IRIran (Islamic Republic of)confidence: 50G1012
TortoiseshellTortoiseshell
Also known as: IMPERIAL KITTEN · Yellow Liderc · Imperial Kitten · TA456 · DUSTYCAVE · Crimson Sandstorm · Cuboid Sandstorm · Smoke Sandstorm · CURIUM · Tortoiseshell
Origin
IR
Known aliases
10
Target sectors
15
Attribution
State-sponsored
Profile
A previously undocumented attack group is using both custom and off-the-shelf malware to target IT providers in Saudi Arabia in what appear to be supply chain attacks with the end goal of compromising the IT providers’ customers.
The group, which we are calling Tortoiseshell, has been active since at least July 2018. Symantec has identified a total of 11 organizations hit by the group, the majority of which are based in Saudi Arabia. In at least two organizations, evidence suggests that the attackers gained domain admin-level access.
Aliases· 10
IMPERIAL KITTENYellow LidercImperial KittenTA456DUSTYCAVECrimson SandstormCuboid SandstormSmoke SandstormCURIUMTortoiseshell
Target sectors· 15
DefenseGovernmentMilitaryFinanceEnergyHealthcarePharmaceuticalsTelecomsHigh-TechMediaNGOsCivil SocietyLegalRailTransportation
Known victims· 4
- United States
- Israel
- Middle East
- Europe
MITRE ATT&CK Group crosswalk
References
- https://www.symantec.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/tortoiseshell-apt-supply-chain
- https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/iranian-government-hackers-target-us-veterans/d/d-id/1335897
- https://ctoatncsc.substack.com/p/cto-at-ncsc-summary-week-ending-october
- https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/cybersecurity/cyber-threat-intelligence/yellow-liderc-ships-its-scripts-delivers-imaploader-malware.html
- https://ics-cert.kaspersky.com/publications/reports/2023/09/25/apt-and-financial-attacks-on-industrial-organizations-in-h1-2023/
- https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/tool-of-first-resort-israel-hamas-war-cyber.pdf
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2021/11/16/evolving-trends-in-iranian-threat-actor-activity-mstic-presentation-at-cyberwarcon-2021/
Related by meaning· 6
Nearest entities by semantic similarity across the cs-graph corpus.