Loading threat actor…
DarkHydrus, also tracked as Lazy Meerkat, is an Iranian-linked advanced persistent threat group conducting cyberespionage against government agencies and educational institutions in the Middle East. Active since at least 2017, it uses targeted spearphishing, credential harvesting, and remote-access malware to compromise politically valuable organizations. Its initial-access techniques include password-protected RAR attachments containing malicious Excel Web Query files, macro-enabled Excel documents, and Microsoft Office documents that load attacker-controlled remote templates through the attachedTemplate mechanism. These attacks rely on recipients opening attachments or enabling content. The group uses PowerShell to download and execute additional scripts, conceals PowerShell windows, and has obtained and used Mimikatz, Empire, and Cobalt Strike. DarkHydrus deploys RogueRobin, a remote-access Trojan with PowerShell and compiled C#/.NET variants. RogueRobin uses DNS tunneling to receive tasks, execute commands, and return system information and command results. Its compiled variant also supports Google Drive as an alternative command-and-control channel that can be enabled remotely. Persistence mechanisms include Startup-folder shortcuts and user-level Run entries. The malware incorporates sandbox and virtual-machine checks, process inspection, obfuscation, and anti-debugging measures to hinder analysis and reduce detection.
Mallory correlates actor tradecraft and target patterns against your stack, your sector, and your geography. See overlap before they land.
Who, where, and (when attributed) which flag flies behind the operation. Pulled from open-source reporting and Mallory's analyst review.
Sectors the actor has been observed targeting.
Attributed origin per open-source reporting.
37 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
5 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
1 CVE this actor has used in observed campaigns. 1 of them exploited in the wild.
13 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Listed as one of many threat actors associated with the detection's ATT&CK-style annotations for PowerShell and DNS TXT command-and-control behavior; no specific campaign or activity is described in this reference.
Listed as an associated threat actor in detection annotations for Ghostscript exploitation; no specific campaign activity is described in this reference.
Listed as a threat actor associated with PowerShell execution behavior relevant to this detection.
Listed as a threat actor associated with the PowerShell P/Invoke process injection API chain detection and related ATT&CK techniques.
Match sector + geo + tech-stack targeting against your real footprint.
Every observed MITRE ATT&CK technique, grouped by tactic.
Families this actor is known to deploy, with IOCs and behavior.
CVEs this actor has used in known campaigns.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Domains, IPs, and hashes tied to this actor, refreshed continuously.