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Threat Actor

APT38

apt38_bluenoroff · north_korea · active since 2014

APT38 (Bluenoroff / NICKEL GLADSTONE / BeagleBoyz / Stardust Chollima / Sapphire Sleet / COPERNICIUM / TraderTraitor / SnatchCrypto / CryptoMimic / CryptoCore / UNC1069 / G0082) is the DPRK state-sponsored cyber actor specialized in large-scale financial cyber operations, the regime's primary sanctions- evasion revenue-generation arm, attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau and formally established by the September 2018 and February 2021 US DOJ indictments of named DPRK military hackers.

active since at least 2014 with approximately 1,700 operators per US Army 2020 reporting, APT38 has targeted banks, financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, SWIFT endpoints, and ATMs in at least 38 countries, with defining operations including the February 2016 Bank of Bangladesh SWIFT heist (US$81 million successfully stolen of US$951 million attempted), the May 2018 Banco de Chile combined SWIFT-fraud-and-MBR-wiper operation, the global FASTCash ATM cash-out infrastructure documented in CISA advisories AA18-275A and AA20-239A, and continuous cryptocurrency-exchange heists totaling more than US$3 billion 2017-present, culminating in the February 21, 2025 US$1.5 billion Bybit Ethereum theft, the single largest cryptocurrency heist in history publicly attributed to APT38 / TraderTraitor by the FBI.

the crypto- targeting subgroup deploys macOS implants (RustBucket, KandyKorn, NimDoor July 2025) and elaborate fake-VC / fake-job social-engineering pretexts to reach crypto-industry employees and Web3 developers, with stolen funds laundered through Tornado Cash, cross-chain bridges, and DEXes per Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic on-chain tracing.

north_korea confidence: high 33 aliases MITRE ATT&CK G0082 ↗

Profile

APT38 (Bluenoroff / NICKEL GLADSTONE / BeagleBoyz / Stardust Chollima / Sapphire Sleet / COPERNICIUM / TraderTraitor / CryptoCore / SnatchCrypto / CryptoMimic / Leery Turtle / Alluring Pisces / UNC1069 / Black Alicanto / CageyChameleon / G0082) is the DPRK state-sponsored cyber actor specialized in large-scale financial cyber operations, the regime's primary sanctions-evasion revenue-generation arm, attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) and formally established by the September 2018 US DOJ Park Jin Hyok indictment and the February 17, 2021 superseding indictment of three DPRK military hackers (Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, Park Jin Hyok). Active since at least 2014, APT38 has targeted banks, financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, SWIFT system endpoints, and ATMs in at least 38 countries worldwide. According to a 2020 US Army report, Bluenoroff numbered approximately 1,700 operators focused on long-term financial-systems exploitation.

APT38's defining operations include the February 2016 Bank of Bangladesh SWIFT heist (US$81 million successfully stolen of US$951 million attempted, the largest publicly known bank heist in history at the time of disclosure), the parallel Tien Phong Bank (Vietnam 2015) and Bancomext (Mexico 2018) SWIFT attacks, the May 2018 Banco de Chile combined SWIFT-fraud-and-MBR-wiper operation (an early example of destruction-as-cover-for-heist), the global FASTCash ATM cash-out infrastructure (CISA AA18-275A and AA20-239A, variants targeting AIX, Windows, and Linux payment-switch software), and a continuous stream of cryptocurrency-exchange heists 2017-present totaling more than US$3 billion (Chainalysis tracking), culminating in the February 2025 US$1.5 billion Bybit theft, the single largest cryptocurrency heist in history, publicly attributed to APT38 / TraderTraitor by the FBI within days. The crypto-targeting subgroup tracked variously as TraderTraitor (FBI), SnatchCrypto (Kaspersky), AppleJeus (CISA), CryptoCore, and CryptoMimic represents APT38's specialized crypto-industry- targeting capability, with sustained social-engineering pretexts including fake VC firm meetings, fake job offers via LinkedIn and Telegram, trojanized coding-challenge files for developer candidates, and macOS-targeted implants (RustBucket, KandyKorn, NimDoor July 2025) tailored to reach crypto-industry employees and Web3 developers primarily on Apple platforms. Stolen funds are laundered through mixers (Tornado Cash), cross-chain bridges, DEXes, and DPRK-controlled exchange accounts, tracked extensively by Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic.

Tradecraft hallmarks across the financial-heist mission set: (a) SWIFT Alliance Access manipulation to issue fraudulent payment messages while suppressing victim-bank confirmation alerts (Bangladesh, Bancomext, Banco de Chile pattern); (b) ATM payment-switch software modification for coordinated multi-country cash-out events (FASTCash family); (c) destruction-as-cover via wiper deployment after successful heists (Banco de Chile 2018 MBR wipe of ~9,000 workstations); (d) crypto-industry social engineering with elaborate persona development; (e) macOS implant development to reach crypto- industry targets; (f) cross-chain DeFi-mixer laundering of stolen cryptocurrency; (g) software-supply-chain attacks (3CX March 2023, first publicly documented case of a supply- chain attack delivering another supply-chain attack via X_TRADER
  • 3CX.
  • downstream). Note on DPRK cluster boundaries: MITRE explicitly notes overlap between APT38, Lazarus Group, and Bluenoroff naming; Kaspersky and CrowdStrike treat Bluenoroff as a sub-cluster within the Lazarus umbrella with the financial-operations specialization, while Mandiant and Microsoft track APT38 / Sapphire Sleet as a separate cluster from Lazarus. The functional reality is one DPRK financial-cyber-operations capability that the public threat-intel community describes under multiple overlapping taxonomies.

Aliases

33
apt38nickel gladstonebeagleboyzbeagle boyzbluenoroffblue noroffbluenorofstardust chollimasapphire sleetcoperniciumcryptocoreleery turtlesnatchcryptosnatch cryptoalluring piscescryptomimiccrypto_mimicunc1069black alicantocageychameleoncagey chameleontradertraitortrader traitorhidden cobralazarus_financiallazarus financial subgrouprgbrgb bureau 121reconnaissance general bureaulab 110g0082apt 38apt-38

Notable Campaigns

14
2025Bybit US$1.5 Billion Crypto Heist (February 2025)
2023-2025RustBucket / KandyKorn / NimDoor, macOS Crypto-Targeting (2023-2025)
2023Atomic Wallet / Alphapo / CoinEx Cluster (June-September 2023)
20233CX Supply Chain Compromise (March 2023)
2021US DOJ Three DPRK Military Hackers Indictment (February 17, 2021)
2019US Treasury OFAC Sanctions on Lazarus / Bluenoroff / Andariel (September 13, 2019)
2018Bancomext / Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior Attempted Heist (January 2018)
2018US DOJ Park Jin Hyok Indictment (September 6, 2018)
2018FireEye APT38, Un-usual Suspects (October 3, 2018)
2018Banco de Chile Heist + MBR Wiper (May 2018)
2018FASTCash ATM Cash-Out Operations (2018+)
2017-2026Cryptocurrency Exchange Targeting (2017-present)
2016Bank of Bangladesh SWIFT Heist (February 2016)
2015Tien Phong Bank (Vietnam), Attempted SWIFT Heist (December 2015)

Attribution & Reporting

Attributed by
FBICISANSAUS Cyber CommandUS Department of JusticeUS Department of TreasuryUS Department of Treasury OFACUS Department of StateUS Department of Homeland SecurityUS Secret ServiceUS ArmyUK NCSCRepublic of Korea NISRepublic of Korea KISAJapan NPAJapan FSABangladesh BankFive EyesSWIFTMicrosoftMandiantFireEyeGoogle Cloud Threat IntelligenceCrowdStrikeKaspersky GReATSymantec / BroadcomCisco TalosTrend MicroSentinelOneESETVolexityChainalysisEllipticTRM LabsRecorded FutureInsikt GroupSecureWorksBAE SystemsPWC
Key reporting
reportFireEye / Mandiant: APT38, Un-usual Suspects (October 3, 2018)
reportKaspersky GReAT: Lazarus Under the Hood (April 2017), includes Bluenoroff sub-cluster identification
reportKaspersky GReAT: The Bluenoroff Conspiracy (March 2017)
reportKaspersky GReAT: BlueNoroff Introduces New Methods Bypassing MoTW (December 2022)
reportUS DOJ Indictment: USA v. Park Jin Hyok (September 6, 2018)
reportUS DOJ Indictment: USA v. Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, Park Jin Hyok (February 17, 2021)
reportFBI Wanted Notice: Park Jin Hyok and North Korean Cyber Actors
reportUS Treasury OFAC SM-774: Designations of Lazarus, Bluenoroff, Andariel (September 13, 2019)
reportCISA AA18-275A: HIDDEN COBRA FASTCash Campaign (October 2018)
reportCISA AA20-239A: FASTCash 2.0, North Korea's BeagleBoyz Robbing Banks (August 2020)
reportCISA AA20-227A: Multiple Cyber Threat Indicators Used by North Korean BeagleBoyz (August 2020)
reportCISA AA22-108A: TraderTraitor, North Korean State-Sponsored APT Targets Blockchain Companies (April 2022)
reportBAE Systems: The Bangladesh Heist Investigation (multiple, 2016-2017)
reportCrowdStrike: Adversary of the Month, STARDUST CHOLLIMA (April 2018)
reportMandiant: 3CX Software Supply Chain Compromise (March 2023)
reportChainalysis: North Korea Cryptocurrency Hacks Annual Reports (2020-2024)
reportTRM Labs: North Korea Cryptocurrency Theft Tracking
reportElliptic: North Korean Lazarus Group Stole $1.5 Billion from Bybit (February 2025)
reportESET: Lazarus Luring Employees with Trojanized Coding Challenges (October 2023)
reportESET: macOS RustBucket BlueNoroff (multiple, 2023)
reportJAMF Threat Labs: BlueNoroff RustBucket macOS Analysis
reportRecorded Future / Insikt Group: North Korean Affiliated Actors Cryptocurrency
reportBBC: The Lazarus Heist (long-read journalism, 2021)
reportCouncil on Foreign Relations: APT 38 Cyber Operations Tracker
reportEuRepoC: APT Profile, APT 38

Operational

State sponsor

Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). Formally attributed by US DOJ February 17, 2021 indictment of three named DPRK military hackers (Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, Park Jin Hyok) tied to RGB Lab 110 (the Park Jin Hyok-named cluster from the prior 2018 indictment is shared lineage with Lazarus umbrella). Mission specialization: large-scale financial heist operations to fund DPRK regime, missile, and nuclear programs in violation of international sanctions.

Motivations
financial_theft, regime_funding, sanctions_evasion, missile_program_funding, nuclear_program_funding, cryptocurrency_theft, swift_fraud, atm_cash_out_operations, intellectual_property_theft, opportunistic_destruction
Sectors
Regions

Detection Blind Spots

60 techniques
Across this actor’s 60 mapped techniques, the share covered by each detection layer. Low bars are where you’d be blind if this actor targeted you.
Behavioral / log (Sigma)56/60 · 93%
Analytics (MITRE CAR)34/60 · 56%
Runtime / container (Falco)5/60 · 8%
File / malware (YARA)0/60 · 0%
Network (Suricata/Snort)13/60 · 21%
Vuln scan (Nuclei)0/60 · 0%

Atomic Test Plan

30 techniques
Runnable Atomic Red Team tests covering this actor’s mapped techniques - validate your detections against this specific adversary. Cross-reference the blind spots above. For authorized lab / purple-team use. Open the full builder

Tools Used

11 mapped
Other tooling / TTPs (curation, not ATT&CK-mapped):
MACKTRUCKMACK TRUCKMANUSCRYPTMETERPRETERSHARPKNOTSHARP KNOTSMOOTHOPERATORSMOOTH OPERATORSWIFT ALLIANCE ACCESS MANIPULATORSWIFT PAYMENT TOOLS
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NIST 800-53
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