VERY IMPORTANT

Mirage Kitten, an advanced persistent threat group also known as UNC1549, Smoke Sandstorm, and Nimbus Manticore, has been observed deploying a previously undocumented malware set targeting aerospace, aviation, defense, and telecommunications sectors across the Middle East and Africa. The toolset includes NightLedger, a Windows backdoor with reconnaissance, command execution, file operations, process discovery, and screenshot capture capabilities. Two custom WebSocket-based tunneling tools, ArcBridge and BridgeHead, enable covert network access and operator-controlled tunneling through victim networks. The group employs highly targeted spear-phishing campaigns, fake recruitment portals, and lookalike videoconferencing pages. Victims were identified in Egypt, Jordan, Tanzania, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso. The malware demonstrates operational security through username-based execution checks and advanced proxy traversal capabilities.