AppleJeus

Also known as: AppleJeus, Citrine Sleet, Gleaming Pisces, UNC1720, UNC4736

AppleJeus is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Associated with the broader Lazarus Group umbrella of actors, AppleJeus has been active since at least 2018 and is closely aligned in resources with TEMP.hermit, another DPRK-affiliated group under the same umbrella. dtex DPRK 2025 structure ITworkers The group’s primary mission is to generate and launder revenue to provide financial support to the government. AppleJeus primarily targets the cryptocurrency industry and is most notably responsible for the 3CX Supply Chain Attack. Mandiant 3cx UNC4736 2023 The group traditionally deploys malicious cryptocurrency software in combination with Phishing. From these compromised environments, it selectively deploys additional backdoors to enable extended operations against high-value financial targets. Mandiant DPRK Groups 2023 JPCert Blog Laz Subgroups 2025

🌍 Country North Korea
🧭 ATT&CK G1049

Introduction

AppleJeus is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Associated with the broader Lazarus Group umbrella of actors, AppleJeus has been active since at least 2018 and is closely aligned in resources with TEMP.hermit, another DPRK-affiliated group under the same umbrella. dtex DPRK 2025 structure ITworkers The group’s primary mission is to generate and launder revenue to provide financial support to the government. AppleJeus primarily targets the cryptocurrency industry and is most notably responsible for the 3CX Supply Chain Attack. Mandiant 3cx UNC4736 2023 The group traditionally deploys malicious cryptocurrency software in combination with Phishing. From these compromised environments, it selectively deploys additional backdoors to enable extended operations against high-value financial targets. Mandiant DPRK Groups 2023 JPCert Blog Laz Subgroups 2025

Activities and Tactics

Country of Origin: πŸ‡°πŸ‡΅ North Korea

Notable Campaigns

  • 3CX Supply Chain Attack (C0057): The 3CX Supply Chain Attack was the first publicly reported case of one supply chain compromise triggering another, leading to a cascading, two-stage intrusion. The initial supply chain attack began when a 3CX employee downloaded and executed a trojanized, end-of-life version of the X_Trader trading software from Trading Technologies. This provided UNC4736, a threat cluster associated with AppleJeus, access to the 3CX environment. From there UNC4736 compromised the Windows and macOS build environ

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)

ATT&CK technique IDs (denormalized)

Notable Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

No curated IOCs are currently published for this actor. This section will be updated when stable, attributable indicators are available.

Malware and Tools

Information pending cataloguing.

Attribution and Evidence

Country of Origin: North Korea Additional attribution information pending cataloguing.

References

[1] mitre-attack [6] Mandiant 3cx UNC4736 2023 Jeff Johnson, Fred Plan, Adrian Sanchez, Renato Fontana, Jake Nicastro, Dimiter Andonov, Marius Fodoreanu, Daniel Scott. (2023, April 20). 3CX Software Supply Chain Compromise Initiated by a Prior Software Supply Chain Compromise; Suspected North Korean Actor Responsible. Retrieved August 25, 2025. [7] dtex DPRK 2025 structure ITworkers Michael β€œBarni” Barnhart, DTEX, and Anonymous SMEs. (2025, May 14). Exposing DPRK’s Cyber Syndicate and Hidden IT Workforce. Retrieved September 3, 2025. [8] Mandiant DPRK Groups 2023 Michael Barnhart, Austin Larsen, Jeff Johnson, Taylor Long, Michelle Cantos, Adrian Hernandez. (2023, October 10). Assessed Cyber Structure and Alignments of North Korea in 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2025. [9] Unit42 DPRK Threat Groups 2024 Unit 42. (2024, September 9). Threat Assessment: North Korean Threat Groups. Retrieved August 25, 2025. [10] JPCert Blog Laz Subgroups 2025 δ½γ€…ζœ¨ε‹‡δΊΊ Hayato Sasaki. (2025, March 25). Tempted to Classifying APT Actors: Practical Challenges of Attribution in the Case of Lazarus’s Subgroup. Retrieved August 25, 2025.