Threat Actor Profile
Rice Spider
Rice Spider, first tracked by CrowdStrike, is classified as a criminal service provider within the cybercrime ecosystem. Emerging as a key enabler for eCrime and Big Game Hunting (BGH) groups, their primary methods include Crypter-as-a-Service (CaaS) and DLL sideloading techniques to obscure and deliver malware payloads. While Rice Spider itself does not carry out ransomware attacks or extortion, their tools and services make them a pivotal part of large-scale cyber intrusions.
Threat Actor Profile
Rice Spider
Country of Origin
The exact country of origin for Rice Spider is currently unknown. Public sources do not attribute their location to any specific nation. However, they operate globally as their services cater to actors targeting a wide range of regions and industries.
Members
Information regarding the group’s size or individual members is unavailable. It is clear, however, that they function as a specialized supplier of tools and infrastructure, suggesting a smaller yet highly skilled operation.
Leadership
No named individuals or specific aliases are publicly tied to the leadership of Rice Spider. Attribution for this group remains obscured, reflecting a calculated effort to remain undetected among service providers in the threat landscape.
Rice Spider TTPs
Tactics
Rice Spider’s primary goal is to enable cybercriminals, particularly Big Game Hunting operators, by providing them with sophisticated tools to evade detection and deploy malware effectively.
Techniques
Key techniques involve creating advanced crypters that obfuscate malware payloads, making them difficult to detect during static analysis. Additionally, Rice Spider frequently uses DLL sideloading methods, leveraging signed but benign executables to execute malicious code stealthily, bypassing many traditional defenses.
Procedures
Rice Spider facilitates criminal activity through services such as Crypter-as-a-Service (CaaS) and the abuse of signed trust to load DLLs. Their crypters are commonly tailored to evade antivirus tools, and they act as a reseller of tools like Cobalt Strike for post-exploitation payload delivery, supporting widespread corporate intrusions.
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Law Enforcement & Arrests
There are currently no known arrests or global law enforcement disruptions tied to Rice Spider’s operations. The covert nature of their activities and their supplying role in the cybercrime ecosystem make them a low-profile but high-impact actor.
How to Defend Against Rice Spider
Implement strict whitelisting for DLLs and executables, ensuring only signed and approved binaries are executed
Monitor for unusual DLL loading behavior, particularly sideloading from non-standard directories or executables.
Enhance network anomaly detection, particularly for patterns linked to Cobalt Strike or reflective payload delivery.
Deploy advanced malware analysis tools capable of unpacking and reverse-engineering obfuscated payloads.
User Awareness Campaigns: Train employees to recognize phishing attempts and follow cybersecurity best practices
Leverage threat intelligence sharing to catalog and correlate Rice Spider’s tools across incidents.
References
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