Analysis Summary

The National CERT has reported a surge in targeted phishing activity linked to the Sidewinder Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group, also known as Rattlesnake, Hardcore Nationalist (HN2), and T-APT-04. Active since 2012, this group is notorious for carrying out cyber-espionage campaigns against South Asian governments and military institutions, with the primary aim of harvesting sensitive and confidential information. Their operations are highly persistent and strategic, focusing on institutions with critical national value.

Recent intelligence confirms that Sidewinder has registered multiple malicious IPs like 151.106.117.19 and domains impersonating law enforcement and government organizations. The group has specifically targeted entities such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Ministry of Interior (MoI), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police, and Special Security Units. Their phishing campaigns often use fabricated emails and social media messages sent from compromised or fake accounts, with the primary purpose of tricking officials into clicking on malicious links or downloading weaponized attachments/files. These attacks are designed to infect Windows systems (via malicious payloads), Android devices (via spyware and trojans), and cloud/email services linked to sensitive government or military networks.

The phishing techniques involve several carefully crafted steps. Attackers send deceptive emails or files that appear legitimate, often imitating government offices, banks, or official portals. These communications may include fake security alerts, account suspension notices, or password reset warnings that urge the recipient to take immediate action. If the recipient clicks on the malicious link or downloads the infected file, malware is executed, granting the attacker access to the victim’s device. This access allows the threat actor to exfiltrate sensitive information, capture credentials, and establish long-term persistence in the environment.

Once inside, the Sidewinder group can exfiltrate a wide range of data including system information, images, audio, and video files. They also steal login credentials, which can then be reused to expand access or launch additional targeted phishing campaigns. By leveraging a combination of social engineering, malware, and cloud account compromise, Sidewinder maintains continuous access to victim systems, enabling large-scale data theft. These operations highlight the group’s consistent focus on undermining South Asian governments, law enforcement, and military institutions to support their strategic intelligence-gathering objectives.

Impact

• Sensitive Data Theft
• Gain Access
• Operational Disruption

Indicators of Compromise

Remediation

• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) in your environment utilizing your respective security controls.
• Conduct regular phishing awareness training for employees, especially government, military, and law enforcement staff, to help identify suspicious emails and links.
• Implement strict email filtering and sandboxing solutions to block malicious attachments, links, and spoofed sender domains.
• Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts, particularly for email, cloud services, and VPN access, to reduce credential theft risks.
• Apply the principle of least privilege (PoLP) by restricting user access to only the systems and data necessary for their role.
• Regularly update and patch operating systems, email clients, and applications to reduce exploitation of known vulnerabilities.
• Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to identify malicious scripts (e.g., PowerShell, VBScript) and unusual process executions.
• Monitor and log abnormal login activities, including access from unusual geolocations or devices, for rapid detection of account compromise.
• Use domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance (DMARC), SPF, and DKIM to protect against spoofed email domains.
• Segment networks to limit lateral movement if an endpoint or account is compromised.
• Establish an incident response playbook for phishing campaigns, including immediate isolation of infected devices and credential resets.