Iranian Hackers Use "Dream Job" Lures to Deploy SnailResin Malware in Aerospace Attacks
Nov 13, 2024
Cyber Espionage / Malware
The Iranian threat actor known as TA455 has been observed taking a leaf out of a North Korean hacking group's playbook to orchestrate its own version of the Dream Job campaign targeting the aerospace industry by offering fake jobs since at least September 2023. "The campaign distributed the SnailResin malware, which activates the SlugResin backdoor," Israeli cybersecurity company ClearSky said in a Tuesday analysis. TA455, also tracked by Google-owned Mandiant as UNC1549 and by PwC as Yellow Dev 13, is assessed to be a sub-cluster within APT35 , which is known by the names CALANQUE, Charming Kitten, CharmingCypress, ITG18, Mint Sandstorm (formerly Phosphorus), Newscaster, TA453, and Yellow Garuda. Affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the group is said to share tactical overlaps with clusters referred to as Smoke Sandstorm (previously Bohrium) and Crimson Sandstorm (previously Curium). Earlier this February, the adversarial collecti...