Iranian “Dream Job” Campaign 11.24

ClearSky Cyber Security research identified a campaign named “Iranian Dream Job campaign”, in which the Iranian threat actor TA455 targeted the aerospace industry by offering fake jobs.  The campaign distributed the SnailResin malware, which activates the SlugResin backdoor. ClearSky attributes both malware programs to a subgroup of Charming Kitten.  However, some cyber research companies detected […]

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Fata Morgana: Watering hole attack on shipping and logistics websites

ClearSky Cyber Security has detected a watering hole attack on at least eight Israeli websites. The attack is highly likely to be orchestrated by a nation-state actor from Iran, with a low confidence specific attribution to Tortoiseshell (also called TA456 or Imperial Kitten). The Infected sites collect preliminary user information through a script. We have […]

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Lyceum suicide drone

ClearSky discovered a new malware associated with the Iranian SiameseKitten (Lyceum) group withmedium-high confidence.The file is downloaded from a domain registered on June 6th, and it communicates with a previously unknown command and control server whose IP address is adjacent to that of the domain. This indicates an attacker-controlled at least two IP’s on the […]

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EvilNominatus Ransomware

As part of our monitoring of malicious files in current use, we detected a malicious BAT file that was uploaded to VirusTotal from Iran. This file executes a ransomware that we associated with the EvilNominatus ransomware, initially exposed at the end of 2021. It seems that the ransomware’s developer is a young Iranian, who bragged […]

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New Iranian Espionage Campaign By “Siamesekitten” – Lyceum

At the beginning of May 2021, we detected the first attack by Siamesekitten on an IT company in Israel. Siamesekitten (also named Lyceum/Hexane) is an Iranian APT group active in the Middle east and in Africa that is active in launching supply chain attacks. To this end Siamesekitten established a large infrastructure that enabled them […]

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Pay2Kitten – Fox Kitten 2

During the past four months a wave of cyber-attacks has been targeting Israeli companies. The attacks are conducted by different means and target a range of sectors. We estimate with medium to high confidence that Pay2Key is a new operation conducted by Fox Kitten, an  Iranian  APT group that began a new wave of attacks […]

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Operation Quicksand

During September 2020, we identified a new campaign targeting many prominent Israeli organizations. The campaign was attributed to the Iranian threat actor ‘MuddyWater’ (also known as TEMP.Zagros, Static Kitten and Seedworm). MuddyWater was previously exposed as a contractor for the IRGC (Islamic Republic Guard Corps). ClearSky and Profero comprehensively researched this campaign. During the campaign, […]

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The Kittens Are Back in Town 3

During 2017-2019, Clearsky had published several reports about the Iranian APT group “Charming Kitten”. One of the group’s most common attack vectors is impersonating journalists, particularly those from the German “Deutsche Welle” broadcasting company and the “Jewish Journal” magazine. Starting July 2020, we have identified a new TTP of the group, impersonating “Deutsche Welle” and […]

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The Kittens Are Back in Town 2 – Charming Kitten Campaign Keeps Going on, Using New Impersonation Methods

On the 15th of September 2019, we have published a report[1] about a sharp increase in Charming Kitten attacks against researchers from the US, Middle East, and France, focusing on Iranian academic researchers, Iranian dissidents in the US. In our last report, we exposed a new cyber espionage campaign that was conducted in July 2019. […]

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