Threat actor
CURIUM
Last fetched
CURIUM is a threat actor tracked in WhisperGraph's MITRE ATT&CK corpus, observed using 19 techniques and also known as 4 other names.
Also known as
Crimson Sandstorm, TA456, Tortoise Shell, Yellow Liderc
Description
[CURIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012) is an Iranian threat group, first reported in September 2019 and active since at least July 2018, targeting IT service providers in the Middle East.(Citation: Symantec Tortoiseshell 2019) [CURIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012) has since invested in building relationships with potential targets via social media over a period of months to establish trust and confidence before sending malware. Security researchers note [CURIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012) has demonstrated great patience and persistence by chatting with potential targets daily and sending benign files to help lower their security consciousness.(Citation: Microsoft Iranian Threat Actor Trends November 2021)
Techniques by tactic
Attributed infrastructure
Infrastructure with a published ATTRIBUTED_TO link to CURIUM in WhisperGraph. Attribution is sparse graph-wide — this list is rarely exhaustive.
- tiktok-u.sbsHOSTNAME
References
- https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/intelligence/microsoft-threat-actor-naming?view=o365-worldwide
- https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/i-knew-you-were-trouble-ta456-targets-defense-contractor-alluring-social-media
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2021/11/16/evolving-trends-in-iranian-threat-actor-activity-mstic-presentation-at-cyberwarcon-2021
- https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/cybersecurity/cyber-threat-intelligence/yellow-liderc-ships-its-scripts-delivers-imaploader-malware.html
- https://symantec-enterprise-blogs.security.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/tortoiseshell-apt-supply-chain
© The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation.
Related pages
Pivot from CURIUM into its techniques, tactics and any attributed infrastructure.
Queries
Resolves the slug to this actor, merging every duplicate node sharing the same name.
MATCH (a:ACTOR)
WHERE a.name =~ $pattern OR any(x IN a.aliases WHERE x =~ $pattern)
RETURN a.id AS id, a.name AS name, a.aliases AS aliases, a.description AS description,
a.references AS references, a.campaigns AS campaigns
LIMIT 25Techniques this actor uses, grouped by the tactic each one serves.
MATCH (a:ACTOR {name: $name})-[:USES_TECHNIQUE]->(t:ATTACK_PATTERN)
OPTIONAL MATCH (t)-[:USES_TACTIC]->(tac:ATTACK_PATTERN)
RETURN t.id AS techniqueId, t.name AS techniqueName, tac.id AS tacticId, tac.name AS tacticName
LIMIT 1000Infrastructure publicly attributed to this actor.
MATCH (n)-[:ATTRIBUTED_TO]->(a:ACTOR {name: $name})
RETURN labels(n)[0] AS kind, n.name AS name
LIMIT 25Or query Whisper from your own LLM workflow via the Whisper MCP server.