Hamas Hackers Spy on Mideast Gov'ts, Disrupt Israel

Source: Christophe Coat via Alamy Stock Photo

A longstanding threat actor affiliated with Hamas has been conducting espionage against governments across the Middle East and destructive wiper attacks in Israel.

“Wirte” is a 6 1/2-year-old advanced persistent threat (APT) working to support Hamas’ political agenda. Check Point Research identifies it as a subgroup of the Gaza Cybergang (aka Molerats), which is also thought to overlap with TA402.

In recent weeks and months, Wirte has leveraged the Gaza war to spread phishing attacks against government entities spread across the region. It has also been carrying out wiper attacks in Israel. “It shows that Hamas still has cyber capabilities, even with the ongoing war,” says Sergey Shykevich, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point.

Wirte’s Spying and Wiping Attacks

Wirte attacks are not particularly unique or sophisticated. A PDF in an email might contain a link directing targets to a file for download, named in some way to lend it legitimacy (e.g., “Beirut — Developments of the War in Lebanon 2”). The file will contain a lure document, one or more legitimate executables, and the malware.

To upgrade this infection chain, Wirte has sometimes made use of the IronWind loader, starting in October 2023. IronWind uses a complex, multistage infection chain to drop malware, with the goal of frustrating analysis. It employs geofencing, and reflective loaders that run code directly in memory, rather than on the disk, where it might otherwise be spotted by antivirus software.

In an espionage-focused attack, the end of this chain might bring the open source penetration testing framework “Havoc.” Havoc enables persistent access to a compromised machine, useful for establishing remote control, performing lateral movement, stealing data, and more.

In February and October 2024, by contrast, Wirte campaigns climaxed with the deployment of a wiper called “SameCoin.”

Last month, Wirte puppetted the email address of a legitimate Israeli reseller of ESET software. Its lure message — sent to hospitals, municipal governments, and others — warned recipients that “Government-based attackers may be trying to compromise your device!” and included a download link. The link first tried to connect to the website for Israel’s Home Front Command, a wing of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responsible for protecting civilians. Its site is accessible only to those within Israel, so if the redirection succeeded, the attack would proceed.

Next, a downloaded zip file dropped and decrypted a pro-Hamas wallpaper JPG, a propaganda video, a tool designed to enable lateral movement within targeted networks, and the SameCoin wiper.

Still image from a political video spread in the SameCoin campaign; Source: @NicoleFishi19 on X

What Wirte Wants

Wirte spying has crossed into Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but its favored targets appear to be from Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the government entity that oversees parts of the West Bank and is controlled by Fatah, Hamas’s primary political rival within Palestine. For the most part, this has remained consistent in its half-dozen-year history.

Wirte has evolved somewhat is in its approach to Israel. And in this way, it has also mirrored other Palestinian threat actors.

“Before the war, it was focused mostly on espionage, and stealthy persistence in networks,” Shykevich explains. This is in stark contrast to its latest wave of loud wiper attacks, for example, which were timed to begin on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the terror attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis and led to the capture of nearly 250 more.

“Now, it has become more and more about making [breaches] public, showing the data, the destruction. The focus is more and more on hack-and-leak operations, and how they can use cyber capabilities to try to shape a narrative.”

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About the Author

Nate Nelson is a freelance writer based in New York City. Formerly a reporter at Threatpost, he contributes to a number of cybersecurity blogs and podcasts. He writes “Malicious Life” – an award-winning Top 20 tech podcast on Apple and Spotify – and hosts every other episode, featuring interviews with leading voices in security. He also co-hosts “The Industrial Security Podcast,” the most popular show in its field.