IRON TWILIGHT

Threat Actor Profile Updated 3 months ago
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IRON TWILIGHT is a threat actor believed to be associated with the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. This association has been suggested by various researchers, including those from CrowdStrike and CTU, based on the characteristics of the group's activities. The group became particularly active between mid-2015 and 2016, during which time it was used by the Russian government to target a variety of organizations. This included not only military and regional affairs but also broader political and strategic operations, such as U.S. political operations. This shift in focus suggests that the Kremlin views IRON TWILIGHT's role as supporting Russian 'active measures', a Soviet doctrine of manipulating popular opinion to align with Russian strategic interests. IRON TWILIGHT demonstrated its operational capability through a range of cyber attacks, including spear-phishing campaigns against Gmail users and NATO personnel. It quickly capitalized on disclosed vulnerabilities in web browsers and associated plugins, indicating an opportunistic approach. However, despite its successes, IRON TWILIGHT is considered less sophisticated than other Russian threat groups. Its operations have included attempts to compromise and embarrass any organization viewed as hostile by the Russian government, as evidenced by attacks against the Dutch Safety Board and WADA. In a bid to divert attention from the actual origin of leaked material, IRON TWILIGHT is believed to have created the Guccifer 2.0 persona and the DCLeaks website. This could be seen as part of the group's 'active measures' operations, potentially aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Given this past behavior, CTU researchers anticipate similar operations targeting elections of strategic interest to the Russian government. As such, timely implementation of patches is crucial for protecting systems against this threat actor.
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Possible Aliases / Cluster overlaps
It's hard to track cluster overlaps and naming conventions between vendors, so here are some possible overlapping names / profiles you also may want to look at.
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APT28
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APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, is a threat actor linked to Russia and has been involved in numerous cyber espionage campaigns. The group is notorious for its sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). Recently, NATO and the EU formally condemned APT28's activities, acknowledging the
Dcleaks
1
DCLeaks, a threat actor, is suspected to be a part of a sophisticated information operation orchestrated by the Russian government, specifically by IRON TWILIGHT and Unit 74455. It was allegedly created alongside the Guccifer 2.0 persona to divert attention from the real source of leaked material. T
Miscellaneous Associations
Other elements of context that could aid in the identification of relevance
Spearphishing
Malware
Trojan
exploited
Windows
Exploit Kit
Phishing
russian
Reconnaissance
Exploit
Associated Malware
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IDTypeVotesProfile Description
XTunnelUnspecified
1
XTunnel is a type of malware used by threat groups to gain secure access to compromised environments through a back connection created by the malware to a command and control (C2) server. IRON TWILIGHT, a known threat group, installed XTunnel as a Coreshell child process on an already compromised sy
CORESHELLUnspecified
1
Coreshell is a variant of Sofacy malware used by threat actors to compromise systems and steal sensitive information. Malware, like Coreshell, can infect computer systems through suspicious downloads, emails, or websites. Once inside, it can disrupt operations, steal personal information, or hold da
CHOPSTICKUnspecified
1
None
Associated Threat Actors
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IDTypeVotesProfile Description
Fancy BearUnspecified
2
Fancy Bear is a sophisticated Russian-based threat actor, also known as Sofacy or APT 28, that has been active since the mid-2000s. Fancy Bear is responsible for targeted intrusion campaigns against the Aerospace, Defense, Energy, Government and Media sectors. At the DNC, both Cozy Bear and Fancy Be
SofacyUnspecified
1
Sofacy is a threat actor group that has been observed using multiple languages to create variants of the Zebrocy Trojan and Cannon. In one campaign, they relied heavily on filenames to lure victims into launching weaponized documents. The group packed only Delphi variants in an attempt to increase e
Associated Vulnerabilities
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IDTypeVotesProfile Description
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Source Document References
Information about the IRON TWILIGHT Threat Actor was read from the documents corpus below. This display is limited to 20 results, create a free account to see more
SourceCreatedAtTitle
MITRE
a year ago
IRON TWILIGHT Supports Active Measures
CERT-EU
a year ago
Hacker Group Names Are Now Absurdly Out of Control | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacker – National Cyber Security Consulting