Project Sauron / Strider
Project Sauron / Strider (canonical Kaspersky GReAT naming "ProjectSauron" / "Project Sauron" from internal Lua script reference to LotR antagonist.
canonical Symantec naming "Strider".
malware family naming Remsec) is an unattributed but universally-assessed-state-sponsored cyber-espionage cluster that operated approximately five years undetected from June 2011 through September 2015 detection by Kaspersky's KATA anti-targeted-attack platform, with canonical simultaneous Kaspersky GReAT + Symantec disclosures published August 8, 2016.
Eugene Kaspersky has publicly implied U.S. attribution alongside Equation Group and CIA-linked Lamberts though no formal attribution has been established and target selection (Russia, China, Iran, Sweden, Belgium, Rwanda, possibly Italian-speaking countries) complicates straightforward single-state attribution.
Kaspersky GReAT and Symantec categorize the cluster alongside Duqu, Flame, Equation Group, and Regin as "top-of-the-top modular cyber-espionage platform", operationally one of the most sophisticated state-aligned offensive cyber operations clusters in publicly-tracked industry analysis.
signature operational tradecraft is unique implants per individual target never reused (operationally rendering standard IOC-based detection ineffective) with 28 documented domains linked to 11 IPs in US+Europe all unique-per-victim, memory-only Binary Large Object (BLOB) execution, modular Lua-scripted platform (Lua use shared only with Flame and Animal Farm at time of disclosure), Windows LSA password filter persistence on domain controllers, multi-algorithm encryption (RC6+RC5+RC4 +AES+Salsa20), multi-channel C2 (ICMP+PCAP+RAW sockets+ named pipes+HTTP+DNS+legitimate email), signature USB-based air-gap data exfiltration with encrypted partition + In/Out virtual directories, comprehensive intelligence collection plugins (screen capture, audio recording, keylogging, encryption key collection, certificate theft)
~30-40 documented victims across Kaspersky (30+ in Russia/Iran/ Rwanda) and Symantec (36 computers / 7 organizations); operationally distinctive pre-emptive disinfection response to research-community attention before public disclosure per Symantec Vikram Thakur.
Lua-modules operational lineage to Flame.
one Strider victim previously infected by Regin; post-disclosure operational cessation since late 2016 with no observed continuation.
fills historical Tier-4 unattributed-state-aligned ~5-year-undetected APT cell in the curated corpus.