Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over a different protocol than that of the existing command and control channel. The data may also be sent to an alternate network location from the main command and control server. Alternate protocols include FTP, SMTP, HTTP/S, DNS, SMB, or any other network protocol not being used as the main command and control channel. Adversaries may also opt to encrypt and/or obfuscate these alternate channels. Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol can be done using various common operating system utilities such as Net/SMB or FTP. On macOS and Linux curl may be used to invoke protocols such as HTTP/S or FTP/S to exfiltrate data from a system. Many IaaS and SaaS platforms (such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, GitHub, and AWS S3) support the direct download of files, emails, source code, and other sensitive information via the web console or Cloud API.
Open detection, hunting, mitigation, and evidence workspace
Detection logic
Analyze network data for uncommon data flows (e.g., a client sending significantly more data than it receives from a server). Processes utilizing the network that do not normally have network communication or have never been seen before are suspicious. Analyze packet contents to detect communications that do not follow the expected protocol behavior for the port that is being used.
Observed actors
Correlated CTI and IR reports
1200km CTI repository · explicit report mentionCTI Research: MuddyWater / Seedworm (Mango Sandstorm)
1200km CTI repository · explicit report mentionAttack Playbook Operation DragonRx
1200km Medium · authored report mentionCTI Research MuddyWater Seedworm Mango Sandstorm
1200km Medium · authored report mentionSingle Event Detection Rules in Cybersecurity
1200km Medium · authored report mention