Threat Actor Profile
Description
Charming Kitten is an Iranian cyber espionage group that has been active since approximately 2014. They appear to focus on targeting individuals of interest to Iran who work in academic research, human rights, and media, with most victims having been located in Iran, the US, Israel, and the UK. [Charming Kitten often tries to access private email and Facebook accounts, and sometimes establishes a foothold on victim computers as a secondary objective. The group's TTPs overlap extensively with another group, Magic Hound, resulting in reporting that may not distinguish between the two groups' activities.(Citation: ClearSky Charming Kitten Dec 2017)
Confidence Score
Known Aliases
Tags
First Seen
Unknown
Last Updated
Unknown
Active Status
ActiveCreated
April 29, 2026
Indicators of Compromise
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IOC KQL for Sentinel
STIX Data
{'aliases': ['Charming Kitten'],
'created': '2018-01-16T00:14:20.562Z',
'created_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'description': '[Charming Kitten](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0058) is '
'an Iranian cyber espionage group that has been active since '
'approximately 2014. They appear to focus on targeting '
'individuals of interest to Iran who work in academic '
'research, human rights, and media, with most victims having '
'been located in Iran, the US, Israel, and the UK. [[Charming '
'Kitten](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0058) often tries to '
'access private email and Facebook accounts, and sometimes '
'establishes a foothold on victim computers as a secondary '
"objective. The group's TTPs overlap extensively with another "
'group, [Magic Hound](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0059), '
'resulting in reporting that may not distinguish between the '
"two groups' activities.(Citation: ClearSky Charming Kitten "
'Dec 2017)',
'external_references': [{'external_id': 'G0058',
'source_name': 'mitre-attack',
'url': 'https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0058'},
{'description': '(Citation: ClearSky Charming Kitten '
'Dec 2017)',
'source_name': 'Charming Kitten'},
{'description': 'ClearSky Cyber Security. (2017, '
'December). Charming Kitten. '
'Retrieved December 27, 2017.',
'source_name': 'ClearSky Charming Kitten Dec 2017',
'url': 'http://www.clearskysec.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Charming_Kitten_2017.pdf'}],
'id': 'intrusion-set--92d5b3fd-3b39-438e-af68-770e447beada',
'modified': '2025-04-18T17:59:28.881Z',
'name': 'Charming Kitten',
'object_marking_refs': ['marking-definition--fa42a846-8d90-4e51-bc29-71d5b4802168'],
'revoked': True,
'spec_version': '2.1',
'type': 'intrusion-set',
'x_mitre_attack_spec_version': '3.2.0',
'x_mitre_deprecated': False,
'x_mitre_domains': ['enterprise-attack'],
'x_mitre_modified_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'x_mitre_version': '1.0'}