Careto, The Mask
Careto, The Mask is a Spain-attributed nation-state APT group with an espionage motive, tracked by Brandefense. It targets 4 sectors, including Government, and Education and Research, in 14 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
- Careto
- The Mask
- Mask
- Ugly Face
- Origin
- Spain
- Techniques
- 0
- Exploited CVEs
- No CVE data
- First seen
- Jan 1, 2007
- Record updated
Who They Target.
About Careto, The Mask.
The Mask is an advanced threat actor that has been involved in cyber-espionage operations since at least 2007. The name “Mask” comes from the Spanish slang word “Careto” (“Ugly Face” or “Mask”) which the authors included in some of the malware modules. More than 380 unique victims in 31 countries have been observed to date. What makes “The Mask” special is the complexity of the toolset used by the attackers. This includes an extremely sophisticated malware, a rootkit, a bootkit, 32-and 64-bit Windows versions, Mac OS X and Linux versions and possibly versions for Android and iPad/iPhone (Apple iOS).
Last updated Sep 11, 2026. Compiled by Brandefense technologies from structured threat intelligence and reviewed by Brandefense analysts. Techniques follow the MITRE ATT&CK framework.