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Vermin, tracked by CERT-UA as UAC-0020, is a Russian-aligned cyberespionage threat actor associated with the security or law-enforcement structures of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, commonly described as linked to the so-called Luhansk People's Republic. The group has conducted sustained operations against Ukrainian state, public-sector, and defense-related targets, including the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and has been active since at least 2015. Vermin is known for using the Vermin remote access trojan and the SPECTR information-stealing malware. Its operations are centered on intelligence collection rather than disruptive or destructive effects. Reported collection objectives include files, removable-media contents, screenshots, and credentials from browsers and messaging applications. In recent campaigns, the actor has abused legitimate synchronization software to exfiltrate stolen data, blending malicious activity with normal-looking peer-to-peer file transfer behavior. A notable campaign attributed to UAC-0020 is SickSync, a spear-phishing operation targeting Ukrainian defense forces. In this activity, password-protected archives delivered trojanized software bundles containing decoy documents, launcher scripts, and SPECTR components. The malware set included modules for screenshot capture, file harvesting, USB data collection, and credential theft from browsers and communications platforms. The actor also modified legitimate software components and related configuration behavior to reduce user visibility and support covert persistence and exfiltration. Vermin has been repeatedly associated with phishing-led intrusions against Ukrainian government and military entities and is part of the broader Russian cyber campaign against Ukraine. Its tradecraft emphasizes initial access through social engineering, post-compromise surveillance, credential theft, and stealthy data exfiltration using legitimate tools.
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Who, where, and (when attributed) which flag flies behind the operation. Pulled from open-source reporting and Mallory's analyst review.
Sectors the actor has been observed targeting.
Geographies tied to known operations.
Attributed origin per open-source reporting.
4 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
6 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Russian-attributed threat group involved in targeted cyber operations against Ukraine's defense and military sectors, focusing on intelligence collection.
UAC-0020 (Vermin) is conducting cyberespionage campaigns against Ukrainian defense forces, using spear-phishing to distribute information-stealing malware.
UAC-0020 is conducting cyber espionage campaigns targeting Ukraine's defense forces using the SPECTR malware, primarily via spear-phishing attacks as part of the SickSync campaign.
Espionage campaigns targeting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian public sector agencies using spear-phishing and custom malware for data exfiltration.
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Every observed MITRE ATT&CK technique, grouped by tactic.
Families this actor is known to deploy, with IOCs and behavior.
CVEs this actor has used in known campaigns.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Domains, IPs, and hashes tied to this actor, refreshed continuously.