Actors Insights|Latest update24/07/2026

Ballistic Bobcat

Named by ESETSuspected state sponsor: Islamic Republic of Iran

Ballistic Bobcat is ESET's designation for a subgroup within the Charming Kitten cluster, active since at least 2021. The group focuses on espionage operations against targets in Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Brazil — primarily in the technology, engineering, and financial sectors. Ballistic Bobcat is known for exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange servers for initial access and deploying a modular backdoor called Sponsor for persistent access. ESET tracks this as a distinct operational subset of the broader IRGC-linked Charming Kitten cluster.

First Seen:Mar 2021
Last Seen:Sep 2023
Indexed Reports:1
Public IOCs:19
Cluster: Charming Kitten
also known as:
Ballistic Bobcat (ESET)

Targeted Regions

Brazil
BR
Brazil
Brazil
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Israel
IL
Israel
Israel
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
United Arab Emirates
AE
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Mar 2021 ~ Sep 2023
Jan 2021Oct 2026

Targeted Sectors

Civil EngineeringFinancialInformation TechnologyInsuranceManufacturingMedicalRetailHealthcareMediaTelecommunication

Recent Indexed Reports

  1. Public
    Ballistic Bobcat Exploits Microsoft Exchange Vulnerabilities to Compromise 34 Organizations

Disclaimer: We are working on indexing and analyzing relevant data and this process is not fully completed yet. Therefore, displayed details and statistics may will change in the future.