About the group
APT42 is an Iranian-sponsored threat group that conducts cyber espionage and surveillance. The group primarily focuses on targets in the Middle East region, but has targeted a variety of industries and countries since at least 2015. APT42 starts cyber operations through spearphishing emails and/or the PINEFLOWER Android malware, then monitors and collects information from the compromised systems and devices. Finally, APT42 exfiltrates data using native features and open-source tools. APT42 activities have been linked to Magic Hound by other commercial vendors. While there are behavior and software overlaps between Magic Hound and APT42, they appear to be distinct entities and are tracked as separate entities by their originating vendor.
Attack chain
Plausible scenario built from the group's real techniques, ordered by the phases of an attack. Each step shows how the group typically operates.
Illustrative chain derived from techniques documented in MITRE ATT&CK — it does not represent a specific past attack. Severity summarizes the known arsenal (kill-chain coverage, actively exploited CVEs, techniques).
Techniques (MITRE ATT&CK) 32
How the group operates, mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK matrix and organized by the phases of an attack.
Exploited vulnerabilities
No CVEs attributed to this group in public sources (MITRE ATT&CK). Absence of attribution does not mean absence of activity.
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