LiveActive security incident?Get immediate response
MITRE ATT&CK® Group

G0093: GALLIUM

GALLIUM is a cyberespionage group that has been active since at least 2012, primarily targeting telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and government entities in Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mozambique, the Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam. This group is particularly known for launching Operation Soft Cell, a long-term campaign targeting telecommunications providers.[1] Security researchers have identified GALLIUM as a likely Chinese state-sponsored group, based in part on tools used and TTPs commonly associated with Chinese threat actors.[1][2][3]

EnterpriseG0093GroupObject v4.0Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

G0093: GALLIUM describes [GALLIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0093) is a cyberespionage group that has been active since at least 2012, primarily targeting telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and government entities in Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mozambique, the Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam. This group is particularly known for launching Operation Soft Cell, a long-term campaign targeting telecommunications providers.(Citation: Cybereason Soft Cell June 2019) Security researchers have id...

Executive priority

G0093: GALLIUM is an official MITRE ATT&CK group. Glexia treats it as defensive behavior context for prioritizing monitoring, control validation, and response planning without using the object by itself as an attribution claim.

Technical view

Security teams should validate G0093: GALLIUM by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (the platforms named in the official object), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.

Likely telemetry

  • Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata

Detection direction

  • Validate whether G0093: GALLIUM appears in your detection coverage and tabletop scenarios.
  • Use the object to align executive risk language with SOC, incident response, and detection engineering work.
  • Do not treat ATT&CK relationship context as attribution without corroborating evidence.

Mitigation priorities

  • Map the object to existing controls and identify missing telemetry or response ownership.
  • Prioritize mitigations that reduce exposure on the listed platforms and tactics.
  • Review adjacent ATT&CK relationships before changing policy, detections, or reporting language.
Additional notes and limits

Baseline Glexia take generated from the official MITRE ATT&CK STIX object, source hash, tactics, platforms, and detection fields. It is safe to replace with a richer model-generated take for the same source hash later.

This baseline take is source-grounded and schema-validated, but it does not include environment-specific telemetry, incident evidence, or threat-intelligence corroboration.

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

GALLIUM

GALLIUM is a cyberespionage group that has been active since at least 2012, primarily targeting telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and government entities in Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mozambique, the Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam. This group is particularly known for launching Operation Soft Cell, a long-term campaign targeting telecommunications providers.[1] Security researchers have identified GALLIUM as a likely Chinese state-sponsored group, based in part on tools used and TTPs commonly associated with Chinese threat actors.[1][2][3]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

How security teams should use this page

Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.

ATT&CK relationship table

Techniques used

This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.

31 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1059.003Windows Command ShellSub-technique

GALLIUM used the Windows command shell to execute commands.[1]

EnterpriseT1003.002Security Account ManagerSub-technique

GALLIUM used reg commands to dump specific hives from the Windows Registry, such as the SAM hive, and obtain password hashes.[1]

EnterpriseT1078Valid Accounts

GALLIUM leveraged valid accounts to maintain access to a victim network.[1]

EnterpriseT1053.005Scheduled TaskSub-technique

GALLIUM established persistence for PoisonIvy by created a scheduled task.[1]

EnterpriseT1027Obfuscated Files or Information

GALLIUM used a modified version of HTRAN in which they obfuscated strings such as debug messages in an apparent attempt to evade detection.[1]

EnterpriseT1553.002Code SigningSub-technique

GALLIUM has used stolen certificates to sign its tools including those from Whizzimo LLC.[2]

EnterpriseT1041Exfiltration Over C2 Channel

GALLIUM used Web shells and HTRAN for C2 and to exfiltrate data.[1]

EnterpriseT1005Data from Local System

GALLIUM collected data from the victim's local system, including password hashes from the SAM hive in the Registry.[1]

EnterpriseT1574.001DLLSub-technique

GALLIUM used DLL side-loading to covertly load PoisonIvy into memory on the victim machine.[1]

EnterpriseT1588.002ToolSub-technique

GALLIUM has used a variety of widely-available tools, which in some cases they modified to add functionality and/or subvert antimalware solutions.[2]

EnterpriseT1047Windows Management Instrumentation

GALLIUM used WMI for execution to assist in lateral movement as well as for installing tools across multiple assets.[1]

EnterpriseT1136.002Domain AccountSub-technique

GALLIUM created high-privileged domain user accounts to maintain access to victim networks.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1583.004ServerSub-technique

GALLIUM has used Taiwan-based servers that appear to be exclusive to GALLIUM.[2]

EnterpriseT1133External Remote Services

GALLIUM has used VPN services, including SoftEther VPN, to access and maintain persistence in victim environments.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1027.002Software PackingSub-technique

GALLIUM packed some payloads using different types of packers, both known and custom.[1]

EnterpriseT1505.003Web ShellSub-technique

GALLIUM used Web shells to persist in victim environments and assist in execution and exfiltration.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1003.001LSASS MemorySub-technique

GALLIUM used a modified version of Mimikatz along with a PowerShell-based Mimikatz to dump credentials on the victim machines.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1560.001Archive via UtilitySub-technique

GALLIUM used WinRAR to compress and encrypt stolen data prior to exfiltration.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1059.001PowerShellSub-technique

GALLIUM used PowerShell for execution to assist in lateral movement as well as for dumping credentials stored on compromised machines.[1]

EnterpriseT1570Lateral Tool Transfer

GALLIUM has used PsExec to move laterally between hosts in the target network.[2]

EnterpriseT1027.005Indicator Removal from ToolsSub-technique

GALLIUM ensured each payload had a unique hash, including by using different types of packers.[1]

EnterpriseT1090.002External ProxySub-technique

GALLIUM used a modified version of HTRAN to redirect connections between networks.[1]

EnterpriseT1049System Network Connections Discovery

GALLIUM used netstat -oan to obtain information about the victim network connections.[1]

EnterpriseT1074.001Local Data StagingSub-technique

GALLIUM compressed and staged files in multi-part archives in the Recycle Bin prior to exfiltration.[1]

EnterpriseT1033System Owner/User Discovery

GALLIUM used whoami and query user to obtain information about the victim user.[1]

EnterpriseT1190Exploit Public-Facing Application

GALLIUM exploited a publicly-facing servers including Wildfly/JBoss servers to gain access to the network.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1016System Network Configuration Discovery

GALLIUM used ipconfig /all to obtain information about the victim network configuration. The group also ran a modified version of NBTscan to identify available NetBIOS name servers.[1]

EnterpriseT1105Ingress Tool Transfer

GALLIUM dropped additional tools to victims during their operation, including portqry.exe, a renamed cmd.exe file, winrar, and HTRAN.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1018Remote System Discovery

GALLIUM used a modified version of NBTscan to identify available NetBIOS name servers over the network as well as ping to identify remote systems.[1]

EnterpriseT1550.002Pass the HashSub-technique

GALLIUM used dumped hashes to authenticate to other machines via pass the hash.[1]

EnterpriseT1036.003Rename Legitimate UtilitiesSub-technique

GALLIUM used a renamed cmd.exe file to evade detection.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

ToolEnterprise

S0100: ipconfig

ipconfig is a Windows utility that can be used to find information about a system's TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, and adapter configuration. [1]

ToolEnterprise

S0097: Ping

Ping is an operating system utility commonly used to troubleshoot and verify network connections. [1]

ToolEnterprise

S0106: cmd

cmd is the Windows command-line interpreter that can be used to interact with systems and execute other processes and utilities. [1]

Cmd.exe contains native functionality to perform many operations to interact with the system, including listing files in a directory (e.g., dir [2]), deleting files (e.g., del [3]), and copying files (e.g., copy [4]).

Windows
ToolEnterprise

S0110: at

at is used to schedule tasks on a system to run at a specified date or time.[1][2]

LinuxWindowsmacOS
MalwareEnterprise

S1031: PingPull

PingPull is a remote access Trojan (RAT) written in Visual C++ that has been used by GALLIUM since at least June 2022. PingPull has been used to target telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and government entities in Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mozambique, the Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam.[1]

Windows
ToolEnterprise

S0002: Mimikatz

Mimikatz is a credential dumper capable of obtaining plaintext Windows account logins and passwords, along with many other features that make it useful for testing the security of networks. [1] [2]

Windows
ToolEnterprise

S0039: Net

The Net utility is a component of the Windows operating system. It is used in command-line operations for control of users, groups, services, and network connections. [1]

Net has a great deal of functionality, [2] much of which is useful for an adversary, such as gathering system and network information for Discovery, moving laterally through SMB/Windows Admin Shares using net use commands, and interacting with services. The net1.exe utility is executed for certain functionality when net.exe is run and can be used directly in commands such as net1 user.

Windows
ToolEnterprise

S0075: Reg

Reg is a Windows utility used to interact with the Windows Registry. It can be used at the command-line interface to query, add, modify, and remove information. [1]

Utilities such as Reg are known to be used by persistent threats. [2]

Windows
Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

Change history

Object version and sync metadata

The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates.

ATT&CK release
19.2
Object version
4.0
Created
Modified
Raw hash
7a57970b73f1dcb4...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
19.24.0Current bundle7a57970b73f1…
19.14.0Older bundlef7f0b61608b5…
Raw source

Mirrored ATT&CK source object

The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.

Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    Cybereason Soft Cell June 2019

    Cybereason Nocturnus. (2019, June 25). Operation Soft Cell: A Worldwide Campaign Against Telecommunications Providers. Retrieved July 18, 2019.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Microsoft GALLIUM December 2019

    MSTIC. (2019, December 12). GALLIUM: Targeting global telecom. Retrieved January 13, 2021.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    Unit 42 PingPull Jun 2022

    Unit 42. (2022, June 13). GALLIUM Expands Targeting Across Telecommunications, Government and Finance Sectors With New PingPull Tool. Retrieved August 7, 2022.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    GALLIUM

    (Citation: Microsoft GALLIUM December 2019)

  5. [5]
    Granite Typhoon

    (Citation: Microsoft Threat Actor Naming July 2023)

  6. [6]
    Microsoft Threat Actor Naming July 2023

    Microsoft . (2023, July 12). How Microsoft names threat actors. Retrieved November 17, 2023.

    Open source URL
  7. [7]
    mitre-attackG0093
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

Source: MITRE ATT&CK®. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Glexia is not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE.