Volatile Cedar is a Lebanese APT group active since 2012, known for the Explosive implant and Caterpillar web shell.
Volatile Cedar (also tracked as Lebanese Cedar, DeftTorero) is a persistent threat actor of Lebanese origin, active since late 2012, targeting individuals, companies, and institutions worldwide. The group gains initial access primarily through vulnerability scanning (T1595.002, T1595.003) and exploiting public-facing applications (T1190). For persistence, it deploys the Caterpillar WebShell (S0572), and for command-and-control, it uses the custom Explosive (S0569) malware, transferring additional tools as needed (T1105). Defenders should focus on monitoring anomalous web server processes, detecting unauthorized web shells, and hunting for C2 traffic indicative of the Explosive implant.
Beginning in late 2012, a carefully orchestrated attack campaign we call Volatile Cedar has been targeting individuals, companies and institutions worldwide. This campaign, led by a persistent attacker group, has successfully penetrated a large number of targets using various attack techniques, and specifically, a custom-made malware implant codenamed Explosive.
Monitor network traffic and Web Application Firewall (WAF) logs to detect suspicious Vulnerability Scanning and Wordlist Scanning activities.
Use WAF or vulnerability management solutions to detect and prevent Exploit Public-Facing Application cases on publicly exposed applications.
Monitor Web server logs and file system for suspicious changes to detect Web Shell, and implement Web Application Firewall (WAF).
Identify Ingress Tool Transfer by monitoring network traffic and detecting unusual file transfers, and implement firewall rules to block suspicious traffic.
Volatile Cedar gains initial access primarily through vulnerability scanning (T1595.002, T1595.003) and exploiting public-facing applications (T1190).
Volatile Cedar uses a custom-made malware implant codenamed Explosive (S0569) for Command and Control communication.
Every claim on this page is drawn from the cited source (MISP Galaxy, MITRE ATT&CK, ransomware.live) — no attribution is invented.