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MITRE ATT&CK® Group

G0064: APT33

APT33 is a suspected Iranian threat group that has carried out operations since at least 2013. The group has targeted organizations across multiple industries in the United States, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, with a particular interest in the aviation and energy sectors.[1][2]

EnterpriseG0064GroupObject v2.0 Modified
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Glexia's Take

Analyst context for executives and security teams

Analyst confidence Medium

APT33 matters because MITRE describes it as a suspected Iranian group active since at least 2013 with reported targeting across the United States, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, especially aviation and energy. The relationship set is operationally important: it links the group to credential-dumping, PowerShell/post-exploitation frameworks, remote access tools, FTP transfer, Exchange/Office abuse tooling, and wiper malware. For leaders, the decision value is not the name alone; it is whether identity controls, Windows endpoint visibility, email security, remote access monitoring, and recovery plans can withstand the behaviors represented by these relationships.

Executive priority

Prioritize APT33 as a threat-intelligence-informed readiness driver if the organization operates in aviation, energy, Saudi/U.S./South Korea exposure, or environments where IT compromise could affect operational technology. Executive questions should focus on: can the SOC prove visibility over credential theft and PowerShell activity; can IR contain compromised Windows credentials quickly; are destructive-malware recovery assumptions tested; and do audit/compliance records show controls over email attachments, privileged accounts, logging, segmentation, and backups?

Technical view

MITRE provides no official detection text for the group, so defenders should build coverage from the related software and techniques. Validate detections for Windows credential access involving LSASS memory, LSA Secrets, and cached domain credentials; command-line use of Net and ftp; PowerShell-heavy frameworks such as PowerSploit, Empire, PoshC2, and POWERTON; RAT/backdoor families including NETWIRE, NanoCore, Pupy, TURNEDUP, and AutoIt backdoor; Exchange/Office abuse associated with Ruler; obfuscated or encoded files; and network sniffing behavior where relevant. The ICS relationships for screen capture, scripting, and spearphishing attachment make OT-facing monitoring and phishing controls relevant where control-system environments exist.

Likely telemetry

  • Endpoint process creation, command-line, parent/child process, module load, and script execution logs, especially on Windows systems
  • PowerShell logging and administrative shell telemetry
  • Windows security events and EDR signals related to LSASS access, registry access to LSA Secrets, and credential-dumping tools such as Mimikatz and LaZagne
  • Email gateway, attachment detonation, and user-reporting telemetry for spearphishing attachments
  • Office Suite and Exchange service logs relevant to Ruler-like abuse

Detection direction

  • Correlate across aliases APT33, HOLMIUM, Elfin, and Peach Sandstorm so intelligence, case management, and SIEM content do not fragment the same ATT&CK group reference.
  • Do not rely only on malware names. Several related tools are public or legitimate administrative utilities, so detection should combine behavior, execution context, privilege level, destination, and sequence.
  • Tune for credential-access chains: suspicious LSASS access, LSA Secrets access, cached credential access, followed by lateral movement or remote administration activity should receive higher priority.
  • Validate PowerShell and scripting coverage because multiple related tools and backdoors use scripting or PowerShell-style post-exploitation.
  • Review false positives for Net, ftp, PowerSploit, Empire, PoshC2, Pupy, and other dual-use tools by comparing expected administrative baselines with unusual hosts, users, timing, and network destinations.

Mitigation priorities

  • Start with identity hardening: restrict privileged access, reduce credential exposure, monitor administrative accounts, and limit cached or reusable credentials where operationally feasible.
  • Harden Windows endpoints against credential dumping and unauthorized access to LSASS and sensitive registry secrets.
  • Constrain and log PowerShell, scripting interpreters, and command-line administrative utilities without blocking legitimate operations blindly.
  • Strengthen email attachment defenses, user reporting, and investigation workflows for targeted phishing scenarios.
  • Control outbound transfer paths such as FTP and monitor unusual remote administration traffic.
Analyst notes and limits

This take is based on MITRE ATT&CK group G0064, its aliases, official description, external references, and supplied relationship context. The most useful defensive interpretation comes from the related software and techniques rather than from a group-level detection field, which is not provided. APT33 should be used as a threat-informed planning scenario, especially for aviation, energy, identity, endpoint, email, and recovery readiness.

MITRE does not specify group-level platforms, tactics, or official detection guidance for this object. Relationship descriptions include multiple public, dual-use, and cross-platform tools, so local baselines are required before treating activity as malicious. The supplied data supports historical targeting and relationships, not current exploitation, confirmed attribution in a local incident, or guaranteed detection coverage.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

APT33

APT33 is a suspected Iranian threat group that has carried out operations since at least 2013. The group has targeted organizations across multiple industries in the United States, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, with a particular interest in the aviation and energy sectors.[1][2]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

How security teams should use this page

Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.

ATT&CK relationship table

Techniques used

This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.

31 rows
Domain ID Name Relationship / procedure
Enterprise T1552.001 Credentials In Files Sub-technique

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne to gather credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Sub-technique

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne to gather credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1560.001 Archive via Utility Sub-technique

APT33 has used WinRAR to compress data prior to exfil.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1555.003 Credentials from Web Browsers Sub-technique

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne to gather credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1552.006 Group Policy Preferences Sub-technique

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like Gpppassword to gather credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1027.013 Encrypted/Encoded File Sub-technique

APT33 has used base64 to encode payloads.CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment Sub-technique

APT33 has sent spearphishing e-mails with archive attachments.CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1003.001 LSASS Memory Sub-technique

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne, Mimikatz, and ProcDump to dump credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1566.002 Spearphishing Link Sub-technique

APT33 has sent spearphishing emails containing links to .hta files.CitationFireEye APT33 Sept 2017CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1110.003 Password Spraying Sub-technique

APT33 has used password spraying to gain access to target systems.CitationFireEye APT33 GuardrailCitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1003.004 LSA Secrets Sub-technique

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne to gather credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1053.005 Scheduled Task Sub-technique

APT33 has created a scheduled task to execute a .vbe file multiple times a day.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1555 Credentials from Password Stores

APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne to gather credentials.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1546.003 Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription Sub-technique

APT33 has attempted to use WMI event subscriptions to establish persistence on compromised hosts.CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

APT33 has downloaded additional files and programs from its C2 server.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol Sub-technique

APT33 has used FTP to exfiltrate files (separately from the C2 channel).CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1588.002 Tool Sub-technique

APT33 has obtained and leveraged publicly-available tools for early intrusion activities.CitationFireEye APT33 GuardrailCitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1040 Network Sniffing

APT33 has used SniffPass to collect credentials by sniffing network traffic.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1071.001 Web Protocols Sub-technique

APT33 has used HTTP for command and control.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1059.001 PowerShell Sub-technique

APT33 has utilized PowerShell to download files from the C2 server and run various scripts. CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder Sub-technique

APT33 has deployed a tool known as DarkComet to the Startup folder of a victim, and used Registry run keys to gain persistence.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1078 Valid Accounts

APT33 has used valid accounts for initial access and privilege escalation.CitationFireEye APT33 Webinar Sept 2017CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1573.001 Symmetric Cryptography Sub-technique

APT33 has used AES for encryption of command and control traffic.CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1059.005 Visual Basic Sub-technique

APT33 has used VBScript to initiate the delivery of payloads.CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1132.001 Standard Encoding Sub-technique

APT33 has used base64 to encode command and control traffic.CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Enterprise T1571 Non-Standard Port

APT33 has used HTTP over TCP ports 808 and 880 for command and control.CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1078.004 Cloud Accounts Sub-technique

APT33 has used compromised Office 365 accounts in tandem with Ruler in an attempt to gain control of endpoints.CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

APT33 has attempted to exploit a known vulnerability in WinRAR (CVE-2018-20250), and attempted to gain remote code execution via a security bypass vulnerability (CVE-2017-11774).CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1204.002 Malicious File Sub-technique

APT33 has used malicious e-mail attachments to lure victims into executing malware.CitationMicrosoft Holmium June 2020
Enterprise T1204.001 Malicious Link Sub-technique

APT33 has lured users to click links to malicious HTML applications delivered via spearphishing emails.CitationFireEye APT33 Sept 2017CitationSymantec Elfin Mar 2019
Enterprise T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

APT33 has used a publicly available exploit for CVE-2017-0213 to escalate privileges on a local system.CitationFireEye APT33 Guardrail
Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

Tool Enterprise

S0194: PowerSploit

PowerSploit is an open source, offensive security framework comprised of PowerShell modules and scripts that perform a wide range of tasks related to penetration testing such as code execution, persistence, bypassing anti-virus, recon, and exfiltration. [1] [2] [3]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S0129: AutoIt backdoor

AutoIt backdoor is malware that has been used by the actors responsible for the MONSOON campaign. The actors frequently used it in weaponized .pps files exploiting CVE-2014-6352. [1] This malware makes use of the legitimate scripting language for Windows GUI automation with the same name.

Windows
Tool Enterprise

S0378: PoshC2

PoshC2 is an open source remote administration and post-exploitation framework that is publicly available on GitHub. The server-side components of the tool are primarily written in Python, while the implants are written in PowerShell. Although PoshC2 is primarily focused on Windows implantation, it does contain a basic Python dropper for Linux/macOS.[1]

WindowsLinuxmacOS
Tool Enterprise

S0358: Ruler

Ruler is a tool to abuse Microsoft Exchange services. It is publicly available on GitHub and the tool is executed via the command line. The creators of Ruler have also released a defensive tool, NotRuler, to detect its usage.[1][2]

WindowsOffice Suite
Tool Enterprise

S0002: Mimikatz

Mimikatz is a credential dumper capable of obtaining plaintext Windows account logins and passwords, along with many other features that make it useful for testing the security of networks. [1] [2]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S0336: NanoCore

NanoCore is a modular remote access tool developed in .NET that can be used to spy on victims and steal information. It has been used by threat actors since 2013.[1][2][3][4]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S1134: DEADWOOD

DEADWOOD is wiper malware written in C++ using Boost libraries. DEADWOOD was first observed in an unattributed wiping event in Saudi Arabia in 2019, and has since been incorporated into Agrius operations.[1]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S0371: POWERTON

POWERTON is a custom PowerShell backdoor first observed in 2018. It has typically been deployed as a late-stage backdoor by APT33. At least two variants of the backdoor have been identified, with the later version containing improved functionality.[1]

Windows
Tool Enterprise

S0349: LaZagne

LaZagne is a post-exploitation, open-source tool used to recover stored passwords on a system. It has modules for Windows, Linux, and OSX, but is mainly focused on Windows systems. LaZagne is publicly available on GitHub.[1]

LinuxmacOSWindows
Malware Enterprise

S0198: NETWIRE

NETWIRE is a publicly available, multiplatform remote administration tool (RAT) that has been used by criminal and APT groups since at least 2012.[1][2][3]

WindowsLinuxmacOS
Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

uses · Tool S0194: PowerSploit Enterprise uses · Technique T1552.001: Credentials In Files Enterprise uses · Technique T1003.005: Cached Domain Credentials Enterprise uses · Technique T1560.001: Archive via Utility Enterprise uses · Malware S0129: AutoIt backdoor Enterprise uses · Tool S0378: PoshC2 Enterprise uses · Tool S0358: Ruler Enterprise uses · Tool S0002: Mimikatz Enterprise uses · Technique T1555.003: Credentials from Web Browsers Enterprise uses · Technique T1552.006: Group Policy Preferences Enterprise uses · Technique T1027.013: Encrypted/Encoded File Enterprise uses · Technique T1566.001: Spearphishing Attachment Enterprise uses · Malware S0336: NanoCore Enterprise uses · Malware S1134: DEADWOOD Enterprise uses · Technique T1003.001: LSASS Memory Enterprise uses · Technique T1566.002: Spearphishing Link Enterprise uses · Malware S0380: StoneDrill Enterprise uses · Malware S0371: POWERTON Enterprise uses · Technique T1110.003: Password Spraying Enterprise uses · Technique T1003.004: LSA Secrets Enterprise uses · Technique T1053.005: Scheduled Task Enterprise uses · Technique T1555: Credentials from Password Stores Enterprise uses · Tool S0349: LaZagne Enterprise uses · Technique T1546.003: Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription Enterprise
Change history

Object version and sync metadata

The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .

ATT&CK release
19.1
Object version
2.0
Created
Modified
Raw hash
8bce83bff7b0e88f...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
Release Bundle imported Object version Modified Status Raw hash
19.1 2.0 Current bundle 8bce83bff7b0…
Raw source

Mirrored ATT&CK source object

The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.

Open mirrored raw JSON Open MITRE-hosted copy
Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    FireEye APT33 Sept 2017

    O'Leary, J., et al. (2017, September 20). Insights into Iranian Cyber Espionage: APT33 Targets Aerospace and Energy Sectors and has Ties to Destructive Malware. Retrieved February 15, 2018.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    FireEye APT33 Webinar Sept 2017

    Davis, S. and Carr, N. (2017, September 21). APT33: New Insights into Iranian Cyber Espionage Group. Retrieved February 15, 2018.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    APT33

    (Citation: FireEye APT33 Sept 2017) (Citation: FireEye APT33 Webinar Sept 2017)

  4. [4]
    Elfin

    (Citation: Symantec Elfin Mar 2019)

  5. [5]
    HOLMIUM

    (Citation: Microsoft Holmium June 2020)

  6. [6]
    Microsoft Holmium June 2020

    Microsoft Threat Protection Intelligence Team. (2020, June 18). Inside Microsoft Threat Protection: Mapping attack chains from cloud to endpoint. Retrieved June 22, 2020.

    Open source URL
  7. [7]
    Microsoft Threat Actor Naming July 2023

    Microsoft . (2023, July 12). How Microsoft names threat actors. Retrieved November 17, 2023.

    Open source URL
  8. [8]
    Peach Sandstorm

    (Citation: Microsoft Threat Actor Naming July 2023)

  9. [9]
    Symantec Elfin Mar 2019

    Security Response attack Investigation Team. (2019, March 27). Elfin: Relentless Espionage Group Targets Multiple Organizations in Saudi Arabia and U.S.. Retrieved April 10, 2019.

    Open source URL
  10. [10]
    mitre-attack G0064
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

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