🇨🇳 APT THREAT ANALYSIS • TTP DEEP DIVE

ASIAN CYBER INTRUSIONS: Huntress Unmasks China-Linked Campaign Using Nezha & Ghost RAT

By CyberDudeBivash • October 11, 2025 • V6 “Leviathan” Deep Dive

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Deep Dive Report: Table of Contents

Part 1: The Executive Briefing — The Two-Stage Intrusion

A new threat intelligence report from the researchers at **Huntress** has unmasked a sophisticated and highly evasive campaign being conducted by a **China-linked APT group**. The campaign’s innovation lies in its two-stage approach, which combines a legitimate, open-source tool for initial access and long-term persistence with a classic, powerful backdoor for high-value targets. This is a “low and slow” attack designed to remain undetected for months while the attackers conduct reconnaissance before striking their final objective.

The TTP at a Glance:

**Stage 1 (Stealth C2):** Attackers are using the legitimate **Nezha** server monitoring tool as their primary Command and Control (C2) channel. This allows their traffic to blend in with normal administrative activity.
**Stage 2 (Full-Spectrum Espionage):** Once the attackers identify a high-value system from within their Nezha dashboard, they use its built-in terminal feature to deploy the infamous **Ghost RAT**, giving them full control for data exfiltration and espionage.

Part 2: Technical Deep Dive — The Nezha C2 Channel and Ghost RAT Payload

Nezha: The Perfect “Living Off the Land” C2

As we detailed in our **previous analysis of weaponized Nezha**, this tool is a perfect C2 for a stealthy actor. Because it’s a legitimate tool and its traffic uses a standard gRPC protocol, it is nearly invisible to traditional, signature-based network defenses. The attackers simply need to compromise a server, install the agent, and point it at their own dashboard. They now have a persistent, encrypted, and legitimate-looking backdoor.

Ghost RAT: The Espionage Workhorse

Ghost RAT is a well-known and powerful Remote Access Trojan with a full suite of capabilities for espionage:

Remote Shell Access
File Upload/Download
Keylogging
Screenshot and Webcam Capture

By using the stealthy Nezha channel to deploy the powerful Ghost RAT only on their final, high-value targets, the attackers minimize their risk of detection while maximizing their impact.

Part 3: The Defender’s Playbook — A Guide to Hunting and Hardening

Detecting this dual-use tool abuse requires a focus on behavioral anomalies.

1. Hunt for the “Golden Signal” of Abuse

The “golden signal” of this TTP is the trusted `nezha-agent` process spawning an unexpected child process. The legitimate function of the agent is to collect metrics; it should never be the parent of an interactive shell or a secondary malware process. This is a definitive indicator of compromise.

The Golden Query for Your EDR:

ParentProcessName: nezha-agent
AND ProcessName IN ('/bin/bash', '/bin/sh', 'cmd.exe', 'powershell.exe', 'rundll32.exe')

2. Hunt for Ghost RAT Artifacts

Once you have identified a potentially compromised host, you must hunt for the secondary payload. This includes searching for known Ghost RAT file hashes, persistence mechanisms in the registry or system services, and its unique C2 network patterns.

Part 4: The Strategic Takeaway — The New Mandate for Behavioral Detection

For CISOs, this campaign is a powerful case study in the evolution of **state-sponsored** TTPs. The use of legitimate, dual-use tools for the initial, long-term phase of an intrusion is now standard operating procedure for elite actors. A security strategy that relies on blocking known-bad files or IPs is guaranteed to fail.

The strategic mandate is clear: you must have a powerful, behavior-based **EDR/XDR** platform and a mature **threat hunting** program. You must have the visibility to see that your trusted tools are being used for untrusted purposes. This is the new front line of cyber defense.

Detect the Entire Kill Chain: A modern **XDR platform** is essential for detecting a chained attack like this. It can correlate the initial anomalous behavior of the Nezha agent with the subsequent execution of the Ghost RAT payload, giving your SOC a unified view of the entire intrusion.

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About the Author

CyberDudeBivash is a cybersecurity strategist with 15+ years in APT tracking, threat hunting, and incident response, advising CISOs across APAC. [Last Updated: October 11, 2025]

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