IronHusky updates the forgotten MysterySnail RAT to target Russia and Mongolia


Day after day, threat actors create new malware to use in cyberattacks. Each of these new implants is developed in its own way, and as a result gets its own destiny – while the use of some malware families is reported for decades, information about others disappears after days, months or several years.

Kaspersky researchers observed the latter situation with an implant that we dubbed MysterySnail RAT. The researchers discovered it back in 2021, when they were investigating the CVE-2021-40449 zero-day vulnerability. At that time, Kaspersky identified this backdoor as related to the IronHusky APT, a Chinese-speaking threat actor operating since at least 2017. Since they published a blogpost on this implant, there have been no public reports about it, and its whereabouts have remained unknown.

Read more…
Source: kaspersky


Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.


Related:

  • Blinder Tunnel Campaign Targets Iraqi Infrastructure

    October 6, 2026

    Palo Alto Unit 42 discovered that an Iranian state-aligned threat actor has been masquerading as the Dubai Airports IT department to deliver trojanized coding challenges to high-value targets. Unit 42 tracks the activity as CL-STA-1178. This activity includes a campaign they call “Blinder Tunnel,” that targeted Iraqi critical infrastructure in March 2026, following infrastructure staging ...

  • Hackers access data of 8.8 million people in Denmark in ‘extremely serious’ breach

    October 5, 2026

    A major cybersecurity breach has exposed the personal data of 8.8 million people in Denmark. Denmark has suffered a major data breach after hackers broke into the country’s national population registry and accessed the personal information of millions of people. The country’s digital affairs minister announced the data breach on Monday, calling it “an extremely serious incident” ...

  • ShinyHunters hacker in FBI data theft detained in Jordan, cooperating with bureau

    October 3, 2026

    A suspected member of the ShinyHunters hacking group, which ​says it stole data on every FBI employee, was detained in Jordan this week and is cooperating with the FBI, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Saif ‌al-Din Khader was detained by Jordanian authorities, the three sources said. Two of them said he was brought ...

  • Fortinet sounds the alarm over actively exploited FortiMail zero-day

    October 2, 2026

    Fortinet is warning customers to lock down FortiMail after attackers started exploiting a critical bug that lets them write files to vulnerable systems without logging in. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-104286, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 and affects multiple versions of Fortinet’s email security platform. Fortinet describes the vulnerability as a combination of path traversal and ...

  • SMTP is the key: BPFDoor and AVERAT hitting the network edge

    October 2, 2026

    Rapid7 tracked a set of Linux samples that blend into the software and device conventions of the telecom environments they target. The set spans a newly observed BPFDoor variant, a BPF Rekoobe build seen against South Korean targets, a dropper, and six builds of a Linux implant Rapid7 researchers track as AVERAT, deployed against Taiwanese ...

  • Operation KillSwitch: Teenager suspected of leading KillSec ransomware group

    October 1, 2026

    On 30 September 2026, law enforcement took control of KillSec’s leak site, securing at least 110 terabytes of data against further unauthorised access. The cybercrime group used the site to threaten organisations with the publication of stolen files unless they paid a ransom. The action was part of Operation KillSwitch, an international investigation led by German ...