The Iranian Nimbus Manticore hacking group has been attributed to two previously undocumented malware families that highlight the continued evolution of its toolset and likely expand its targeting footprint to infect Linux and Apple macOS systems using cross-platform remote access trojans (RATs) developed using Node.js and JavaScript. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky is tracking the malware strains under the names NodeRabbit and PollCat. The first sample of NodeRabbit was discovered on a system in Afghanistan, with subsequent sightings on two distinct machines located in Egypt and Ethiopia. "Its operators deliver [NodeRabbit] through spear-phishing messages on LinkedIn and other job search platforms that contain trojanized coding challenge archives," Kaspersky security researcher Omar Amin said. "Like NodeRabbit, PollCat is a cross-platform RAT, but it is written in obfuscated JavaScript also distributed through trojanized coding challenge archives." While Nimbus Manticore has historically employed malware written in C, C++, and Go, and relied on DLL search-order hijacking techniques to deploy them, the latest findings mark the threat actor's foray into cross-platform tools to accomplish its goals. The development also comes amid a rapid expansion of the hacking group's malware arsenal in recent months, including - - A Windows backdoor called NightLedger - Two custom WebSocket tunnelers, BridgeHead and ArcBridge - A reverse SSH tunneling tool - A backdoor that shares overlaps with TWOSTROKE The starting point of the suspicious activity observed in the Afghanistan-based system starts with a ZIP file ("Front-Technical-Challenge.zip") hosted on AWS that's assessed to have been delivered as part of a job opportunity for an engineering role. The threat actor is said to have masqueraded as a talent acquisition specialist at a major technology company to approach a software engineer and invited them to complete a technical assignment. It's worth noting that Nimbus Manticore is also tracked under the moniker Iranian Dream