Also known as Seedworm, MERCURY, and Static Kitten, and initially analyzed in 2017, MuddyWater is mainly focused on organizations in the Middle East and regions nearby. Highly active, the group was observed expanding its target list and leveraging a broad and varied toolset.

Although further details on the threat actor’s operations emerged last year (after an unknown entity published documents on multiple Iranian groups), and despite security researchers’ scrutiny, MuddyWater continues to evolve its strategies.

According to Microsoft, one of the latest changes in the group’s tactics is the adoption of exploits for Zerologon, a Netlogon remote protocol (MS-NRPC) vulnerability that was addressed in August 2020.