Signal

SideCopy group targets Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance with Xeno RAT in spear-phishing campaign

Evidence first: scan the strongest sources, then decide whether to go deeper.

Published 2026-06-02 09:05 UTCUpdated 2026-06-02 21:54 UTC
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Evidence trail (top sources)
top sources (2 domains)domains are deduped. counts indicate coverage, not truth.
2 top sources shown
limited source diversity in top sources
Overview

The Pakistan-linked SideCopy threat group has launched a spear-phishing campaign targeting Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance. The attack begins with a ZIP archive containing a malicious LNK file named in Pashto to exploit language familiarity within the Afghan government.

Score total
0.97
Momentum 24h
2
Posts
2
Origins
2
Source types
1
Duplicate ratio
0%
Why now
  • Recent disclosure of the campaign reveals active targeting of Afghan Ministry of Finance.
  • Attack leverages Pashto language to exploit local familiarity, increasing risk.
  • Timely awareness can help government and security teams enhance defenses.
Why it matters
  • Highlights ongoing cyber espionage targeting Afghan government institutions.
  • Demonstrates use of language-specific social engineering to increase attack success.
  • Use of open-source Xeno RAT shows evolving threat actor toolkits.
LLM analysis
Topic mix: lowPromo risk: lowSource quality: medium
Recurring claims
  • SideCopy group targets Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance with Xeno RAT via spear-phishing ZIP archive containing malicious Pashto-named LNK file
How sources frame it
  • Cybersecurity Researchers: neutral
All evidence
All evidence
SideCopy group targets Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance with Xeno RAT
SC Media · scworld.com · 2026-06-02 21:54 UTC
Pakistan-Linked SideCopy Targets Afghanistan Finance Ministry with Xeno RAT
thehackernews · thehackernews.com · 2026-06-02 09:05 UTC
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Top publishers (this list)
  • SC Media (1)
  • thehackernews (1)
Top origin domains (this list)
  • scworld.com (1)
  • thehackernews.com (1)