Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (KAS1767173698)
The details regarding individual company incidents & reports gives you full view from every side.
Rankiteo Score Impact Analysis
Key Highlights From The Incident Analysis
- Timeline of Kaspersky's Vulnerability and lateral movement inside company's environment.
- Overview of affected data sets, including SSNs and PHI, and why they materially increase incident severity.
- How Rankiteo’s incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score.
- How this cyber incident impacts Kaspersky Rankiteo cyber scoring and cyber rating.
- Rankiteo’s MITRE ATT&CK correlation analysis for this incident, with associated confidence level.
Full Incident Analysis Transcript
In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Kaspersky breach identified under incident ID KAS1767173698.
The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Kaspersky's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kaspersky, the number of followers: 528510, the industry type: Computer and Network Security and the number of employees: 4470 employees
After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 645 and after the incident was 640 with a difference of -5 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.
In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Kaspersky and their customers.
On 01 June 2025, a cybersecurity incident called "Mustang Panda's Kernel-Mode Rootkit and TONESHELL Backdoor Attack" came to light.
The Chinese hacking group Mustang Panda employed a previously undocumented kernel-mode rootkit driver to propagate a new variant of the TONESHELL backdoor, targeting an entity in Asia during mid-2025.
The disruption is felt across the environment, and exposing Sensitive data.
Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.
The case underscores how Investigation completed by Kaspersky, teams are taking away lessons such as The attack highlights the need for enhanced kernel-level security protocols, advanced detection mechanisms, and comprehensive threat intelligence sharing to mitigate similar advanced threats, and recommending next steps like Deploy enhanced kernel security solutions capable of recognizing and neutralizing novel rootkit drivers, Facilitate broad cyber threat intelligence exchanges within the cybersecurity community and Invest in advanced detection and response technologies to anticipate and counteract emerging cyber threats.
Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.
MITRE ATT&CK® Correlation Analysis
Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Hijack Execution Flow: Kernel Modules and Extensions (T1062) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including deployed a previously undocumented kernel-mode rootkit driver, and establish deep system persistence. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Rootkit (T1014) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including kernel-mode rootkit to evade standard detection methods, and obfuscate malicious activity and Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection (T1055.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating rootkit embedded within the system’s kernel (implied). Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Remote Access Software (T1219) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating tONESHELL backdoor enabled remote access and arbitrary command execution and Encrypted Channel (T1573) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating stealthy communication channel for sustained infiltration. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating tONESHELL backdoor enabled...exfiltration of sensitive data. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating targeting an entity in Asia (implied initial compromise) and Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Supply Chain (T1195.002) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating undocumented kernel-mode rootkit (possible supply chain vector). These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.
Sources & References
- Kaspersky Rankiteo Cyber Incident Details: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/kaspersky/incident/KAS1767173698
- Kaspersky CyberSecurity Rating page: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/kaspersky
- Kaspersky Rankiteo Cyber Incident Blog Article: https://blog.rankiteo.com/kas1767173698-vulnerability-june-2025/
- Kaspersky CyberSecurity Score History: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/kaspersky/history
- Kaspersky CyberSecurity Incident Source: https://dailysecurityreview.com/cyber-security/application-security/mustang-pandas-novel-kernel-mode-rootkit-used-in-mid-2025-cyber-attack-analysis/
- Rankiteo A.I CyberSecurity Rating methodology: https://www.rankiteo.com/Images/rankiteo_algo.pdf
- Rankiteo TPRM Scoring methodology: https://static.rankiteo.com/model/rankiteo_tprm_methodology.pdf