Houken

Also known as: Houken

Houken is a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor that exploits zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance devices to gain initial access to critical infrastructure networks, particularly in France. The group employs a sophisticated rootkit alongside open-source tools, primarily developed by Chinese-speaking authors, to maintain persistence and control over compromised systems. Houken is suspected to operate as an initial access broker, selling footholds in targeted networks to other threat actors for further exploitation.

🌍 Country China

Introduction

Houken is a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor that exploits zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance devices to gain initial access to critical infrastructure networks, particularly in France. The group employs a sophisticated rootkit alongside open-source tools, primarily developed by Chinese-speaking authors, to maintain persistence and control over compromised systems. Houken is suspected to operate as an initial access broker, selling footholds in targeted networks to other threat actors for further exploitation.

Activities and Tactics

Country of Origin: 🇨🇳 China

Notable Campaigns

Information pending cataloguing.

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)

Information pending cataloguing.

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

  • CloudDuke
  • Xploit

Attribution and Evidence

Country of Origin: China Additional attribution information pending cataloguing.

References

References pending cataloguing.