• 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

Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

 | 

OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

 | 

APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

 | 

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

 | 
  • 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
  • Hacking
  • Intelligence
  • Mobile
  • Terrorism
  • Domestic Kitten – An Iranian surveillance operation under the radar since 2016

Domestic Kitten – An Iranian surveillance operation under the radar since 2016

Pierluigi Paganini September 09, 2018

CheckPoint uncovered an extensive surveillance operation conducted by Iranian APT actor and tracked as Domestic Kitten aimed at specific groups of individuals.

Researchers at security firm CheckPoint uncovered an extensive surveillance operation conducted by Iranian APT actor and tracked as Domestic Kitten aimed at specific groups of individuals.

Cyber spies used malicious mobile apps that collect sensitive information on the target device and implements specific features to spy on the victims, such as recording the surrounding voices.

The attackers are spying on Iranian individuals that are Kurdish and Turkish natives, and ISIS supporters.

“Through the use of mobile applications, those behind the attack use fake decoy content to entice their victims to download such applications, which are in fact loaded with spyware, to then collect sensitive information about them.” reads the analysis published by CheckPoint.

“Interestingly, these targets include Kurdish and Turkish natives and ISIS supporters. Most interesting of all, though, is that all these targets are actually Iranians citizens.”

The list of information collected from the compromised devices is long and includes:

  • contact lists
  • call records
  • text and multimedia messages
  • browser history and bookmarks
  • geographical location
  • photos
  • recordings of nearby conversations
  • list of installed apps
  • clipboard content
  • data on external storage

The threat actor uses decoy applications which are believed to be of interest to the targets. The researchers discovered ISIS branded wallpaper changer, “updates” from the ANF Kurdistan news agency and a fake version of the Vidogram messaging app.

All the applications used in the campaign have the same certificate that was issued in 2016, the researchers confirmed that the extensive and targeted attacks are going on since 2016 and, until now, have remained under the radar due to the artful deception of the attackers towards their targets

The wallpaper changer aimed at the ISIS supported is designed to lure them by offering ISIS-related pictures to set as the screen background.

Domestic Kitten wallpaper_app

Data exfiltrated from the victim’s device are transferred to the C&C server via HTTP POST requests, it is encrypted with the AES algorithm and can be decrypted with a device ID that is unique for each victim.

One of the applications connects firmwaresystemupdate[.]com that is a newly registered website that was seen initially to resolve to an Iranian IP address but that later switched to a Russian address.

CheckPoint published the victim distribution, the cyberspies infected devices of at least 240 users most of them are Iranians (97%), the remaining are from in Afghanistan, Iraq and Great Britain.

“While the number of victims and their characteristics are detailed above, the number of people affected by this operation is actually much higher. This is due to the fact that the full contact list stored in each victim’s mobile device, including full names and at least one of their phone numbers, was also harvested by the attackers.” continues the analysis.“In addition, due to phone calls, SMS details, as well as the actual SMS messages, also recorded by the attackers, the private information of thousands of totally unrelated users has also been compromised.”

This means that the Domestic Kitten surveillance operation had collateral victims whose details were leaked from contact lists or conversations with the targets.

The researchers attributed the surveillance activity to the Iranian regime based on the political conditions in the region and the nature of the targets that pose a threat to the stability of the Government.

“Indeed, these surveillance programs are used against individuals and groups that could pose a threat to the stability of the Iranian regime. These could include internal dissidents and opposition forces, as well as ISIS advocates and the Kurdish minority settled mainly in Western Iran,” CheckPoint concludes.

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

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Domestic Kitten, surveillance)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

cyber espionge Domestic Kitten hacking ISIS Iran malware mobile surveillance

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 27, 2025
Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 27, 2025
OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

    Hacking / June 27, 2025

    OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

    Hacking / June 27, 2025

    APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

    APT / June 27, 2025

    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

    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