Iran-Linked IOCONTROL Malware Targets SCADA and Linux-Based IoT Platforms

Iran-affiliated threat actors have been linked to a new custom malware that’s geared toward IoT and operational technology (OT) environments in Israel and the United States.

The malware has been codenamed IOCONTROL by OT cybersecurity company Claroty, highlighting its ability to attack IoT and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) devices such as IP cameras, routers, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), firewalls, and other Linux-based IoT/OT platforms.

“While the malware is believed to be custom-built by the threat actor, it seems that the malware is generic enough that it is able to run on a variety of platforms from different vendors due to its modular configuration,” the company said.

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The development makes IOCONTROL the tenth malware family to specifically single out Industrial Control Systems (ICS) after Stuxnet, Havex, Industroyer (aka CrashOverride), Triton (aka Trisis), BlackEnergy2, Industroyer2, PIPEDREAM (aka INCONTROLLER), COSMICENERGY, and FrostyGoop (aka BUSTLEBERM) to date.

Claroty said it analyzed a malware sample extracted from a Gasboy fuel management system that was previously compromised by the hacking group called Cyber Av3ngers, which has been linked to cyber attacks exploiting Unitronics PLCs to breach water systems. The malware was embedded within Gasboy’s Payment Terminal, otherwise called OrPT.

This also means that the threat actors, given their ability to control the payment terminal, also had the means to shut down fuel services and potentially steal credit card information from customers.

“The malware is essentially a cyberweapon used by a nation-state to attack civilian critical infrastructure; at least one of the victims were the Orpak and Gasboy fuel management systems,” Claroty said.

The end goal of the infection chain is to deploy a backdoor that’s automatically executed every time the device restarts. A notable aspect of IOCONTROL is its use of MQTT, a messaging protocol widely used in IoT devices, for communications, thereby allowing the threat actors to disguise malicious traffic.

What’s more, command-and-control (C2) domains are resolved using Cloudflare’s DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) service. This approach, already adopted by Chinese and Russian nation-state groups, is significant, as it allows the malware to evade detection when sending DNS requests in cleartext.

Once a successful C2 connection is established, the malware transmits information about the device, namely hostname, current user, device name and model, timezone, firmware version, and location, to the server, after it awaits further commands for execution.

This includes checks to ensure the malware is installed in the designated directory, execute arbitrary operating system commands, terminate the malware, and scan an IP range in a specific port.

“The malware communicates with a C2 over a secure MQTT channel and supports basic commands including arbitrary code execution, self-delete, port scan, and more,” Claroty said. “This functionality is enough to control remote IoT devices and perform lateral movement if needed.”

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