Operation Quicksand: MuddyWater's Escalation to Destructive Malware Tactics
- Actor Motivations: Financial Gain,Sabotage
- Attack Vectors: Ransomware,Wiper,Spear Phishing
- Attack Complexity: Medium
- Threat Risk: High Impact/High Probability
Threat Overview
In September 2020, the Iranian threat actor MuddyWater launched "Operation Quicksand," as reported by the ClearSky cybersecurity company. This operation targeted Israeli organizations and others across the Middle East and North Africa, aiming to deploy a destructive variant of Thanos ransomware through "PowGoop," a malicious loader disguised as a Google update DLL. By employing spear-phishing, exploiting vulnerabilities, and using sophisticated malware delivery mechanisms, the campaign focused on destructive attacks rather than financial gain, marking a significant shift in MuddyWater's operational intent from espionage to more aggressive tactics.
Detected Targets
| Type | Description | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Government Agencies and Services | Medium |
| Region | Israel | Verified |
Extracted IOCs
- webhook[.]site
- webmail.lax.co[.]il
- 01160fd8afe8f133b7a95755ead39679
- 1d6f241798818e6fdc03015d01e1e680
- 2534e46be860170f2237c65749af4435
- 2c3d8366b6ed1aa5f1710d88b3adb77d
- 2e6169253a87a9d67037b1a238d46365
- 2e7b4ae4baa704588248b425b8e027bf
- 4d161d67c8cb5c44902b7ebaef131aaf
- 5c000ef1e5c6f50cc32c6d70837bd1b2
- b07d9eca8af870722939fd87e928e603
- bbe9bb47f8dd8ba97250bf7f13187ab6
- c938b18056ec17ac00bf0083844eafd8
- dbadc2caee829baf5531703f6741a9d3
- ee2d1e570be5d53a5c970339991e2fd7
- fbe65cd962fc97192d95c40402eee594
- 4a898c1a27385e7efd0a5eda8fb15ce81cbe2258b0f44a238a1f6a77fe169099
- aa927a2e427f203c15c71678966890c8f55403a7c97bd6db9f531ed43e47bb18
- f8bb7f04b367a2e261e2bde3eefd66ad858493f37d0c11c904341b52748f8a43
- 185[.]117.75.101
- 185[.]183.96.28
- 185[.]183.96.61
- 185[.]183.98.242
- 185[.]244.149.215
- 185[.]82.202.66
- 185[.]82.202.70
- 212[.]143.154.158
- 46[.]4.105.116
- hxxp://185[.]183.96.61:80/downloadc[.]php?key=
- hxxp://185[.]183.98.242/default[.]php
- hxxps://webhook[.]site/7c1564f7-4e3c-4082-b1f8-3b52da3d9941
- hxxps://webhook[.]site/861f0c6f-238a-4878-8e44-0ca078ad9b2c
- hxxps://webhook[.]site/f4c2dba3-bdba-44a3-b8b8-f292b6fb8a7b
- hxxps://webmail.lax.co[.]il/owa/auth/current/script/jquery-3.5.1.min.js
Tip: 34 related IOCs (9 IP, 2 domain, 6 URL, 0 email, 17 file hash) to this threat have been found.
Overlaps
Source: Picussecurity - March 2022
Detection (five cases): 1d6f241798818e6fdc03015d01e1e680, 2c3d8366b6ed1aa5f1710d88b3adb77d, b07d9eca8af870722939fd87e928e603, ee2d1e570be5d53a5c970339991e2fd7, fbe65cd962fc97192d95c40402eee594
Hint: Overlaps are extracted automatically by examining the IOCs associated with all indexed threats and actors.