Applied Cybernetics Group
T1048 — Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
- Technique
T1048- Tactics
- Exfiltration
- MISP citations
- 0
- KEV CVEs mapped
- 4
- Community rules
- 11
- thrunt rules
- 0
- Upstream
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1048
MITRE description
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](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1048) can be done using various common operating system utilities such as [Net](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0039)/SMB or FTP.(Citation: Palo Alto OilRig Oct 2016) On macOS and Linux <code>curl</code> may be used to invoke protocols such as HTTP/S or FTP/S to exfiltrate data from a system.(Citation: 20 macOS Common Tools and Techniques) 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](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/009).
KEV CVEs mapped to this technique
Per MITRE CTID's hand-curated KEV→ATT&CK mappings — these are the actively-exploited vulnerabilities behind this technique's KEV signal.
Detection coverage
SigmaHQ community rules
- FTP Connection Open Attempt Via Winscp CLI (threat-hunting)
- Winscp Execution From Non Standard Folder (threat-hunting)
- DNS TOR Proxies (core)
- Tap Driver Installation - Security (core)
- Tap Driver Installation (core)
- Powershell DNSExfiltration (core)
- Data Export From MSSQL Table Via BCP.EXE (core)
- PUA - Restic Backup Tool Execution (core)
- Copy From Or To Admin Share Or Sysvol Folder (core)
- Suspicious Redirection to Local Admin Share (core)
- Tap Installer Execution (core)