Iran's Charming Kitten Deploys BellaCPP: A New C++ Variant of BellaCiao Malware
Dec 25, 2024
Cyber Attack / Malware
The Iranian nation-state hacking group known as Charming Kitten has been observed deploying a C++ variant of a known malware called BellaCiao. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which dubbed the new version BellaCPP , said it discovered the artifact as part of a "recent" investigation into a compromised machine in Asia that was also infected with the BellaCiao malware. BellaCiao was first documented by Romanian cybersecurity firm Bitdefender in April 2023, describing it as a custom dropper capable of delivering additional payloads. The malware has been deployed by the hacking group in cyber attacks targeting the United States, the Middle East, and India. It's also one of the many bespoke malware families the Charming Kitten actor has developed over the years. Affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the advanced persistent threat (APT) group is also known by the monikers APT35, CALANQUE, CharmingCypress, Educated Manticore, ITG18,Mi...