Flax Typhoon

THREAT ACTOR PROFILE

Flax Typhoon

Flax Typhoon is a China-linked group tied to Integrity Technology Group that targets critical infrastructure, government, academic and technology organizations, with a heavy focus on Taiwan and the US. It is best known for the Raptor Train botnet of compromised IoT and SOHO devices and for exploiting a long list of edge-device and web-application vulnerabilities for access and scanning.

Country:

China

Critical infrastructure / Government

First seen

2020

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

Flax Typhoon, Ethereal Panda and RedJuliett

Flax Typhoon is tracked under several vendor names. It maps to one entry among the China-nexus groups we profile, and its critical-infrastructure focus overlaps with other China-linked crews like Volt Typhoon.

GROUP PROFILE

Botnet operations and perimeter exploitation

Flax Typhoon is a China-linked actor that blends espionage with large-scale infrastructure operations. It runs botnets built from compromised edge devices and uses automated scanning to find and exploit exposed, often unpatched, internet-facing systems.

Our record places its origin as China and ties it to activity against critical infrastructure, government, academic and technology targets. US authorities seized domains tied to Integrity Technology Group and Flax Typhoon tooling in October 2026.

The group's tradecraft includes the Raptor Train botnet (using the Nosedive Mirai variant), the MicroScan vulnerability scanner, the FishHub spear-phishing platform, and SoftEther VPN disguised as legitimate Windows processes.

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

Automated scanning into botnet and espionage

The stages below come from Flax Typhoon and RedJuliett 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

Nosedive, MicroScan and SoftEther VPN

Initial Access

CVES EXPLOITED

Edge and web-application flaws

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.

Showing a sample of recent indicators

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NOTABLE CAMPAIGNS

Raptor Train and the Integrity Tech takedown

Recent reporting tracks the botnet, the tooling seizure and the Taiwan espionage.

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

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

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

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