Threat actor
Tortoiseshell
Last fetched
Tortoiseshell is a threat actor tracked in WhisperGraph's MITRE ATT&CK corpus, observed using 0 techniques and also known as 9 other names.
Also known as
IMPERIAL KITTEN, Yellow Liderc, Imperial Kitten, TA456, DUSTYCAVE, Crimson Sandstorm, Cuboid Sandstorm, Smoke Sandstorm, CURIUM
Description
A previously undocumented attack group is using both custom and off-the-shelf malware to target IT providers in Saudi Arabia in what appear to be supply chain attacks with the end goal of compromising the IT providers’ customers. The group, which we are calling Tortoiseshell, has been active since at least July 2018. Symantec has identified a total of 11 organizations hit by the group, the majority of which are based in Saudi Arabia. In at least two organizations, evidence suggests that the attackers gained domain admin-level access.
Techniques by tactic
No ATT&CK techniques are recorded for Tortoiseshell in WhisperGraph.
Attributed infrastructure
Infrastructure with a published ATTRIBUTED_TO link to Tortoiseshell in WhisperGraph. Attribution is sparse graph-wide — this list is rarely exhaustive.
- tiktok-u.sbsHOSTNAME
References
- https://www.symantec.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/tortoiseshell-apt-supply-chain
- https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/iranian-government-hackers-target-us-veterans/d/d-id/1335897
- https://ctoatncsc.substack.com/p/cto-at-ncsc-summary-week-ending-october
- https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/cybersecurity/cyber-threat-intelligence/yellow-liderc-ships-its-scripts-delivers-imaploader-malware.html
- https://ics-cert.kaspersky.com/publications/reports/2023/09/25/apt-and-financial-attacks-on-industrial-organizations-in-h1-2023/
- https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/tool-of-first-resort-israel-hamas-war-cyber.pdf
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2021/11/16/evolving-trends-in-iranian-threat-actor-activity-mstic-presentation-at-cyberwarcon-2021/
© The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation.
Related pages
Pivot from Tortoiseshell 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.