MalwarePublished 10 Mar 2022Updated 26 Sep 2025

Iranian linked conglomerate MuddyWater comprised of regionally focused subgroups

Source AlienVault OTX General

Description

Cisco Talos has identified new cyber attacks targeting Turkey, the Arabian peninsula and other Asian countries from an Iranian-linked group known as MuddyWater, which is believed to be operating under the same umbrella of threat actors.

Impact

For European organizations, the direct impact of MuddyWater’s activities may currently be limited due to the group’s regional targeting focus on Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Asia. However, European entities with business ties, diplomatic relations, or critical infrastructure connections to these regions could be indirectly affected. The group’s use of sophisticated malware and social engineering techniques poses risks to confidentiality through data theft, integrity through potential manipulation of information systems, and availability if destructive payloads are deployed. Organizations involved in energy, telecommunications, government, and defense sectors are particularly at risk given the strategic nature of MuddyWater’s campaigns. Additionally, the group’s ability to maintain persistence and evade detection could lead to prolonged compromises, increasing the potential for significant operational disruption and reputational damage within European organizations connected to the targeted regions.

Defensive guidance

European organizations should implement targeted defenses against MuddyWater’s known TTPs. This includes enhancing email security to detect and block spear-phishing attempts and malicious documents, employing advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of identifying PowerShell and WSF script-based attacks, and enforcing strict privilege management to prevent unauthorized escalation. Network segmentation and monitoring for unusual outbound connections can help detect and contain remote access attempts. Regular threat intelligence sharing focused on MuddyWater indicators and TTPs should be encouraged among European cybersecurity communities. Additionally, organizations should conduct regular security awareness training emphasizing the risks of social engineering and spear-phishing. Given the lack of specific patches, proactive vulnerability management and system hardening are critical to reduce the attack surface. Incident response plans should be updated to address potential MuddyWater intrusion scenarios, including forensic readiness to analyze and respond to advanced persistent threats.

Indicators of compromise

Domains 2

advanceorthocenter.com
lalindustries.com

URLs 14

http://172.245.81.135:10196/Geq5P3aFpaSrK3PZtErNgUsVCfqQ9kZ9/
http://178.32.30.3:80/kz10n2f9d5c4pkz10n2f9s2vhkz10n2f9/gcvvPu2KXdqEbDpJQ33/
http://178.32.30.3:80/kz10n2f9d5c4pkz10n2f9s2vhkz10n2f9/rrvvPu2KXdqEbDpJQ33/
http://185.118.164.195/c48e75909520f1a19a8a2cfc34ed5938c69750af7966f40bdf3a2d340a0ca98ad
http://185.183.97.25/protocol/function.php
http://5.199.133.149/jznkmustntblvmdvgcwbvqb
http://5.199.133.149/oeajgyxyxclqmfqayv
http://88.119.170.124/ezedcjrfvjriftmldedu
http://88.119.170.124/lcekcnkxkbllmwlpoklgof
http://95.181.161.81/i100dfknzphd5k

Hashes 28

6cef87a6ffb254bfeb61372d24e1970aMD5 of 4b2862a1665a62706f88304406b071a5c9a6b3093daadc073e174ac6d493f26c
72e371542ad6fda96bb3fc3b1ee68d92MD5 of ef385ed64f795e106d17c0a53dfb398f774a555a9e287714d327bf3987364c1b
b0ab12a5a4c232c902cdeba421872c37MD5 of 026868713d60e6790f41dc7046deb4e6795825faa903113d2f22b644f0d21141
b3504546810e78304e879df76d4eec46MD5 of f10471e15c6b971092377c524a0622edf4525acee42f4b61e732f342ea7c0df0
bb9872bb18840b7e8a887b3be3b621c6MD5 of 6e50e65114131d6529e8a799ff660be0fc5e88ec882a116f5a60a2279883e9c4
e182a861616a9f12bc79988e6a4186afMD5 of c2badcdfa9b7ece00f245990bb85fb6645c05b155b77deaf2bb7a2a0aacbe49e
ef4f0d9af47d737076923cfccfe01ba7
3f37ca0db6442743e34768e44450752637930523SHA1 of ef385ed64f795e106d17c0a53dfb398f774a555a9e287714d327bf3987364c1b
4e68e6daf702c6f8f2a7aed3fb23169f331fd47cSHA1 of 6e50e65114131d6529e8a799ff660be0fc5e88ec882a116f5a60a2279883e9c4
69840d4c4755cdab01527eacbb48577d973f7157SHA1 of c2badcdfa9b7ece00f245990bb85fb6645c05b155b77deaf2bb7a2a0aacbe49e

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Sep 2025, 12:45 UTC

MITRE ATT&CK techniques7 from threat tags

Technical details

Indicators of compromise

Domains 2

URLs 14

Hashes 28

Community reviews

Related threats