UPPERCUT

MITRE ATT&CK: S0275 View on attack.mitre.org

Aliases: ANEL, UPPERCUT, lena

First seen
2017-01-01 00:00:00
Malware type
backdoor
Family
Malware family
Operating systems
windows
Profile updated
2026-07-07 12:39:25

Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector technology-and-telecommunications defense-and-aerospace

Targeted regions: country_code:jp

Context

UPPERCUT is a 32-bit HTTP-based backdoor that has been used by menuPass since at least 2017. Once thought to be exclusive to menuPass, UPPERCUT was also observed being used by menuPass-associated MirrorFace during Operation AkaiRyū.

Detection coverage

  • 1 YARA rules
  • 383 Sigma rules

Malware & tools used

  • System Time Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • System Owner/User Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Windows Command Shell (attack-pattern)
  • DLL (attack-pattern)
  • Screen Capture (attack-pattern)
  • Symmetric Cryptography (attack-pattern)
  • System Network Configuration Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Standard Encoding (attack-pattern)
  • System Information Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Ingress Tool Transfer (attack-pattern)
  • Bypass User Account Control (attack-pattern)
  • Data from Local System (attack-pattern)
  • Delay Execution (attack-pattern)
  • File and Directory Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Web Protocols (attack-pattern)

Used by threat actors

Detection rules

  • MALPEDIA_Win_Anel_Auto (yara-rule)

Reports & references

  • Mandiant — Apt10 Targeting Japanese Corporations Using Updated Ttps (report)
  • secureworks.com — Bronze Riverside (report)
  • Trend Micro — Return Of Anel In The Recent Earth Kasha Spearphishing Campaign (report)
  • malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de — Win.Anel (report)
  • macnica.net — Mpressioncss Ta Report 2019 (report)
  • jsac.jpcert.or.jp — Jsac2024 2 7 Hara Shoji Higashi Vickie Su Nick Dai En (report)
  • ESET — Operation Akairyu Mirrorface Invites Europe Expo 2025 Revives Anel Backdoor (report)
  • macnica.net — Mpressioncss 2018 1H Report Mnc Rev3 Nopw (report)
  • Trend Micro — Chessmaster Adds Updated Tools To Its Arsenal (report)
  • virusbulletin.com — Vb2019 Haruyama (report)
  • MITRE ATT&CK — S0275 (report)

External references