Medium
APT C-23 also known as AridViper and Desert Falcon is active in middle east region targeting different sectors with their malicious documents. The group’s discovery came around March 2017 and their main target emerged as the Middle East. The group has previously faked an android app to deploy Android/SpyC23 mainly for spying, including reading notifications from messaging apps, call recording and screen recording, and with new stealth features, such as dismissing notifications from built-in Android security apps. The ongoing campaign is targeting Middle Eastern Country Sudan with the disguised document impersonating the embassy in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and asking for a diplomatic permission to land two military aircrafts (C-130 + C-17) and a permit which should be valid for 72 hours. The timing of these documents are really critical as there’s ongoing activity in the Middle Eastern Region regarding the policy making and ties with the other countries.
The decoy documents looks like an attempt to sabotage the process of diplomatic talks going on between Middle eastern countries.
This is relevant to the ongoing spying campaign already active in the middle east via Android Mobile apps which confers resistance to takedowns and manual removal as well. The spyware are in the form of apps that includes App Updates, System Apps Updates, or Android Update Intelligence, which are being sent to the users in the form of text messages and after installations in asks for specific permissions which includes access media apps and other files app in your phone.