Unveiling China’s State-Sponsored Hackers: Tactics, Campaigns, and Defense (2025)

China’s APT groups are leveraging zero-days, supply-chain subversion, and living-off-the-land tactics to pursue strategic intelligence. Here’s how to spot and stop them.

TL;DR

  • 2024 saw a 150% surge in China-linked cyberattacks against finance, media, and manufacturing. 1
  • APTs like APT41, Typhoon variants, and Honkers legacy exploit zero-days, supply-chain subversion, and living-off-the-land techniques.
  • High-profile campaigns include Cloud Hopper Redux, SharePoint zero-days, and “Voldemort” semiconductor espionage.
  • Defense requires zero trust micro-segmentation, behavioral analytics, supply-chain hygiene, and proactive threat hunting.
  • Continuous red teaming and layered security are mandatory to keep up with these threats..

The Chinese Threat Landscape Overview

China’s state-sponsored Advanced Persistant Threat groups are refining their tactics, blending long-term persistence with strategic intelligence collection:

  • Espionage Surge: 150% increase in intrusions during 2024, focusing on high-value sectors like finance, media, and manufacturing. 1
  • Supply-Chain Subversion: Exploitation of Ivanti VPN zero-days to inject malicious updates into enterprise networks. 2
  • Critical Infrastructure: Targeting of telecoms, utilities, and semiconductor manufacturing to harvest IP and design data. 3

Top Chinese APT Groups & Tactics

APT Group Alias(es) Primary Targets Signature TTPs
APT41 Double Dragon Gaming, pharma, MSPs MSP supply-chain backdoors
Linen / Violet / Storm Typhoon — Federal agencies, defense labs SharePoint zero-day exploitation
Volt & Salt Typhoon PLA- & MSS-linked Telecom, utilities, networking Long-term stealth infiltration
Honkers Legacy — Cybersecurity vendors Fire Ant breach of SentinelOne

Key TTPs:

  1. Zero-Click & Watering-Hole: Drive-by downloads via trusted portals.
  2. Living-off-the-Land (LotL): Abuse of PowerShell, WMI, and LOLBINs for stealth. 4
  3. Encrypted C2 Channels: DNS tunneling and HTTPS beacons to evade detection.
  4. Supply-Chain Subversion: Backdooring vendor updates to achieve internal access covertly.

High-Profile Campaigns

  • Cloud Hopper Redux (APT41): MSP-targeting via malicious software updates revived to breach service providers. 5
  • SharePoint Zero-Days (Typhoon variants): Exploited multiple SharePoint flaws to compromise hundreds of organizations, including national labs. 6
  • Semiconductor Espionage (“Voldemort”): Custom backdoor siphoning chip design specs from Taiwan’s leading fabs. 7
  • Fire Ant Offensive (Honkers descendants): Breached SentinelOne’s telemetry infrastructure to intercept threat intelligence. 8

Defense & Mitigation

  1. Zero Trust Micro-Segmentation: It is critical to enforce least-privilege access across network segments.
  2. Behavioral Analytics (UEBA): Detect anomalous LotL activity and encrypted C2 channels. 4
  3. Supply-Chain Hygiene: Maintain SBOMs, validate code signatures, and diversify vendor dependencies.
  4. Proactive Threat Hunting: Teams must hunt for IOCs tied to Volt Typhoon; deploy YARA rules for APT41 loaders. 5
  5. Continuous Red Teaming: Simulate encrypted exfiltration and lateral movement to test defenses.

References

Written by Sean Johnson | CyberAdvisor
GitHub: @JohnSeanson

  1. CrowdStrike, “Global Threat Report 2025”, CrowdStrike IR, 2025. ↩ ↩2

  2. Politico, “China’s VPN Vulnerabilities Exposed Supply Chains”, 2025. ↩

  3. Wikipedia, “Volt Typhoon”, accessed July 2025. ↩

  4. OWASP, “Living‑Off‑The‑Land Abuse”, OWASP Supply Chain Security Project, 2025. ↩ ↩2

  5. Mandiant, “Cloud Hopper Redux: MSP Attacks”, M‑Trends 2025. ↩ ↩2

  6. The Guardian, “SharePoint Zero‑Day Exploits Surge”, May 2025. ↩

  7. Tom’s Hardware, “Semiconductor Espionage and Backdoors”, 2025. ↩

  8. Infosecurity Magazine, “Fire Ant Campaign Details”, 2025. ↩