| SYMBOL | COMMON_NAME | aka. SYNONYMS |
PIONEER KITTEN is an Iran-based adversary that has been active since at least 2017 and has a suspected nexus to the Iranian government. This adversary appears to be primarily focused on gaining and maintaining access to entities possessing sensitive information of likely intelligence interest to the Iranian government. According to DRAGOS, they also targeted ICS-related entities using known VPN vulnerabilities. They are widely known to use open source penetration testing tools for reconnaissance and to establish encrypted communications.
There are currently no families associated with this actor.
| 2020-09-15 ⋅ US-CERT ⋅ Alert (AA20-259A): Iran-Based Threat Actor Exploits VPN Vulnerabilities CHINACHOPPER Fox Kitten |
| 2020-09-01 ⋅ ZDNet ⋅ Iranian hackers are selling access to compromised companies on an underground forum Fox Kitten |
| 2020-08-31 ⋅ CrowdStrike ⋅ Who Is PIONEER KITTEN? Fox Kitten |
| 2020-08-10 ⋅ ZDNet ⋅ FBI says an Iranian hacking group is attacking F5 networking devices SSHNET Fox Kitten |
| 2020-02-24 ⋅ Dragos ⋅ 2019 Year In Review: The ICS Landscape and Threat Actviity Groups Fox Kitten |
| 2020-02-16 ⋅ ClearSky ⋅ Fox Kitten Campaign: Widespread Iranian Espionage-Offensive Campaign SSHNET Fox Kitten |
| 2020-01-17 ⋅ FireEye ⋅ State of the Hack: Spotlight Iran - from Cain & Abel to full SANDSPY QUADAGENT Fox Kitten |
| 2020-01-09 ⋅ Dragos ⋅ PARISITE Fox Kitten |
| 2020-01 ⋅ Dragos ⋅ North American Electric Cyber Threat Perspective Fox Kitten |