# Salt Typhoon

Salt Typhoon is an advanced persistent threat actor believed to be operated by China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) which has conducted high profile cyber espionage campaigns, particularly against the United States. The group's operations place an emphasis on counterintelligence targets in the United States and data theft of key corporate intellectual property. The group has infiltrated targets in dozens of other countries on nearly every continent. Former NSA analyst Terry Dunlap has described the group as a "component of China's 100-Year Strategy."

## Organization and attribution

Salt Typhoon is widely understood to be operated by China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), its foreign intelligence service and secret police. The Chinese embassy denied all allegations, saying it was "unfounded and irresponsible smears and slanders".
According to Trend Micro, the group is a "well-organized group with a clear division of labor" whereby attacks targeting different regions and industries are launched by distinct actors, suggesting the group consists of various teams, "further highlighting the complexity of the group's operations."

## 2024 breach of U.S. Internet service provider networks

In late 2024 U.S. officials announced that hackers affiliated with Salt Typhoon had accessed the computer systems of nine U.S. telecommunications companies, later acknowledged to include Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Spectrum, Lumen, Consolidated Communications, and Windstream. The attack targeted U.S. broadband networks, particularly core network components, including routers manufactured by Cisco, which route large portions of the Internet. In October 2024, U.S. officials revealed that the group had compromised internet service provider (ISP) systems used to fulfill CALEA requests used by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to conduct court-authorized wiretapping.
The hackers were able to access metadata of users calls and text messages, including date and time stamps, source and destination IP addresses, and phone numbers from over a million users; most of which were located in the Washington D.C. metro area. In some cases, the hackers were able to obtain audio recordings of telephone calls made by high profile individuals. Such individuals reportedly included staff of the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign, as well as phones belonging to Donald Trump and JD Vance. According to deputy national security advisor Anne Neuberger, a "large number" of the individuals whose data was directly accessed were "government targets of interest."
In September 2024, reports first emerged that a severe cyberattack had compromised U.S. telecommunications systems. US officials stated that the campaign was likely underway for one to two years prior to its discovery, with several dozen countries compromised in the hack, including those in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. The campaign was reportedly "intended as a Chinese espionage program focused on key government officials [and] key corporate [intellectual property]."
In March 2025, the United States House Committee on Homeland Security requested that the Department of Homeland Security turn over documents on the federal government's response to the hacking.

## Methodology

Salt Typhoon reportedly employs a Windows kernel-mode rootkit, Demodex (name given by Kaspersky Lab), to gain remote control over their targeted servers. They demonstrate a high level of sophistication and use anti-forensic and anti-analysis techniques to evade detection.

### Targets

According to The New York Times, Salt Typhoon is unique in focusing primarily on counterintelligence targets. In addition to U.S. Internet service providers, the Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET says Salt Typhoon has previously broken into hotels and government agencies worldwide.

### Tools used

* BITSAdmin
* CertUtil
* Cheat Engine driver
* Demodex
* Get-PassHashes.ps1
* Ladon
* Malleable C2
* mimkat_ssp
* NBTscan
* Powercat
* PowerShell
* ProcDump
* PsExec
* PsList
* SMB
* SparrowDoor
* Token.exe
* WinRAR
* WMIExec

## Name

Salt Typhoon is the name assigned by Microsoft and is the one most widely used to describe the group. The group has also variously been called:
* Earth Estrie by Trend Micro
* Ghost Emperor by Kaspersky Lab
* FamousSparrow by ESET
* UNC2286 by Mandiant