Dark Caracal
Overview
Dark Caracal is threat group that has been attributed to the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security (GDGS) and has operated since at least 2012.
Naming & attribution
Dark Caracal is tracked under 1 names across the industry. It uses 12 documented ATT&CK techniques — more than 35% of the 174 groups tracked here. Activity attributed since at least 2012.
| Name | First reported by |
|---|---|
| Dark Caracal | Blaich, A., et al |
Closest groups by technique overlap
Computed from shared ATT&CK techniques. Overlap is not attribution — distinct actors converge on the same tradecraft — but a high share is a useful pivot.
- APT18 China — 5 shared techniques (26% overlap)
- Elderwood China — 4 shared techniques (24% overlap)
- Inception Russia — 6 shared techniques (21% overlap)
- Darkhotel South Korea — 6 shared techniques (20% overlap)
- Windshift — 5 shared techniques (19% overlap)
- RTM Russia — 3 shared techniques (19% overlap)
Malware families with current indicators
3 families attributed to Dark Caracal, carrying 142 indicators currently tracked from abuse.ch ThreatFox, MalwareBazaar, URLhaus and SSLBL. MITRE documents what a group does; this is what its tooling is doing now.
- CrossRAT 121 indicators
- Bandook 18 indicators
- FinFisher 3 indicators
Browse or copy the indicators by hash, domain, IP or URL, filtered by age from 1 day to 3 years.
Capabilities
- Custom malware/implant development — ATT&CK: 3 attributed custom malware families
TTPs — 12 techniques across 7 tactics
Initial Access
-
T1189Drive-by Compromise -
T1566.003Spearphishing via Service
Execution
-
T1059.003Windows Command Shell -
T1204.002Malicious File
Persistence
-
T1547.001Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder
Stealth
-
T1027.002Software Packing -
T1027.013Encrypted/Encoded File -
T1218.001Compiled HTML File
Discovery
Collection
-
T1005Data from Local System -
T1113Screen Capture
Command and Control
-
T1071.001Web Protocols
Tools & malware (3)
FinFisher · CrossRAT · Bandook
Reporting (1)
- Dark Caracal: Cyber-espionage at a Global Scale — Blaich, A., et al