Transparent Tribe Hackers Distribute CapraRAT via Trojanized Messaging Apps

A suspected Pakistan-aligned advanced persistent threat APT group known as Transparent Tribe has been linked to an ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting Indian and Pakistani Android users with a backdoor called CapraRAT. "Transparent Tribe distributed the Android CapraRAT backdoor via...

Researchers Warn of ReverseRAT Backdoor Targeting Indian Government Agencies

A spear-phishing campaign targeting Indian government entities aims to deploy an updated version of a backdoor called ReverseRAT. Cybersecurity firm ThreatMon attributed the activity to a threat actor tracked as SideCopy. SideCopy is a threat group of Pakistani origin that shares overlaps with...

Researchers Warn of Kavach 2FA Phishing Attacks Targeting Indian Govt. Officials

A new targeted phishing campaign has zoomed in on a two-factor authentication solution called Kavach that's used by Indian government officials. Cybersecurity firm Securonix dubbed the activity STEPPYKAVACH, attributing it to a threat actor known as SideCopy based on tactical overlaps with prior...

Researchers Detail New Malware Campaign Targeting Indian Government Employees

The Transparent Tribe threat actor has been linked to a new campaign aimed at Indian government organizations with trojanized versions of a two-factor authentication solution called Kavach. "This group abuses Google advertisements for the purpose of malvertising to distribute backdoored versions ...

Indian Government targeted by APT-36

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary APT 36, also known as Transparent Tribe, is an information theft and espionage gang that was last active in mid-July 2022. Recently, invasive advertising and the data exfiltration tool LimePad were used t...

Researcher Spotlight: How Asheer Malhotra looks for ‘instant gratification’ in threat hunting

The India native has transitioned from a reverse-engineer hobbyist to a public speaker in just a few years By Jon Munshaw. Ninety percent of Asheer Malhotra’s work will never see the light of day. But it’s that 10 percent that keeps him motivated to keep looking for something new. The Talos...

Meta Cracks Down on Cyber Espionage Operations in South Asia Abusing Facebook

Facebook parent company Meta disclosed that it took action against two espionage operations in South Asia that leveraged its social media platforms to distribute malware to potential targets. The first set of activities is what the company described as "persistent and well-resourced" and undertak...

Vulnerabilities & Threats that Matter 11-17 July 2022

Published Vulnerabilities Interesting Vulnerabilities Active Threat Groups Targeted Countries Targeted Industries ATT&CK TTPs 580 37 2 World-wide 11 61 For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Summary The second week of July 2022 witnessed the discovery of 580 vulnerabilities out ...

Transparent Tribe’s latest campaign targets the education sector

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here Summary Transparent Tribe, an Advanced Persistent Threat group also known as APT36 or Mythic Leopard, was discovered actively launching phishing campaigns against educational institutions and students across India. A...

Pakistani Hackers Targeting Indian Students in Latest Malware Campaign

The advanced persistent threat APT group known as Transparent Tribe has been attributed to a new ongoing phishing campaign targeting students at various educational institutions in India at least since December 2021. "This new campaign also suggests that the APT is actively expanding its network ...

Transparent Tribe begins targeting education sector in latest campaign

Cisco Talos has been tracking a new malicious campaign operated by the Transparent Tribe APT group. This campaign involves the targeting of educational institutions and students in the Indian subcontinent, a deviation from the adversary's typical focus on government entities. The attacks result i...

New Hacking Campaign by Transparent Tribe Hackers Targeting Indian Officials

A threat actor of likely Pakistani origin has been attributed to yet another campaign designed to backdoor targets of interest with a Windows-based remote access trojan named CrimsonRAT since at least June 2021. "Transparent Tribe has been a highly active APT group in the Indian subcontinent,"...

Transparent Tribe campaign uses new bespoke malware to target Indian government officials

By Asheer Malhotra and Justin Thattil with contributions from Kendall McKay. Cisco Talos has observed a new Transparent Tribe campaign targeting Indian government and military entities. While the actors are infecting victims with CrimsonRAT, their well-known malware of choice, they are also...

What’s with the shared VBA code between Transparent Tribe and other threat actors?

By Vanja Svajcer and Vitor Ventura. Recently, we've been researching several threat actors operating in South Asia: Transparent Tribe, SideCopy, etc., that deploy a range of remote access trojans RATs. After a hunting session in our malware sample repositories and VirusTotal while looking into...

Operation “Armor Piercer:” Targeted attacks in the Indian subcontinent using commercial RATs

By Asheer Malhotra, Vanja Svajcer and Justin Thattil. Cisco Talos is tracking a campaign targeting government personnel in India using themes and tactics similar to APT36 aka Mythic Leopard and Transparent Tribe.This campaign distributes malicious documents and archives to deliver the Netwire...

SideCopy Hackers Target Indian Government Officials With New Malware

A cyber-espionage group has been observed increasingly targeting Indian government personnel as part of a broad campaign to infect victims with as many as four new custom remote access trojans RATs, signaling a "boost in their development operations." Attributed to a group tracked as SideCopy, th...

InSideCopy: How this APT continues to evolve its arsenal

By Asheer Malhotra and Justin Thattil. Cisco Talos is tracking an increase in SideCopy's activities targeting government personnel in India using themes and tactics similar to APT36 aka Mythic Leopard and Transparent Tribe.SideCopy is an APT group that mimics the Sidewinder APT's infection... Thi...

Talos Takes Ep. #55: How Transparent Tribe could evolve in the future

By Jon Munshaw. The latest episode of Talos Takes is available now. Download this episode and subscribe to Talos Takes using the buttons below, or visit the Talos Takes page. We recently covered how the Transparent Tribe APT added another RAT to its arsenal. Where might they go from here? In...

Pakistan-Linked Hackers Added New Windows Malware to Its Arsenal

Cybercriminals with suspected ties to Pakistan continue to rely on social engineering as a crucial component of its operations as part of an evolving espionage campaign against Indian targets, according to new research. The attacks have been linked to a group called Transparent Tribe, also known ...

Transparent Tribe APT expands its Windows malware arsenal

By Asheer Malhotra, Justin Thattil and Kendall McKay. Transparent Tribe, also known as APT36 and Mythic Leopard, continues to create fake domains mimicking legitimate military and defense organizations as a core component of their operations. Cisco Talos' previous research has mainly linked this...