APT42

APT42 is an Iranian-sponsored threat group that conducts cyber espionage and surveillance.¹ The group primarily focuses on targets in the Middle East region, but has targeted a variety of industries and countries since at least 2015.² APT42 starts cyber operations through spearphishing emails and/or the PINEFLOWER Android malware, then monitors and collects information from the compromised systems and devices.³ Finally, APT42 exfiltrates data using native features and open-source tools.⁴ APT42 activities have been linked to Magic Hound by other commercial vendors. While there are behavior and software overlaps between Magic Hound and APT42, they appear to be distinct entities and are tracked as separate entities by their originating vendor.

1. Mandiant APT42-charms
2. Mandiant APT42-charms
3. Mandiant APT42-charms
4. Mandiant APT42-untangling

Claims and citations

Every claim comes from a writer; provenance is the writer's assertion, not a review verdict from this directory. Validity reads by citation year.

Technique use

Aliases

APT42

Reading and review

Records are auto-ingested and not human-reviewed. Confidence is the writer's 0–100 value; bands split at ≥80 / 50–79 / <50 into high / medium / low. The four trust axes (synthetic, lifecycle, band, source count) stay separate and never merge into one score.

Corrections