Lazarus Group

⚠️ Critical

Last Updated

Also known as: APT 38, APT-C-26, APT38, ATK117, ATK3, Alluring Pisces, Andariel, Appleworm, BeagleBoyz, Black Artemis, Bluenoroff, Bureau 121, COPERNICIUM, COVELLITE, CTG-2460, CageyChameleon, Citrine Sleet, CryptoCore, DEV-0139, DEV-1222, Dark Seoul, Diamond Sleet, G0032, G0082, Genie Spider, Group 77, Guardians of Peace, HIDDEN COBRA, Hastati Group, Hidden Cobra, Labyrinth Chollima, Lazarus, Lazarus - APT-C-26, Lazarus Group, Lazarus group, MASAN, MIDNIGHT NEPTUNE, Moonstone Sleet, NICKEL ACADEMY, NICKEL GLADSTONE, NewRomanic Cyber Army Team, Nickel Academy, Operation AppleJeus, Operation DarkSeoul, Operation GhostSecret, Operation Troy, Sapphire Sleet, Stardust Chollima, Subgroup: Bluenoroff, TA404, UNC1069, Unit 121, Whois Hacking Team, ZINC, Zinc

Lazarus Group is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). US-CERT HIDDEN COBRA June 2017 Treasury North Korean Cyber Groups September 2019 Lazarus Group has been active since at least 2009 and is reportedly responsible for the November 2014 destructive wiper attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, identified by Novetta as part of Operation Blockbuster. Malware used by Lazarus Group correlates to other reported campaigns, including Operation Flame, Operation 1Mission, Operation Troy, DarkSeoul, and Ten Days of Rain. Novetta Blockbuster

North Korea’s cyber operations have shown a consistent pattern of adaptation, forming and reorganizing units as national priorities shift. These units frequently share personnel, infrastructure, malware, and tradecraft, making it difficult to attribute specific operations with high confidence. Public reporting often uses “Lazarus Group” as an umbrella term for multiple North Korean cyber operators conducting espionage, destructive attacks, and financially motivated campaigns. Mandiant DPRK Laz Org Breakdown 2022 Mandiant DPRK Groups 2023 JPCert Blog Laz Subgroups 2025

🌍 Country North Korea
📅 Activity 2009 — 2024
📝 Last Updated
⚡ Risk Level Critical
🎯 Incident Type EspionageSabotage
🧭 ATT&CK G0032
Financial Cryptocurrency Entertainment Government Private sector
2009
2024

Targeted Victims

South Korea Bangladesh Bank Sony Pictures Entertainment United States Thailand France China Hong Kong United Kingdom Guatemala Canada Bangladesh Japan India Germany Brazil Australia Cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea

Introduction

Lazarus Group is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). US-CERT HIDDEN COBRA June 2017 Treasury North Korean Cyber Groups September 2019 Lazarus Group has been active since at least 2009 and is reportedly responsible for the November 2014 destructive wiper attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, identified by Novetta as part of Operation Blockbuster. Malware used by Lazarus Group correlates to other reported campaigns, including Operation Flame, Operation 1Mission, Operation Troy, DarkSeoul, and Ten Days of Rain. Novetta Blockbuster North Korea’s cyber operations have shown a consistent pattern of adaptation, forming and reorganizing units as national priorities shift. These units frequently share personnel, infrastructure, malware, and tradecraft, making it difficult to attribute specific operations with high confidence. Public reporting often uses “Lazarus Group” as an umbrella term for multiple North Korean cyber operators conducting espionage, destructive attacks, and financially motivated campaigns. Mandiant DPRK Laz Org Breakdown 2022 Mandiant DPRK Groups 2023 JPCert Blog Laz Subgroups 2025

Activities and Tactics

Targeted Sectors: Financial, Cryptocurrency, Entertainment, Government, Private sector

Country of Origin: 🇰🇵 North Korea

Risk Level: Critical

First Seen: 2009

Last Activity: 2024

Incident Type: [“Espionage”, “Sabotage”]

Suspected Victims: South Korea, Bangladesh Bank, Sony Pictures Entertainment, United States, Thailand, France, China, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Guatemala…

Notable Campaigns

  • Operation Dream Job (C0022): Operation Dream Job was a cyber espionage operation likely conducted by Lazarus Group that targeted the defense, aerospace, government, and other sectors in the United States, Israel, Australia, Russia, and India. In at least one case, the cyber actors tried to monetize their network access to conduct a business email compromise (BEC) operation. In 2020, security researchers noted overlapping TTPs, to include fake job lures and code similarities, between Operation Dream Job, Operation North Star,

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)

ATT&CK technique IDs (denormalized)

Notable Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

No atomic indicators are listed in this profile. The APTnotes snapshot indexes 18 public reports that may contain IOCs; see Source Attribution for dataset links.

Malware and Tools

  • Wiper
  • RemoteCMD
  • Remote Utilities
  • RemotePC
  • Whois Wiper:

MITRE ATT&CK Software

Attribution and Evidence

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

References

[1] mitre-attack [8] CrowdStrike Labyrinth Chollima Feb 2022 CrowdStrike. (2022, February 1). CrowdStrike Adversary Labyrinth Chollima. Retrieved February 1, 2022. [9] 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. [10] Mandiant DPRK Laz Org Breakdown 2022 Michael Barnhart, Michelle Cantos, Jeffery Johnson, Elias fox, Gary Freas, Dan Scott. (2022, March 23). Not So Lazarus: Mapping DPRK Cyber Threat Groups to Government Organizations. Retrieved September 9, 2025. [11] Microsoft Threat Actor Naming July 2023 Microsoft . (2023, July 12). How Microsoft names threat actors. Retrieved November 17, 2023. [12] Novetta Blockbuster Novetta Threat Research Group. (2016, February 24). Operation Blockbuster: Unraveling the Long Thread of the Sony Attack. Retrieved February 25, 2016. [13] Secureworks NICKEL ACADEMY Dec 2017 Secureworks. (2017, December 15). Media Alert - Secureworks Discovers North Korean Cyber Threat Group, Lazarus, Spearphishing Financial Executives of Cryptocurrency Companies. Retrieved December 27, 2017. [14] Microsoft ZINC disruption Dec 2017 Smith, B. (2017, December 19). Microsoft and Facebook disrupt ZINC malware attack to protect customers and the internet from ongoing cyberthreats. Retrieved December 20, 2017. [16] Treasury North Korean Cyber Groups September 2019 US Treasury . (2019, September 13). Treasury Sanctions North Korean State-Sponsored Malicious Cyber Groups. Retrieved September 29, 2021. [17] US-CERT HIDDEN COBRA June 2017 US-CERT. (2017, June 13). Alert (TA17-164A) HIDDEN COBRA – North Korea’s DDoS Botnet Infrastructure. Retrieved July 13, 2017. [18] US-CERT HOPLIGHT Apr 2019 US-CERT. (2019, April 10). MAR-10135536-8 – North Korean Trojan: HOPLIGHT. Retrieved April 19, 2019. [19] JPCert Blog Laz Subgroups 2025 佐々木勇人 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.

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