• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

 | 

Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

 | 

U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

 | 

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 50

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 529 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Iran confirmed it shut down internet to protect the country against cyberattacks

 | 

Godfather Android trojan uses virtualization to hijack banking and crypto apps

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • APT
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber warfare
  • Hacking
  • Intelligence
  • Iran-linked OilRig hacked group use a new Trojan in Middle East Attacks

Iran-linked OilRig hacked group use a new Trojan in Middle East Attacks

Pierluigi Paganini October 10, 2017

The Iran-Linked cyberespionage group OilRig has been using a new Trojan in attacks aimed at targets in the Middle East.

Experts from Palo Alto Networks spotted a new campaign launched by the notorious APT group OilRig against an organization within the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The OilRig hacker group is an Iran-linked APT that has been around since at least 2015.

Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have been monitoring the group for some time and have reported attacks launched against government agencies, financial institutions and technology companies in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Kuwait and Qatar, the United States, and Turkey. 

The name OilRig was used by Palo Alto Networks to identify the campaign of this specific threat actor that leveraged on weaponize Microsoft Excel spreadsheets tracked as “Clayslide” and a backdoor called “Helminth.”

OilRig operations were associated with the use of the remote access trojan (RAT) ISMDoor, which was also used in other campaigns launched by the Iran-linked hacker group known as Greenbug.

In July 2017, OilRig started using a new strain of backdoor dubbed ISMAgent, which was developed based on the ISMDoor RAT.

In August 2017, researchers with PaloAlto Networks observed the group using a new malware dubbed ISMInjector.

“As its name suggests, ISMInjector is a Trojan that is responsible for injecting a Trojan into another process. The payload embedded within the ISMInjector sample delivered in this attack is a variant of the ISMAgent backdoor that we had discussed in detail in our blog discussing a targeted attack on a Saudi Arabian technology company.” reads the analysis published by PaloAlto Networks.

Oilrig injector

The ISMInjector tool has a modular architecture and implements sophisticated anti-analysis techniques that were not previously exploited by the OilRig group.

In the attack against the UAE government, OilRig hackers delivered their malware using spear-phishing emails with weaponized documents, the emails were having the subject line “Important Issue.”

An interesting aspect of the attack against the UAE government, it that the spear-phishing messages were sent from the targeted organization’s own domain. The hackers used a compromised Outlook Web Access (OWA) account whose credentials attackers obtained in a previous phishing attack.

“This string in the header suggests that the OilRig actor is likely to have used the targeted organization’s Outlook Web Access (OWA) to send the phishing email using Firefox 36.” continues the analysis.

“Using information from our research in the Striking Oil blog, we know the OilRig group has conducted credential harvesting campaigns specifically by emulating OWA login sites. Based on that research and this observation, we postulate that the OilRig group gathered credentials to a legitimate user’s OWA account and logged into the user’s account to send phishing attacks to other individuals within the same, targeted organization.”

The weaponized documents delivered the ISMInjector Trojan, which in turn dropped a variant of the ISMAgent backdoor by injecting it into a remote process it created.

The malware implements a “state machines” approach to create a new process and inject the malicious payload into that process. Each state is responsible for carrying on particular action and it specifies the next state that should be executed.

The states are not executed in sequential order making hard the analysis by security researchers, authors also used a crypter as anti-analysis mechanism.

OilRig is just one of the Iran-linked hacker crews, other groups tracked by security experts are APT33, Rocket Kitten, Cobalt Gypsy (Magic Hound), Charming Kitten (aka Newscaster and NewsBeef) and CopyKittens.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Iran, OilRig)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

backdoor Helminth Iran Iranian hackers OilRig campaign

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2025
Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2025
Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

    Cyber Crime / June 26, 2025

    Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

    Security / June 26, 2025

    U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Security / June 26, 2025

    CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

    Hacking / June 26, 2025

    Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

    Hacking / June 25, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT