- Category
- State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
- Origin
- Pakistan(high confidence)
- Motivation
- Information theft and espionage
- Seen
- 2020–2021
- Status
- Dormant
- Sources
- 4 sources carry it
- Identifier
- GINC-APT-0561 · operation-armor-piercer
What it is
(Talos) Cisco Talos recently discovered a malicious campaign targeting government employees and military personnel in the Indian sub-continent with two commercial and commodity RAT families known as NetwireRAT (aka NetwireRC) and WarzoneRAT (aka Ave Maria). The attackers delivered a variety of lures to their targets, predominantly posing as guides related to Indian governmental infrastructure and operations such as Kavach and I.T.-related guides in the form of malicious Microsoft Office documents (maldocs) and archives (RARs, ZIPs) containing loaders for the RATs. Some of these lures and tactics utilized by the attackers bear a strong resemblance to the 'Transparent Tribe, APT 36' and 'SideCopy' APT groups, including the use of compromised websites and fake domains.
Attribution
Each attribution is a claim: who makes it, and to whom. Western and Eastern sources are kept apart, as they often disagree.
Western sources
- ETDA / ThaiCERTPakistan
- ThreatActor.info (Malpedia et al.)Pakistan
Targets
- Countries
- India
- Sectors
- Defense, Government
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- NetWire RC
- Warzone RAT
Sources
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th