Hacker groupG0069
MuddyWater
Also tracked as Earth Vetala, MERCURY, Static Kitten, Seedworm, TEMP.Zagros, Mango Sandstorm, TA450, MuddyKrill
MuddyWater is a cyber espionage group assessed to be a subordinate element within Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Since at least 2017, MuddyWater has targeted a range of government and private organizations across sectors, including telecommunications, local government, finance, defense, and oil and natural gas organizations, in the Middle East (specifically the UAE and Saudi Arabia), Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. MuddyWater has reused domains dating back to October 2025, and has a preference for NameCheap and Hosterdaddy Private Limited (AS136557). In late 2025 and early 2026, MuddyWater used commercial satellite internet (i.e., Starlink) for command and control (C2) communication.
- Known attack methods
- 68
- Motive
- Espionage
- First seen
- 2017
- Source
- MITRE ATT&CK
How they break in
Techniques MITRE has documented this group using, mapped onto the ATT&CK matrix. Each one is a behaviour you can look for in your own logs, and a control you can test.
Used by this groupNot documented for this groupIn brackets: sub-techniques this group uses, of those that exist.
Reconnaissance
12 techniques · 1 used
Resource Development
9 techniques · 2 used
Initial Access
11 techniques · 2 used
Execution
20 techniques · 6 used
Persistence
22 techniques · 2 used
Privilege Escalation
13 techniques · 1 used
Stealth
30 techniques · 6 used
Defense Impairment
18 techniques · 1 used
Credential Access
17 techniques · 3 used
Discovery
34 techniques · 8 used
Lateral Movement
9 techniques · 2 used
Collection
17 techniques · 3 used
Command and Control
18 techniques · 9 used
Exfiltration
9 techniques · 2 used
Impact
15 techniques
Reconnaissance1
Resource development4
Initial access4
Execution13
- T1047Windows Management Instrumentation
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1059.003Windows Command Shell
- T1059.005Visual Basic
- T1059.006Python
- T1059.007JavaScript
- T1203Exploitation for Client Execution
- T1204.001Malicious Link
- T1204.002Malicious File
- T1204.004Malicious Copy and Paste
- T1559.001Component Object Model
- T1559.002Dynamic Data Exchange
Privilege escalation1
Stealth10
Defense impairment1
Credential access6
Discovery9
Lateral movement2
Command and control10
Malware
Families MITRE records this group deploying. Detection names for these are a reasonable place to start.
FooderLP-NotesMoriMuddyViperPOWERSTATSPowGoopRustyWaterSHARPSTATSSTARWHALESmall SieveTsundere Botnet
Tools
Legitimate or dual-use software the group is documented using. Most of it is software your own administrators use too, which is the point.
ConnectWiseCrackMapExecEmpireKoadicLaZagneMimikatzOut1PowerSploitRcloneRemoteUtilities