Helminth

MITRE ATT&CK: S0170 View on attack.mitre.org

Aliases: Helminth

First seen
2015-12-01 00:00:00
Malware type
backdoor
Family
Malware family
Operating systems
windows
Profile updated
2026-07-07 15:43:49

Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector energy-and-utilities

Context

Helminth is a backdoor that has at least two variants - one written in VBScript and PowerShell that is delivered via a macros in Excel spreadsheets, and one that is a standalone Windows executable.

Detection coverage

  • 1 YARA rules
  • 466 Sigma rules

Malware & tools used

  • Scheduled Task (attack-pattern)
  • Code Signing (attack-pattern)
  • Encrypted/Encoded File (attack-pattern)
  • Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder (attack-pattern)
  • Symmetric Cryptography (attack-pattern)
  • Shortcut Modification (attack-pattern)
  • DNS (attack-pattern)
  • Web Protocols (attack-pattern)
  • PowerShell (attack-pattern)
  • Process Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Visual Basic (attack-pattern)
  • Keylogging (attack-pattern)
  • Ingress Tool Transfer (attack-pattern)
  • Local Data Staging (attack-pattern)
  • Clipboard Data (attack-pattern)
  • Windows Command Shell (attack-pattern)
  • Local Groups (attack-pattern)
  • Domain Groups (attack-pattern)
  • Automated Collection (attack-pattern)
  • Standard Encoding (attack-pattern)
  • Data Transfer Size Limits (attack-pattern)

Used by threat actors

Detection rules

  • MALPEDIA_Win_Helminth_Auto (yara-rule)

Reports & references

  • blog.morphisec.com — Iranian Fileless Cyberattack On Israel Word Vulnerability (report)
  • Mandiant — Targeted Attacksaga (report)
  • secureworks.com — Cobalt Gypsy (report)
  • researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com — The Oilrig Campaign Attacks On Saudi Arabian Organizations Deliver Helminth Backdoor (report)
  • researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com — Unit42 Oilrig Malware Campaign Updates Toolset And Expands Targets (report)
  • cyware.com — Apt34 The Helix Kitten Cybercriminal Group Loves To Meow Middle Eastern And International Organizations 48Ae (report)
  • Palo Alto Unit 42 — Dns Tunneling In The Wild Overview Of Oilrigs Dns Tunneling (report)
  • malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de — Win.Helminth (report)
  • researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com — The Oilrig Campaign Attacks On Saudi Arabian Organizations Deliver Helminth Backdoor (report)
  • MITRE ATT&CK — S0170 (report)

External references