CISA Alert AA22-055A – Iranian government-sponsored actors conduct cyber operations against global government and commercial networks.
·3 min
This episode presents CISA cybersecurity alert AA22-055A, originally released on February 24, 2022. The alert is a collaborative effort by the FBI, CISA, U.S. Cyber Command, and the United Kingdom's National Cybersecurity Center. It focuses on the Iranian government-sponsored advanced persistent threat group known as Muddy Water. Muddy Water is also identified by aliases including Earth Vitala, Mercury, Static Kitten, and Seedworm. The group is described as an element of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. It has been conducting broad cyber campaigns in support of Iranian government objectives since around 2018. The actors are positioned to provide stolen data and network accesses to the Iranian government. They also share these with other malicious cyber actors. Muddy Water targets a range of organizations across multiple sectors globally. These sectors include telecommunications, defense, local government, and oil and natural gas. The geographic scope spans Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The actors exploit public vulnerabilities and use open-source tools to gain access to sensitive data. They deploy ransomware as part of their malicious activities. To maintain persistence on victim networks, they use tactics like sideloading dynamic link libraries. This technique tricks legitimate programs into running malware. They also obfuscate PowerShell scripts to hide command and control functions. Recently, Muddy Water has used variants of malware including Pau Goop, Small Civ, Canopy, Mori, and PowerStats. The alert documentation linked in the show notes provides specific mitigation actions. It also includes malware data and indicators of compromise associated with this activity. Additionally, the documentation features a full MITRE ATT&CK framework mapping of the threat actor's tactics, techniques, and procedures. The episode is formatted as a direct reading of the official alert, adapted for audio by N2K Networks. It serves as a public service announcement to inform cybersecurity professionals and organizations about this ongoing threat.
