BladedFeline
- First seen
- 2017-01-01 00:00:00
- Origin
- IR
- Primary motivation
- espionage
- Sophistication
- advanced
- Resource level
- government
- Actor type
- nation-state
- Profile updated
- 2026-07-07 12:24:07
Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector
Targeted regions: country_code:iq country_code:ir
Context
BladedFeline is an Iran-aligned APT group that has been active since at least 2017, targeting Iraqi and Kurdish government officials for cyberespionage. The group employs a variety of tools, including the Shahmaran backdoor, Whisper, and PrimeCache, which is a malicious IIS module. BladedFeline utilizes techniques such as spearphishing (T1566), exploiting public-facing applications (T1190), and timestomping to maintain access and exfiltrate data. The group is assessed with medium confidence to be a subgroup of OilRig, focusing on strategic access to high-ranking officials in the region.
Reports & references
- ESET — Bladedfeline Whispering Dark (report)