APT-C-60

THREAT ACTOR PROFILE

APT-C-60

APT-C-60 is an espionage group that targets organizations in East Asia, especially Japan, using recruitment and job-application lures to deliver the SpyGlace backdoor. It abuses trusted developer and cloud services for delivery and C2, exploits WPS Office vulnerabilities, and hides payloads in formats like VHDX files and RAR archives.

Country:

East Asia-linked

Government / Technology

First seen

2021

Latest IOC

IP indicators

Hosts

SHA256 hashes

Posts

IP indicators

Hosts

SHA256 hashes

Posts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Names and aliases

Group profile

Attack lifecycle

Malware and tooling

IOCs

Notable campaigns

NAMES AND ALIASES

APT-C-60 and APT-Q-12

APT-C-60 is tracked under its own designation and a related cryptonym. It maps to one entry among the East Asian APT groups we profile, and reporting links it to the DarkHotel cluster tracked as DarkHotel.

GROUP PROFILE

Recruitment lures into SpyGlace

APT-C-60 is a patient espionage actor that builds its intrusions around hiring. It poses as job seekers or uses recruitment themes to reach HR and target personnel, then deploys its SpyGlace backdoor and collects intelligence from East Asian organizations.

Our record ties it to espionage against government and technology targets, with JPCERT documenting campaigns against Japanese organizations. The group has shifted delivery across Google Drive, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, jsDelivr and Codeberg over time.

Its tradecraft spans spear-phishing with Proton Drive links and RAR or VHDX attachments, LNK files that launch mshta.exe with embedded JavaScript, legitimate git.exe to rebuild downloaders, and COM hijacking for the SpyGlace backdoor.

Facts:

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Initial Access

Russian Federation · GRU

Victims reported in our records and posts:

ATTACK LIFECYCLE

Job-application lures into SpyGlace

The stages below come from APT-C-60 and APT-Q-12 activity in posts we track on our IOC Hunter feed.

Initial Access

Spear-phishing remains the front door. In the 2026 campaign Hunt.io tracked as Operation Neusploit, APT28 sent convincing spear-phishing from already-compromised government accounts and abused a Microsoft Office security bypass (CVE-2026-21509) to kick off a fileless chain. A separate June 2026 cluster delivered the LameHug malware through spear-phishing ZIP archives using double-extension lures.

Initial Access

MALWARE AND TOOLING

SpyGlace and the delivery chain

Initial Access

CVES EXPLOITED

WPS Office code execution

CVE-2026-21509

A Microsoft Office security bypass used to open the fileless chain in Operation Neusploit, and again in the PixyNetLoader intrusion chain. Both campaigns paired the exploit with spear-phishing from compromised accounts rather than mass exploitation.

CVE-2026-21509

RECENT {{name}} IOCS

Latest IOCs

We currently track - IP indicators, - hosts, and - SHA256 hashes for Akira across - intelligence posts, with the most recent indicator dated -. The sample below is limited to indicators from the latest posts. It is not the full set.

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NOTABLE CAMPAIGNS

SpyGlace, developer-service abuse and WPS Office

Recent reporting tracks the group's delivery and tooling.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

PixyNetLoader tracking

A clustering of roughly 90 loader samples across four sub-families from 2024 to 2026, with steganography and cloud C2, also linking to related APT28 tooling such as SlimAgent and Graphite.

Track {{name}} across campaigns, IOCs and infrastructure

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Track {{name}} across campaigns, IOCs and infrastructure

This page shows a sample of recent indicators and recent campaigns. Sign up free to pivot through