MALWARE FAMILY

TONEDEAF

Internal ID: win.tonedeaf

aliases

Last seen:Mar 17, 2026

Intelligence Profile

TONEDEAF is a backdoor that communicates with Command and Control servers using HTTP or DNS. Supported commands include system information collection, file upload, file download, and arbitrary shell command execution. When executed, this variant of TONEDEAF wrote encrypted data to two temporary files – temp.txt and temp2.txt – within the same directory of its execution.

Threat Analysis

TONEDEAF is a malware family tracked by threat intelligence researchers and catalogued in the Malpedia dataset. It represents a distinct malicious software lineage with identifiable code characteristics, behaviors, and victimology.

External References

→https://intezer.com/blog-new-iranian-campaign-tailored-to-us-companies-uses-updated-toolset/

→https://research.checkpoint.com/2021/irans-apt34-returns-with-an-updated-arsenal/

→https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2019/07/hard-pass-declining-apt34-invite-to-join-their-professional-network.html

Quick Facts

TypeMalware Family

Aliases1

Also Known As

win.tonedeaf

Research Links

MITRE ATT&CK VirusTotal Google (news) Twitter/X search

Data sourced from Malpedia, Ransomware.live, RansomLook, and CTIWATCH OSINT collection. Actor attribution is based on available intelligence and may be incomplete.

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