Beyond the Surface: the evolution and expansion of the SideWinder APT group


SideWinder, aka T-APT-04 or RattleSnake, is one of the most prolific APT groups that began its activities in 2012 and was first publicly mentioned by us in 2018. Over the years, the group has launched attacks against high-profile entities in South and Southeast Asia. Its primary targets have been military and government entities in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China and Nepal.

Over the years, SideWinder has carried out an impressive number of attacks and its activities have been extensively described in various analyses and reports published by different researchers and vendors, one of the latest of which was released at the end of July 2024. The group may be perceived as a low-skilled actor due to the use of public exploits, malicious LNK files and scripts as infection vectors, and the use of public RATs, but their true capabilities only become apparent when you carefully examine the details of their operations.

Read more…
Source: Kaspersky


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Fake Windows support website delivers password-stealing malware

    April 9, 2026

    A fake Microsoft support website is tricking people into downloading what looks like a normal Windows update. Instead, it installs malware designed to steal passwords, payment details, and account access. Because the file looks legitimate and avoids detection, it can slip past both users and security tools. Malwarebytes Labs researchers spotted the campaign at microsoft-updatesupport, a ...

  • Hackers steal and leak sensitive LAPD police documents

    April 8, 2026

    Cybercriminals have allegedly stolen a large amount of sensitive internal documents from the Los Angeles Police Department and leaked the data online. The stolen data included police officer personnel files, internal affairs investigations, and discovery documents that can include unredacted criminal complaints and personal information, such as witness names and medical data, according to the Los ...

  • Russian hacking group targets home and small office routers to spy on users

    April 8, 2026

    British security officials found that a group linked to the Russian military is spying on users of compromised Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) routers in a broad cyber espionage campaign. A Microsoft blog goes into the technical details of these attacks. The group, which researchers will refer to as APT28, but is also known under names like ...

  • Hack-for-hire group caught targeting Android devices and iCloud backups

    April 8, 2026

    Security researchers say they have identified a hack-for-hire group targeting journalists, activists, and government officials across the Middle East and North Africa. The hackers used phishing attacks to access targets’ iCloud backups and messaging accounts on Signal, and deployed Android spyware capable of taking over the targets’ devices. This hacking campaign highlights a growing trend of ...

  • Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers Across US Critical Infrastructure

    April 7, 2026

    Iran-affiliated advanced persistent threat (APT) actors are conducting exploitation activity targeting internet-facing operational technology (OT) devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) manufactured by Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley. This activity has led to PLC disruptions across several U.S. critical infrastructure sectors through malicious interactions with the project file and manipulation of data on human machine interface (HMI) and supervisory ...

  • Attackers exploited critical FortiClient EMS bug as a 0-day

    April 6, 2026

    Fortinet released an emergency patch over the weekend for a critical FortiClient Enterprise Management Server (EMS) bug believed to be under attack since at least March 31. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-35616, is an improper access control vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands via crafted requests. It earned a critical 9.1 ...