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T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Mappings

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. Different protocol channels could also include Web services such as cloud storage. 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.(Citation: Palo Alto OilRig Oct 2016)

View in MITRE ATT&CK®

Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
AC-3 Access Enforcement Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
CA-7 Continuous Monitoring Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
CM-2 Baseline Configuration Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
CM-6 Configuration Settings Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
CM-7 Least Functionality Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
SC-46 Cross Domain Policy Enforcement Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
SC-7 Boundary Protection Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
SI-10 Information Input Validation Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
SI-15 Information Output Filtering Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
SI-3 Malicious Code Protection Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
SI-4 System Monitoring Protects T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
action.malware.variety.Export data Export data to another site or system related-to T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
amazon_guardduty Amazon GuardDuty technique_scores T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Comments
The following GuardDuty finding type flags events where adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over a different protocol than that of the existing command-and-control channel. Trojan:EC2/DNSDataExfiltration Behavior:EC2/TrafficVolumeUnusual
References
  1. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/guardduty/latest/ug/guardduty_finding-types-ec2.html#recon-ec2-portscan
  2. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/guardduty/latest/ug/guardduty_findings.html
aws_iot_device_defender AWS IoT Device Defender technique_scores T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Comments
This control provides partial coverage for this technique and all of its sub-techniques, resulting in an overall score of Partial.
References
  1. https://aws.amazon.com/iot-device-defender/
  2. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot-device-defender
  3. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/dd-mitigation-actions
  4. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/dd-detect-security-use-cases
  5. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/detect-cloud-side-metrics
  6. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/detect-device-side-metrics
  7. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/device-defender
  8. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/device-defender-audit
  9. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/device-defender-detect
amazon_virtual_private_cloud Amazon Virtual Private Cloud technique_scores T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Comments
VPC security groups and network access control lists (NACLs) can limit access to external hosts and can therefore provide mitigation of this technique. For environments where Internet access is required, these controls can be used to block known malicious addresses. Because this latter protection is limited to known malicious endpoints, it provides Partial coverage resulting in an overall Partial score.
References
  1. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/security.html
aws_network_firewall AWS Network Firewall technique_scores T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Comments
AWS Network Firewall has the ability to pass, drop, or alert on traffic based on the network protocol as well as perform deep packet inspection on the payload. This functionality can be used to block adversaries from accessing resources from which to exfiltrate data as well as prevent resources from communicating with known-bad IP addresses and domains that might be used to receive exfiltrated data. This mapping is given a score of Partial because the known-bad IP addresses and domains would need to be known in advance and AWS Network Firewall wouldn't have deep packet inspection visibility into encrypted non-C2 protocols.
References
  1. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/network-firewall/latest/developerguide/what-is-aws-network-firewall.html

ATT&CK Subtechniques

Technique ID Technique Name Number of Mappings
T1048.002 Exfiltration Over Asymmetric Encrypted Non-C2 Protocol 16
T1048.001 Exfiltration Over Symmetric Encrypted Non-C2 Protocol 16
T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol 17