Threat Actor

Agrius

agrius · iran · active since 2020-11

Agrius (Microsoft DEV-0270.

sometimes Project Signal / n3tw0rm operational overlap.

aliases Apostle operators / Fantasy operators) is an Iran-aligned destructive cyber operations cluster active publicly since November 2020 with overwhelming targeting focus on Israeli organizations.

the cluster's operationally-distinctive tradecraft signature is destructive wiper deployment disguised as ransomware - destroying victim data while sending ransom demands that cannot in fact restore the destroyed data, operationally similar in concept to NotPetya (Russia 2017) and WhisperGate (Russia 2022) but operating against Israeli targets under Iranian-aligned state coordination.

signature custom malware includes the Apostle wiper-disguised-as-ransomware (2020- 2021), the Fantasy wiper (ESET December 2022 - deployed via supply-chain compromise of an Israeli software developer's update mechanism against the global diamond industry, simultaneous-wiping deployment against victims in South Africa, Israel, and Hong Kong on March 12, 2022), MoneyBird ransomware variant (2023), and the IPsec Helper custom .NET backdoor.

signature operational tradecraft includes heavy N-day vulnerability exploitation for initial access (FortiOS CVE-2018-13379 signature), ASPXSpy webshell deployment with RDP traffic tunneling, ProtonVPN-based operator IP anonymization, and shared DEADWOOD wiper tooling with APT33 / APT34 Iranian-aligned clusters providing the strongest operational technical-attribution link to the broader Iranian-aligned destructive-operations ecosystem.

operationally distinct from APT33 / APT34 / APT35 / APT39 / MuddyWater / Pioneer Kitten / Imperial Kitten Iranian clusters but operating within the same broader Iranian-aligned destructive cyber-operations sub-ecosystem.

iran confidence: high 10 aliases MITRE ATT&CK G1030 ↗

Profile

Agrius (also tracked as Microsoft DEV-0270, sometimes associated with the broader Iranian destructive-operations cluster designations including Mint Sandstorm partial overlap and Storm-Iranian-state-aligned tracking) is an Iran-aligned destructive cyber operations cluster active publicly since November 2020 with overwhelming targeting focus on Israeli organizations and adjacent Middle Eastern organizations supporting Israeli interests. The cluster is operationally significant as one of the most distinctive examples of destructive-state-aligned-operations-disguised-as-ransomware tradecraft in modern cyber-threat-intelligence reporting, and fills the destructive-Iran-cluster cell in this curated corpus complementing the broader Iranian state-aligned cluster coverage (apt33_elfin.yaml, apt34_oilrig.yaml, apt35_charmingkitten.yaml, apt39_chafer.yaml, muddywater.yaml, pioneer_kitten_fox_kitten.yaml, imperial_kitten_tortoiseshell.yaml).

The cluster's operational signature is destructive wiper deployment disguised as ransomware
  • destroying victim data while simultaneously sending ransom demands that cannot in fact restore the destroyed data, with the apparent operational purpose of masking destructive-state-aligned operations as financially-motivated ransomware attacks. The deliberate masquerade-of-destructive-as-ransomware operational pattern is the cluster's most operationally-distinctive tradecraft signature and operationally distinguishes Agrius from financially-motivated ransomware operators (whose primary operational goal is to obtain ransom payment in exchange for genuine decryption capability). The pattern is similar in operational concept to NotPetya (June 2017, Russia-attributable) and WhisperGate (January 2022, Russia-attributable.
  • see cadet_blizzard.yaml)
  • both of which deployed wiper malware disguised as ransomware against Ukrainian organizations under state-aligned operational coordination.
  • though Agrius operates against Israeli and Israeli-aligned targets under Iranian-aligned state coordination rather than Russian state coordination. The cluster's custom destructive-malware lineage spans three operationally-significant wiper families: (a) Apostle, the cluster's signature wiper-disguised-as-ransomware, developed iteratively from an initial wiper-only design (November 2020 first deployment failed due to logic flaw in malware code) into a fully-featured ransomware variant with both destructive- wiping capability and AES/RSA-based encryption masquerading as legitimate ransomware (subsequent 2021 deployment); (b) Fantasy, the cluster's second-generation wiper (ESET December 2022 disclosure) built on Apostle foundations but without the ransomware-masquerade functionality, going directly to wiping data; deployed via supply-chain compromise of an Israeli software developer's update mechanism in February- March 2022 against the global diamond industry (victims in Israel, South Africa, Hong Kong, with the Sandals C#/.NET deployer tool); (c) MoneyBird ransomware variant deployed during 2023.
  • operational refresh of the cluster's destructive- ransomware tooling family. The cluster has additionally used the DEADWOOD wiper (also called Detbosit)
  • a wiper tool shared with APT33 / APT34 Iranian-aligned clusters.
  • operationally as a fall-back destructive payload when Apostle deployments failed and as a primary destructive payload in some earlier campaigns. The DEADWOOD shared-tooling provides one of the strongest operational technical-attribution links between Agrius and the broader Iranian-aligned destructive- operations ecosystem. Signature operational tradecraft includes: (1) HEAVY N-DAY VULNERABILITY EXPLOITATION FOR INITIAL ACCESS. The cluster relies heavily on exploitation of N-day vulnerabilities in internet-facing applications and appliances.
  • operationally distinguishing the cluster from zero-day- acquisition-capable state-aligned actors (which typically have access to private 0day inventories). Signature vulnerability exploitation includes FortiOS CVE-2018-13379 (SSL VPN path traversal, signature initial-access vector across the cluster's 2020-2022 operational history), Citrix ADC / NetScaler CVE-2019-19781, Oracle WebLogic CVE-2020- 14882, Microsoft Exchange ProxyLogon CVE-2021-26855 and ProxyShell CVE-2021-34473, and WSO2 Identity Server CVE-2022- 29464. N-day exploitation is consistent with the cluster's operational positioning as state-aligned-but-not-state- sponsored or state-tolerated-with-limited-resources. (2) ASPXSPY WEBSHELL DEPLOYMENT + RDP TUNNELING. Following initial-access compromise via N-day exploitation, the cluster consistently deploys ASPXSpy webshell variants on compromised internet-facing servers to gain internal network foothold and enable RDP traffic tunneling between compromised internet- facing servers and internal network resources. The webshell- mediated RDP tunneling tradecraft enables hands-on-keyboard intrusion activity from external IP addresses through the compromised internet-facing server pivot point. SentinelLabs analysis of webshell upload patterns identified that three of the ASPXSpy webshells observed in cluster operations were uploaded from Iranian IP addresses, providing one of the strongest operational geolocation indicators for the cluster's Iran-aligned attribution. (3) COMMERCIAL VPN-BASED OPERATOR IP ANONYMIZATION. Most of the cluster's observed attack-IP-source operations originate from commercial VPN services (primarily ProtonVPN)
  • a signature operational pattern that complicates IP-based attribution while providing operationally-stable infrastructure. (4) IPSEC HELPER CUSTOM .NET BACKDOOR. The cluster operates the IPsec Helper malware family.
  • a custom .NET backdoor developed in-house and operationally exclusive to Agrius.
  • for persistent access, credential harvesting, and follow-on payload deployment. IPsec Helper checks internet connectivity by connecting to pre-determined Microsoft servers and operationally fetches Apostle (or successor wiper) .NET payloads from cluster-controlled command-and-control infrastructure. The IPsec Helper backdoor and Apostle wiper share code similarities suggesting both were developed by the same operator team. (5) ESPIONAGE-BEFORE-DESTRUCTION OPERATIONAL PATTERN. While the cluster's signature operational mission is destructive, industry analysis (J.A. Guerrero-Saade, SentinelLabs) indicates that the cluster's destructive operations are preceded by espionage-style reconnaissance, lateral movement, backdoor deployment, and selective data exfiltration before the destructive payload deployment phase. The espionage- before-destruction operational pattern is consistent with the cluster operating as an intelligence-aware destructive actor (collecting useful intelligence before destroying victim data) rather than a purely-destructive actor. (6) DEMONSTRATED SUPPLY-CHAIN COMPROMISE CAPABILITY. The February-March 2022 Fantasy wiper diamond-industry supply- chain compromise (via trojanized Israeli software-developer update mechanism) demonstrated the cluster's operational capability for sophisticated software-supply-chain operations in addition to direct N-day-exploitation targeting. The Fantasy supply-chain campaign achieved simultaneous-wiping deployment against multiple victims (South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong) on March 12, 2022.
  • operationally consistent with state-aligned supply-chain compromise tradecraft. Targeted sectors across the cluster's operational history include government administration, defense and military, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, energy, water and utilities, the diamond industry (2022 supply-chain campaign), jewelry and precious metals, HR services, IT consulting services, manufacturing, higher education, technology, media and journalism, financial services, and insurance. Targeted geographies are overwhelmingly Israeli (the cluster's primary targeting geography) with secondary operations against UAE, Saudi Arabia, and (via the 2022 diamond-industry supply-chain operation) South Africa and Hong Kong. The targeting profile is strongly consistent with Iranian-state-aligned operational priorities.
  • anti-Israeli destructive operations have been a sustained Iranian-state- aligned cyber-operations mission since the 2012 Shamoon (APT33) wiper era. Industry attribution to Iran-aligned operators is consistent across SentinelLabs (canonical disclosure), ESET, Check Point Research, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, Mandiant, Trellix, and partner industry vendors. No government cybersecurity authority has formally attributed Agrius to a specific Iranian government agency or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unit, but the cluster's operational pattern is consistent with state-aligned or state-tolerated destructive cyber operations against Israeli interests rather than pure criminal cyber activity. Industry analysis has assessed the cluster with "medium confidence to be of Iranian origin" (SentinelLabs language)
  • operationally reflecting the analytical uncertainty inherent in destructive- operations attribution. Agrius is operationally distinct from APT33 / APT34 / APT35 / APT39 / MuddyWater / Pioneer Kitten / Imperial Kitten Iranian clusters separately curated in this corpus, while sharing some tooling overlaps (DEADWOOD wiper shared with APT33 / APT34). The cluster fills the modern destructive-Iran-cluster cell in this corpus and provides analytically-distinct coverage of the Iranian-aligned destructive cyber-operations sub-ecosystem that has historically included Shamoon (APT33, 2012-2017), ZeroCleare (APT34 / Hive0081, 2019-2020), Dustman (related Iranian actors, 2019-2020), Project Signal and n3tw0rm (2021 partial-overlap), and Agrius (2020-present).

Aliases

10
agriusdev-0270dev0270agrius (apostle operators)agrius (fantasy operators)iran-linked wiper actorn3tw0rmproject signalagrius_iranagrius wiper actor

MITRE ATT&CK aliases

4
Additional names MITRE lists for G1030.
Pink SandstormAMERICIUMAgonizing SerpensBlackShadow

Notable Campaigns

9
2023-2025Continued Operations Following October 2023 Israel-Hamas Conflict (2023-2025)
2023MoneyBird Ransomware Variant Deployment (2023)
2022Fantasy Wiper Diamond-Industry Supply-Chain Campaign (February-March 2022)
2021Apostle Wiper-to-Ransomware Evolution and Destructive-as-Ransomware Disguise Pattern (2021)
2021SentinelLabs Canonical Public Disclosure of Agrius Cluster (May 25, 2021)
2021Project Signal / n3tw0rm Operational Overlap (2021)
2020-2022FortiOS CVE-2018-13379 Mass-Exploitation Initial-Access Pattern (2020-2022)
2020-2022ASPXSpy Webshell Deployment and RDP Tunneling (2020-2022)
2020Agrius Operational Emergence - Initial Israeli Targeting (November 2020)

Attribution & Reporting

Attributed by
SentinelLabs (SentinelOne)ESETCheck Point ResearchMicrosoft Threat Intelligence CenterMandiantTrellixCrowdStrikeIsraeli National Cyber Directorate (INCD)CERT-IL (Israeli CERT)VolexityCybereasonTrend MicroSymantec / Broadcom Threat Hunter TeamGroup-IBPRODAFTSecureWorks Counter Threat Unit
Key reporting
Sources & links

Operational

State sponsor

Iran-aligned destructive cyber operations cluster. Industry vendor attribution (SentinelLabs canonical disclosure May 2021, ESET December 2022 Fantasy wiper disclosure, Check Point Research Apostle technical analysis, Trellix, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, Mandiant) is consistent in attributing the cluster to Iran or Iran-aligned operators with medium-to-high confidence based on operational targeting patterns (overwhelming targeting of Israeli organizations and adjacent Middle Eastern organizations supporting Israeli interests), shared tooling with established Iranian-aligned threat-actor clusters (DEADWOOD wiper used by both Agrius and APT33/APT34 Iranian clusters), Iranian-IP-origin upload patterns for some ASPXSpy webshell variants observed in cluster operations, and operational behavior consistent with the broader Iranian state-sponsored destructive-operations ecosystem that has historically deployed Shamoon (APT33), ZeroCleare (APT34/OilRig), and Dustman wipers.

The cluster's operational signature is destructive wiper deployment disguised as ransomware
  • destroying victim data while simultaneously sending ransom demands that cannot in fact restore the destroyed data, with the apparent operational purpose of masking destructive-state-aligned operations as financially-motivated ransomware attacks. Microsoft has assessed adjacent Iranian destructive-operations clusters under various tracking labels (Mint Sandstorm overlap, DEV-0270 legacy, Storm-Iranian-state-aligned tracking) with partial-overlap relationships to Agrius. Agrius has not been formally attributed to a specific Iranian government agency or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unit, but the cluster's operational pattern is consistent with state- aligned or state-tolerated destructive cyber operations against Israeli interests rather than pure criminal cyber activity. The cluster is operationally distinct from APT33 (apt33_elfin.yaml), APT34 (apt34_oilrig.yaml), APT35 (apt35_charmingkitten.yaml), APT39 (apt39_chafer.yaml), MuddyWater (muddywater.yaml), Pioneer Kitten / Fox Kitten (pioneer_kitten_fox_kitten.yaml), and Imperial Kitten / Tortoiseshell (imperial_kitten_tortoiseshell.yaml)
  • each of which is curated separately in this corpus.
  • while sharing some tooling overlaps with APT33 and APT34 (DEADWOOD wiper).
Motivations
destructive_state_aligned_operations, data_destruction_disguised_as_ransomware, sabotage_of_israeli_and_israeli_aligned_organizations, cyber_espionage_secondary_to_destructive_mission, information_operations_via_disruption
Sectors
Regions

CAPEC Attack Patterns

5
Standardized attack patterns (MITRE CAPEC) associated with this actor - the "how" behind the techniques, cross-linked to weaknesses (CWE).

Public detection by layer

60 techniques
Across this actor’s 60 mapped techniques, the share for which public detection content exists in each layer (published detection content across Sigma, Elastic, MITRE CAR, Snort/Suricata, YARA, and Nuclei). Low bars mean little ready-made detection is published for this adversary, so you would likely have to write your own. This is a view of available public content, not of the rules you have deployed.
Behavioral / log (Sigma)58/60 · 96%
Analytics (MITRE CAR)32/60 · 53%
Runtime / container (Falco)7/60 · 11%
File / malware (YARA)1/60 · 1%
Network (Suricata/Snort)15/60 · 25%
Vuln scan (Nuclei)0/60 · 0%
SIEM (Splunk ESCU)54/60 · 90%
SIEM (Elastic)57/60 · 95%
SIEM (Azure Sentinel)16/60 · 26%

Public detection by technique

58/60
Public detection content exists for 58 of this actor’s 60 mapped techniques (96%); 2 have no published detection content. The ones with no published rule are listed first - you would need to source or write detection for those. This reflects published rules, not your own deployment. Per-account coverage, where you upload your own rules and we compute your real gaps, is on the roadmap.
no public rule T1029 Scheduled Transfer
has rules T1059.001 PowerShell Sigma 219 rules 26
has rules T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Sigma 146 rules 63
has rules T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution Sigma 153 rules 10
has rules T1112 Modify Registry Sigma 95 rules 66
has rules T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Sigma 95 rules 20
has rules T1078 Valid Accounts Sigma 61 rules 51
has rules T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information Sigma 94 rules 4
has rules T1003.001 LSASS Memory Sigma 79 rules 10
has rules T1047 Windows Management Instrumentation Sigma 51 rules 17
has rules T1053.005 Scheduled Task Sigma 51 rules 17
has rules T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Sigma 29 rules 32
has rules T1218.011 Rundll32 Sigma 43 rules 16
has rules T1059.003 Windows Command Shell Sigma 45 rules 7
has rules T1036 Masquerading Sigma 40 rules 8
has rules T1071.001 Web Protocols Sigma 41 rules 6
has rules T1033 System Owner/User Discovery Sigma 30 rules 14
has rules T1485 Data Destruction Sigma 20 rules 24
has rules T1082 System Information Discovery Sigma 33 rules 10
has rules T1021.002 SMB/Windows Admin Shares Sigma 38 rules 3
has rules T1003 OS Credential Dumping Sigma 36 rules 2
has rules T1018 Remote System Discovery Sigma 17 rules 18
has rules T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Sigma 16 rules 19
has rules T1059.005 Visual Basic Sigma 28 rules 4
has rules T1021.001 Remote Desktop Protocol Sigma 16 rules 15
has rules T1003.003 NTDS Sigma 24 rules 6
has rules T1083 File and Directory Discovery Sigma 24 rules 5
has rules T1059.007 JavaScript Sigma 23 rules 4
has rules T1070 Indicator Removal Sigma 20 rules 6
has rules T1090 Proxy Sigma 22 rules 3
has rules T1070.004 File Deletion Sigma 15 rules 7
has rules T1133 External Remote Services Sigma 20 rules 2
has rules T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information Sigma 18 rules 2
has rules T1005 Data from Local System Sigma 14 rules 5
has rules T1087 Account Discovery Sigma 16 rules 3
has rules T1219 Remote Access Tools Sigma 6 rules 13
has rules T1053 Scheduled Task/Job Sigma 12 rules 6
has rules T1195.002 Compromise Software Supply Chain Sigma 15 rules 3
has rules T1021 Remote Services Sigma 11 rules 5
has rules T1071 Application Layer Protocol Sigma 7 rules 9
has rules T1106 Native API Sigma 14
has rules T1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel Sigma 5 rules 6
has rules T1078.002 Domain Accounts Sigma 7 rules 4
has rules T1135 Network Share Discovery Sigma 7 rules 4
has rules T1057 Process Discovery Sigma 7 rules 2
has rules T1119 Automated Collection Sigma 5 rules 4
has rules T1090.001 Internal Proxy Sigma 6 rules 2
has rules T1090.003 Multi-hop Proxy Sigma 3 rules 3
has rules T1136 Create Account Sigma 3 rules 2
has rules T1074.001 Local Data Staging Sigma 4
has rules T1027.001 Binary Padding Sigma 3
has rules T1074 Data Staged Sigma 2 rules 1
has rules T1129 Shared Modules Sigma 2 rules 1
has rules T1195 Supply Chain Compromise Sigma 1 rules 2
has rules T1199 Trusted Relationship Sigma 2 rules 1
has rules T1027.002 Software Packing Sigma 1

Atomic Test Plan

30 techniques
Runnable Atomic Red Team tests covering this actor’s mapped techniques - validate your detections against this specific adversary. Cross-reference the blind spots above. For authorized lab / purple-team use. Open the full builder

Tools Used

1 mapped
Other tooling / TTPs (curation, not ATT&CK-mapped):
MONEYBIRD RANSOMWARESANDALS
External lookups - second-class, for what we don’t hold ourselves