Tools
- T1684.001 Impersonation
- T1059.001 PowerShell
- T1204.002 Malicious File
- T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter
- T1583.006 Web Services
- T1608.001 Upload Malware
- T1027.002 Software Packing
- T1112 Modify Registry
ATT&CK technique IDs (denormalized)
- T1027.002
- T1027.013
- T1059
- T1059.001
- T1059.003
- T1059.007
- T1112
- T1203
- T1204.001
- T1204.002
- T1497
- T1553.002
- T1566.001
- T1583.006
- T1589.002
- T1608.001
- T1684.001
- T1685
Notable Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)
No atomic indicators are listed in this profile. The APTnotes snapshot indexes 1 public reports that may contain IOCs; see Source Attribution for dataset links.
Malware and Tools
MITRE ATT&CK Software
Attribution and Evidence
Country of Origin: Russia Additional attribution information pending cataloguing.
References
[1] mitre-attack [6] Cadet Blizzard emerges as novel threat actor Microsoft Threat Intelligence. (2023, June 14). Cadet Blizzard emerges as a novel and distinct Russian threat actor. Retrieved July 10, 2023. [7] Palo Alto Unit 42 OutSteel SaintBot February 2022 Unit 42. (2022, February 25). Spear Phishing Attacks Target Organizations in Ukraine, Payloads Include the Document Stealer OutSteel and the Downloader SaintBot. Retrieved June 9, 2022.