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Two never-before-seen tools, from same group, infect air-gapped devices

It’s hard enough creating one air-gap-jumping tool. GoldenJackal did it 2x in 5 years.

“With the level of sophistication required, it is quite unusual that in five years, GoldenJackal managed to build and deploy not one, but two separate toolsets designed to compromise air-gapped systems,” ESET researcher Matías Porolli wrote in Tuesday’s report. Raiu said the highly modular approach is also reminiscent of Red October, an elaborate espionage platform discovered in 2013 targeting hundreds of diplomatic, governmental, and scientific organizations in at least 39 countries, including the Russian Federation, Iran, and the United States. While much of Tuesday’s report contains technical analysis that is likely to be too advanced for many people to understand, it provides important new information that furthers insights into malware designed to jump air gaps and the tactics, techniques, and procedures of those who use it.

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