Iran's "Rocket Kitten" Group Claim Compromise of Iranian Telegram Accounts

Following on from my article here about the Iranian Cyber Police asking Iranians to stop using Telegram, it appears that the Iranian hacking group known as Rocket Kitten is behind a compromise of 15 million Telegram accounts used by Iranians.
 
Telegram is a very popular messaging app in Iran and almost 25% of the Iranian population are using the app every day.
Iranian authorities have previously demanded that Telegram provide them with "spying and censorship tools". Telegram ignored the request and was blocked in Iran for around two hours on October 20 2015. Telegram does not have any servers in Iran, making the Iranian regime's job harder to try and censor Telegram. This compares to the regime "banning" Twitter and Facebook, even though Iranians can use Tor or anonymous VPNs to get around the Iranian Internet filters...

Rocket Kitten

Rocket Kitten refers to a cyber threat group that has been attacking various organizations, such as members of the Saudi royal family, Israeli nuclear scientists, NATO officials and Iranian dissidents.
Rocket Kitten has launched two known campaigns: a malware campaign that uses the GHOLE malware, and a targeted attack called “Operation Woolen-GoldFish” which is probably run by the Iranian regime. Rocket Kitten's attacks were similar to ones attributed to the Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC). You can read more about Rocket Kitten here

Telegram attack

Rocket Kitten managed to obtain public information and phone numbers from 15 million Iranian users of the Telegram messaging app, as well as the associated Telegram user IDs. They compromised over 12 Telegram accounts and jeopardized the communications of people including activists and journalists in sensitive positions within Iran.

Telegram responded by saying, "Certain people checked whether some Iranian numbers were registered on Telegram and were able to confirm this for 15 million accounts. As a result, only publicly available data was collected and the accounts themselves were not accessed.”

Importantly, Telegram have since changed their API so that similar mass checks on accounts should no longer be possible: Telegram 1, Iranian Regime 0!

The Telegram vulnerability involved sending authorization codes via SMS text messages to activate new devices and these could be intercepted by the phone company. So, this means a Man In The Middle (MITM) attack capability by a country that has access to telecommunications networks. This further implicates Rocket Kitten as being part of the Iranian regime.

A word from the Iranian Cyber Police

The Cyber Police of Iran (FATA) have transparently tried to un-link the association between Rocket Kitten and the Iranian government by blaming Telegram's "weakness". No one believes them...

The legal and international deputy of the Cyber Police, Colonel Hossein Ramazani, said that the hackers did not get access to personal details of victims and that, "What is clear to us is the vulnerability and weakness which always existed in the service because of its text message confirmation system, through which [hackers] have gained access to the users' phone numbers. Then contents of people's chats and personal details, however, have not been compromised" Well, he obviously is not going to admit the regime did it, is he?

Use 2FA!

Telegram supports the use of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), but is not enabled by default. That means users of Telegram should setup 2FA if they have not already done so, to prevent interception of SMS-verification codes via cellular networks (even if Telegram claim the mass lookup interception loophole is fixed). Perhaps Telegram should start enabling 2FA by default!

Iranian Government Spying in Social Networking Sites

No one can deny that these days millions of Iranians rely on Facebook. The high number of Facebook users in Iran, which is estimated to be anywhere between four million and five million people, makes this a social phenomena. Young Iranians are denied the most basic freedoms even in their private lives and without social liberties,what these users reflect on their Facebook pages is in effect how they would like to live.

Iranians use social networking sites among other things for political discussion, more open posting and publication of works of art and literature, the announcement of events that cannot be publicized on domestic newspapers and to find kindred spirits or like-minded people. But is it possible for Iranians appear in any arena without Islamic Republic officials cracking down on them?

In June 2014 three Ahvazi citizens were sentenced to three years in jail for creating certain Facebook pages, membership on Facebook carried a one-year sentence. Some people are arrested for crimes against morality and public decency on Facebook. In July 2014, a Revolutionary Court sentenced eight people to 127 years imprisonment in total for being active Facebook users. In another instance the Malayer Security chief announced the sentencing of 22 Facebook users, and this is a another long story.

Ali MirAhmadi, the deputy head of Iran Cyber Police has said: “The main objective of Iran’s Cyber Police is to promote cyber security through continuous observation and monitoring of cyber space. I advise all users to comply with the laws and regulations and avoid any form of offence within cyber space because the police have complete knowledge of it.”

In most cases as soon as someone is arrested for using Facebook, the Cyber Police regards him as either a spy, prostitute, enemy abettor or guilty of crimes against morals and public decency. The offences are considered to be proven in advance.

A lawyer says that judges often have no expertise in cyber technology and adds: “Judges have no expertise in computer technology and so everything goes back to the reports from the ministry of intelligence or the Cyber Police. The judge accepts these reports as expert opinions. Therefore, it is impossible to prove otherwise.”

An IT expert says the problem is that when an Iranian enters the World Wide Web, he must follow the model of use that suits his circumstances in Iran. “In our country, the internet and social networking sites are a venue for political activity. The government views this political activity as propaganda against the regime. Therefore, cyber space is under close scrutiny by the government.” The IT specialist goes on to conclude that for this reason, internet users in Iran must maintain different security criteria for themselves when they use the internet as opposed to people outside of Iran.

Iran Calls for Broader International Cooperation in Campaign Against Cyber Crimes

Head of Iran Cyber Police (FATA) General Seyed Kamal Hadianfar asked for collective efforts by all world states to prevent the spread of cyber crimes throughout the globe.

General Hadianfar said in meeting with the representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to Tehran Leik Boonwaat on Wednesday: "effective international cooperation is an important and determining factor in prosecuting and confronting cyber crimes."

 

Boonwaat for his part, vowed that the UNODC will seriously pursue campaign against cyber crimes in Iran.

Iran hosted a conference and a regional workshop on international cooperation and campaign against cyber crimes on August 13-14.

Eight regional countries, representatives of Interpol, UNODC and Iran Cyber Police chief took part in the conference

The conference and the workshop were held to strengthen international cooperation on prosecuting cyber crimes and reinforce cyber space police forces of the neighboring countries.

In October 2013 Iran's Deputy Police Chief Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Radan said that the country's Cyber Police unit has greatly improved its infrastructures and is able to discover and detect over 60% of cyber related crimes.

Radan said: "Right now, the Iranian Law Enforcement Police have made eye-catching progress in the field of cyber infrastructures".

On January 23, 2011 Iran Cyber Police started its work to prevent espionage and sabotage activities through the internet.