Threat Actor

Contagious Interview

Also known as: Contagious Interview, DeceptiveDevelopment, Gwisin Gang, Tenacious Pungsan, DEV#POPPER, PurpleBravo, TAG-121

[Contagious Interview](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1052) is a North Korea–aligned threat group active since 2023. The group conducts both cyberespionage and financially motivated operations, including the theft of cryptocurrency and user credentials. [Contagious Interview](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1052) targets Windows, Linux, and macOS systems, with a particular focus on individuals engaged in software development and cryptocurrency-related activities. (Citation: Validin Contagious Interview North Korea ClickFix January 2025)(Citation: Esentire ContagiousInterview BeaverTail InvisibleFerret November 2024)(Citation: Datadog Contagious Interview Tenacious Pungsan October 2024)(Citation: Recorded Future Contagious Inteview BeaverTail InvisibleFerret OtterCookie February 2025)(Citation: ESET Contagious Interview BeaverTail InvisibleFerret February 2025)(Citation: Zscaler ContagiousInterview BeaverTail InvisibleFerret November 2024)(Citation: PaloAlto ContagiousInterview BeaverTail InvisibleFerret November 2023)(Citation: PaloAlto Unit42 ContagiousInterview BeaverTail InvisibileFerret October 2024)

50
Techniques
4
Software

Properties

stix_id
intrusion-set--46599a4a-77ee-4697-9474-2683b6464859
signal_observed_at
2026-09-11T17:54:59+00:00
type
intrusion-set

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques (50)

Acquire Infrastructure

Adversaries may buy, lease, rent, or obtain infrastructure that can be used during targeting. A wide variety of infrastructure exists for hosting and

Artificial Intelligence

Adversaries may obtain access to generative artificial intelligence tools, such as large language models (LLMs), to aid various techniques during targ

Audio-Visual Content

Adversaries may create or manipulate audio, image, and video content to support targeting and malicious operations. Adversaries may also use synthetic

Code Repositories

Adversaries may search public code repositories for information about victims that can be used during targeting. Victims may store code in repositorie

Command Obfuscation

Adversaries may obfuscate content during command execution to impede detection. Command-line obfuscation is a method of making strings and patterns wi

Develop Capabilities

Adversaries may build capabilities that can be used during targeting. Rather than purchasing, freely downloading, or stealing capabilities, adversarie

Disable or Modify Tools

Adversaries may modify and/or disable security tools to avoid possible detection of their malware/tools and activities. This may take many forms, such

Disable or Modify Tools

Adversaries may disable, degrade, or tamper with security tools or applications (e.g., endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools, intrusion detectio

Domains

Adversaries may acquire domains that can be used during targeting. Domain names are the human readable names used to represent one or more IP addresse

Email Accounts

Adversaries may create email accounts that can be used during targeting. Adversaries can use accounts created with email providers to further their op

Encrypted/Encoded File

Adversaries may encrypt or encode files to obfuscate strings, bytes, and other specific patterns to impede detection. Encrypting and/or encoding file

Establish Accounts

Adversaries may create and cultivate accounts with services that can be used during targeting. Adversaries can create accounts that can be used to bui

Execution Guardrails

Adversaries may use execution guardrails to constrain execution or actions based on adversary supplied and environment specific conditions that are ex

Exfiltration Over C2 Channel

Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over an existing command and control channel. Stolen data is encoded into the normal communications chan

Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol

Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over an un-encrypted network protocol other than that of the existing command and control channel. The d

Exfiltration Over Web Service

Adversaries may use an existing, legitimate external Web service to exfiltrate data rather than their primary command and control channel. Popular Web

Exfiltration to Cloud Storage

Adversaries may exfiltrate data to a cloud storage service rather than over their primary command and control channel. Cloud storage services allow fo

File Deletion

Adversaries may delete files left behind by the actions of their intrusion activity. Malware, tools, or other non-native files dropped or created on a

File and Directory Discovery

Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file s

Financial Theft

Adversaries may steal monetary resources from targets through extortion, social engineering, technical theft, or other methods aimed at their own fina

Gather Victim Identity Information

Adversaries may gather information about the victim's identity that can be used during targeting. Information about identities may include a variety o

Impersonation

Adversaries may impersonate a trusted person or organization in order to persuade and trick a target into performing some action on their behalf. For

Impersonation

Adversaries may impersonate a trusted person or organization in order to persuade and trick a target into performing some action on their behalf. For

JavaScript

Adversaries may abuse various implementations of JavaScript for execution. JavaScript (JS) is a platform-independent scripting language (compiled just

Keychain

Adversaries may acquire credentials from Keychain. Keychain (or Keychain Services) is the macOS credential management system that stores account names

Launch Agent

Adversaries may create or modify launch agents to repeatedly execute malicious payloads as part of persistence. When a user logs in, a per-user launch

Mail Protocols

Adversaries may communicate using application layer protocols associated with electronic mail delivery to avoid detection/network filtering by blendin

Malicious Copy and Paste

An adversary may rely upon a user copying and pasting code in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to cop

Malicious File

An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to ope

Malicious Library

Adversaries may rely on a user installing a malicious library to facilitate execution. Threat actors may [Upload Malware](https://attack.mitre.org/tec

Software & Tools (4)

BeaverTail [malware]

[BeaverTail](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S1246) is a malware that has both a JavaScript and C++ variant. Active since 2022, [BeaverTail](https:

HexEval Loader [malware]

[HexEval Loader](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S1249) is a hex-encoded loader that collects host data, decodes follow-on scripts and acts as a dow

InvisibleFerret [malware]

[InvisibleFerret](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S1245) is a modular python malware that is leveraged for data exfiltration and remote access capab

XORIndex Loader [malware]

[XORIndex Loader](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S1248) is a XOR-encoded loader that collects host data, decodes follow-on scripts and acts as a do

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