Moses Staff
Moses Staff is an alleged Iranian threat actor, also tracked as DEV-0500 / DEV-500, Marigold Sandstorm, MosesStaff, and Vengeful Kitten. The group was first identified on underground forums in September 2021. Reporting in the provided content states that Moses Staff primarily targets Israeli organizations, stealing and publishing sensitive data, and has also targeted organizations in Italy, India, Germany, Chile, Turkey, the UAE, and the United States. The content describes the group as primarily disruptive rather than financially motivated, noting that it typically does not provide a practical way for victims to pay a ransom and decrypt data. Observed tradecraft in the provided content includes exploitation of public-facing applications, including known vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange servers (T1190); use of obfuscated web shells (T1505.003) and IIS components (T1505.004) for persistence; command and scripting interpreter execution (T1059); system network configuration discovery such as collecting the domain name of a compromised network (T1016); system information discovery including collecting infected host machine names and OS architecture; and defense evasion through disabling or modifying the system firewall (T1562.004). The group has used the legitimate open-source DiskCryptor utility, including signed drivers from DiskCryptor, to evade detection and encrypt volumes. The content also associates Moses Staff with custom tools including PyDCrypt, DCSrv, and StrifeWater. PyDCrypt is described as a Python program built with PyInstaller that spreads within a network and ensures execution of DCSrv; DCSrv masquerades as svchost.exe, blocks access to the computer, and encrypts volumes using DiskCryptor; and StrifeWater is described as a stealthy RAT used early in attacks to cover traces, execute remote commands, and capture the screen. The provided content also notes that a June 2022 Moses Staff leak archive contained data from multiple Israeli companies, and that later Cyber Av3ngers claims regarding Dorad reused material from that earlier Moses Staff leak. The same reporting explicitly states that no evidence was found linking Cyber Av3ngers to Moses Staff.
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Tradecraft
35 distinct techniques observed across reporting, grouped by tactic. Hover any cell for the evidence excerpt; click through for MITRE's full description.
Associated malware families
6 malware families attributed to this actor across reporting.
1 additional family tracked in Mallory.
Associated vulnerabilities
7 CVEs this actor has used in observed campaigns. 7 of them exploited in the wild.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
The following analytic detects attempts to exploit CVE-2022-26134, an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Confluence... This activity is significant as it allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the Confluence server without authentication, potentially leading to full system compromise.
This analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-31207) and ProxyNotShell (CVE-2022-41040, CVE-2022-41082) vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server.
2 more CVEs tied to this actor tracked in Mallory.
Observables
40 indicators attributed to this actor: domains, IPs, hashes, and other artifacts pulled from reporting. View more in app.
Recent activity
20 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Listed as a threat actor associated with the detection for Metasploit-based Atlassian Confluence exploitation activity.
Listed as a threat actor associated with web shell persistence activity in the context of this VMware Workspace ONE web shell detection.
Listed as a threat actor associated with exploitation of public-facing applications and malware/tool upload activity relevant to Confluence exploitation detection.
Listed as a threat actor associated with the TeamCity payload execution detection covering exploitation of a public-facing application, web shell persistence, and command/scripting interpreter execution.
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Match sector + geo + tech-stack targeting against your real footprint.
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.