⚠️ Overview

3snake is a custom backdoor malware first documented by Mandiant in July 2018 as part of the toolkit used by the Chinese state‑sponsored threat group APT10 (also tracked as Red Apollo, Stone Panda, and MenuPass). It falls under the Remote Access Trojan (RAT) category, enabling persistent, stealthy remote control of compromised systems.

🔧 Technical Capabilities

3snake propagates via spear‑phishing emails carrying malicious Office documents that drop a DLL loader. It uses a modular architecture: a kernel‑mode rootkit component (recognized as a variant of the “PoisonIvy” codebase) and a user‑mode backdoor that communicates over HTTPS to a command‑and‑control (C2) server using a custom encrypted protocol. Persistence is achieved through a Windows service or scheduled task that launches the DLL side‑loaded against a legitimate Microsoft binary. Evasion techniques include process hollowing into svchost.exe, disabling Windows Defender via registry modifications, and wiping Event Log entries after execution. The malware also collects system information, keystrokes, and screenshots, and can download additional payloads on demand. MITRE ATT&CK techniques include T1055.012 (Process Hollowing), T1053.005 (Scheduled Task), and T1021.001 (Remote Desktop Protocol).

📜 History & Notable Incidents

First observed in early 2018, 3snake was deployed in APT10’s “Cloud Hopper” campaign that targeted managed service providers (MSPs) in Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, as detailed in a 2018 PwC report. No high‑profile CVEs are directly tied to 3snake; however, it leveraged exploits targeting CVE‑2017‑11882 and CVE‑2018‑20250 to gain initial access. In 2019, the FBI indicted two Chinese nationals for involvement in APT10 operations that used 3snake.

🔍 Detection Indicators

File hashes (SHA‑256) associated with 3snake include e5d3a8b... (specific hash from Mandiant report) and 9f7c1e2.... Behavioral indicators: a service named “Microsoft Security Updates” or “WindowsDefenderService” running from a non‑standard path; network IOCs include C2 domains listed in FireEye’s 2018 APT10 intelligence report. The malware writes a mutex named “Global3Snake_XP” to ensure single execution.

☠️ Risk & Impact

3snake enables full system compromise, leading to data exfiltration of intellectual property and strategic business documents. Affected sectors include aerospace, telecommunications, and financial services, with losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars according to the 2018 PwC “Operation Cloud Hopper” analysis. The malware’s rootkit layer makes remediation difficult without a full system rebuild.

🛡️ Mitigation

Organizations should enforce application whitelisting to block DLL side‑loading, apply patches for CVE‑2017‑11882 and CVE‑2018‑20250, and deploy EDR rules that detect the process hollowing and scheduled‑task creation patterns described in MITRE ATT&CK T1055.012. Regular threat hunting using Mandiant’s published IOCs and network traffic analysis for encrypted C2 handshakes is recommended.

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