Unmasking MuddyWater’s New Malware Toolkit Driving International Espionage


Group-IB Threat Intelligence uncovered a sophisticated phishing campaign orchestrated by the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) MuddyWater, targeting international organizations worldwide to gather foreign intelligence.

MuddyWater accessed the compromised mailbox through NordVPN(a legitimate service abused by the threat actor), and used it to send phishing emails that appeared to be authentic correspondence. By exploiting the trust and authority associated with such communications, the campaign significantly increased its chances of deceiving recipients into opening the malicious attachments.

Read more…
Source: Group-IB


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Unmasking MuddyWater’s New Malware Toolkit Driving International Espionage

    October 22, 2025

    Group-IB Threat Intelligence uncovered a sophisticated phishing campaign orchestrated by the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) MuddyWater, targeting international organizations worldwide to gather foreign intelligence. MuddyWater accessed the compromised mailbox through NordVPN(a legitimate service abused by the threat actor), and used it to send phishing emails that appeared to be authentic correspondence. By exploiting the trust and ...

  • Israel: Dozens of actors fall victim to Iranian phishing attack

    September 12, 2025

    Dozens of Israeli actors have fallen victim to a phishing attack believed to originate from Iranian sources. According to a statement from the National Cyber Directorate, the actors were asked to submit filmed auditions and sensitive personal information—including photos of ID cards and passports—after receiving emails posing as a casting call for a new film by ...

  • Iran-linked hackers threaten to release Trump aides’ emails

    July 1, 2025

    Iran-linked hackers have threatened to disclose more emails stolen from U.S. President Donald Trump’s circle, after distributing a prior batch to the media ahead of the 2024 U.S. election. In online chats with Reuters on Sunday and Monday, the hackers, who go by the pseudonym Robert, said they had roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from the ...

  • FBI: Iranian Cyber Actors May Target Vulnerable US Networks and Entities of Interest

    June 30, 2025

    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), and the National Security Agency (NSA) (hereafter referred to as the authoring agencies) strongly urge organizations to remain vigilant for potential targeted cyber activity against U.S. critical infrastructure and other U.S. entities by Iranian-affiliated cyber ...

  • Hacktivist groups led a massive surge in DDoS on US businesses following an attack on Iran

    June 28, 2025

    An abrupt and massive rise in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against U.S. businesses has coincided with Washington’s involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict. According to Radware’s Director of Threat Intelligence, Pascal Geenens, between June 21 and 22, 2025, hacktivist-led DDoS claims surged by 800%. This dramatic increase was paralleled by a 900% drop in ...

  • Iranian missile strikes tech park housing Microsoft office in Israel’s Beer Sheva

    June 20, 2025

    First responders are searching buildings for people wounded after an Iranian missile struck close to a tech park in the Israeli city of Beer Sheva, according to Israel’s emergency services agency Magen David Adom (MDA). MDA said they found six people who were slightly injured as a result of the strike, as they continue to search ...