Threats Feed

Iranian threat actor TA453 targeted a prominent Jewish religious figure with a fake podcast invitation, delivering the new BlackSmith malware toolkit. The attack leveraged spearphishing links and malicious LNK files to deploy the AnvilEcho PowerShell trojan. AnvilEcho consolidates TA453’s previous malware capabilities into a single script, facilitating intelligence gathering and system reconnaissance. The malware evades detection through obfuscation, steganography, and encrypted communications with TA453-controlled infrastructure. The operation, aligned with Iranian government interests, highlights TA453’s evolving tactics to support espionage.

In mid-May 2023, threat actor TA453 targeted a US-based nuclear security expert affiliated with a foreign affairs think tank using deceptive emails. After initial contact, TA453 deployed a novel PowerShell backdoor, GorjolEcho, via cloud hosting providers. Upon realizing the target used a Mac, they sent another malicious email that delivered Mac-specific malware, NokNok. TA453 operates in support of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), specifically focusing on entities and individuals in the foreign affairs sector, particularly those dealing with Middle Eastern affairs and nuclear security.

Since late 2020, threat actor TA453 has exhibited a shift in targeting and tactics. Previously targeting academics, diplomats, and journalists among others, TA453 has expanded to target medical researchers, aerospace engineers, realtors, and travel agencies. New tactics include the use of compromised accounts, malware, and confrontational lures. Despite this shift, Proofpoint assesses that TA453 operates in support of Iran's IRGC Intelligence Organization, indicating a broadening scope of cyber operations. The operations appear to focus on the US, Israel, and various European countries, targeting sectors like academia, diplomacy, journalism, human rights, and energy.

The Iran-aligned threat actor TA453 has introduced a novel technique known as Multi-Persona Impersonation (MPI) to its spear-phishing campaigns. This method involves the simultaneous use of multiple false identities to enhance the credibility of their social engineering attacks. Alongside MPI, TA453 uses a malicious Word document exploiting Remote Template Injection, codenamed "Korg," to exfiltrate data.

Iranian-state aligned actor TA453 has been covertly targeting individuals of intelligence interest to the Iranian government by masquerading as British scholars from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). The threat actor, targeted Middle Eastern experts, senior professors, and journalists. TA453 compromised a legitimate academic website to deliver personalized credential harvesting pages.