Cyber Resilience

Threat actor · all actors

CURIUMG1012 state

🇮🇷 IR

aka CURIUM, Crimson Sandstorm, TA456, Tortoise Shell, Yellow Liderc, Bohrium, Smoke Sandstorm, IMPERIAL KITTEN, Tortoiseshell, DUSTYCAVE, Cuboid Sandstorm, DEV-0228

Last updated: 2026-08-20

0attributed CVEs
29ATT&CK techniques
0.0IDF score (tooling uniqueness)
0exclusive CVEs
—years active

About this actor

[CURIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012) is an Iranian threat group, first reported in September 2019 and active since at least July 2018, targeting IT service providers in the Middle East.(Citation: Symantec Tortoiseshell 2019) [CURIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012) has since invested in building relationships with potential targets via social media over a period of months to establish trust and confidence before sending malware. Security researchers note [CURIUM](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1012) has demonstrated great patience and persistence by chatting with potential targets daily and sending benign files to help lower their security consciousness.(Citation: Microsoft Iranian Threat Actor Trends November 2021)

Source: MITRE ATT&CK

Names & naming systems

Each vendor coins its own name for the same actor. Where a name follows a known scheme we attribute it; the rest are listed honestly as unclassified.

MITRE ATT&CKG-number catalogue id

G1012

Microsoftweather-system names

Crimson SandstormSmoke SandstormCuboid Sandstorm

CrowdStrikenation-animal names

IMPERIAL KITTEN

ProofpointTA threat-actor id

TA456

Unclassifiedno scheme matched

CURIUMTortoise ShellYellow LidercBohriumTortoiseshellDUSTYCAVEDEV-0228

How we know this

Data origin
MITRE ATT&CK Imported from the MITRE ATT&CK STIX bundle as an intrusion-set object.
Techniques
MITRE ATT&CK STIX mappings — 29 ATT&CK techniques on file.
Named victims
None on file.

See how actor data is built for the full pipeline.

Activity timeline

No activity events recorded.

Profile

CVERiskCVSSEPSSPublishedProducts
No attributed CVEs.

Mitigating controls (NIST 800-53)

ControlTechniques coveredCoverage
SI-416 / 2955%
SI-314 / 2948%
CM-213 / 2945%
CM-613 / 2945%
CA-712 / 2941%
AC-411 / 2938%
SC-711 / 2938%
AC-610 / 2934%
AC-29 / 2931%
AC-38 / 2928%
SC-447 / 2924%
SI-27 / 2924%
SI-87 / 2924%
IA-96 / 2921%
SI-106 / 2921%

Co-occurring actors

None.

Similar actors

Similar TTPs

Same nation-state

Same category