T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol Mappings

Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over an un-encrypted network protocol other 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.

Adversaries may opt to obfuscate this data, without the use of encryption, within network protocols that are natively unencrypted (such as HTTP, FTP, or DNS). This may include custom or publicly available encoding/compression algorithms (such as base64) as well as embedding data within protocol headers and fields.

View in MITRE ATT&CK®

Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
AC-3 Access Enforcement Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
CA-7 Continuous Monitoring Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
CM-2 Baseline Configuration Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
CM-6 Configuration Settings Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
CM-7 Least Functionality Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
SC-46 Cross Domain Policy Enforcement Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
SC-7 Boundary Protection Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
SI-10 Information Input Validation Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
SI-15 Information Output Filtering Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
SI-3 Malicious Code Protection Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
SI-4 System Monitoring Protects T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
action.malware.variety.Export data Export data to another site or system related-to T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol: Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protcol
amazon_guardduty Amazon GuardDuty technique_scores T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 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
    aws_iot_device_defender AWS IoT Device Defender technique_scores T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
    Comments
    The following AWS IoT Device Defender device-side detection metrics can detect indicators that an adversary may be exfiltrating collected data from compromised AWS IoT devices over a given channel to/from those devices: "Destination IPs" ("aws:destination-ip-addresses") outside of expected IP address ranges may suggest that a device is communicating with unexpected parties. "Bytes in" ("aws:all-bytes-in"), "Bytes out" ("aws:all-bytes-out"), "Packets in" ("aws:all-packets-in"), and "Packets out" ("aws:all-packets-out") values outside of expected norms may indicate that the device is sending and/or receiving non-standard traffic, which may include exfiltration of stolen data. "Listening TCP ports" ("aws:listening-tcp-ports"), "Listening TCP port count" ("aws:num-listening-tcp-ports"), "Established TCP connections count" ("aws:num-established-tcp-connections"), "Listening UDP ports" ("aws:listening-udp-ports"), and "Listening UDP port count" ("aws:num-listening-udp-ports") values outside of expected norms may indicate that devices are communicating via unexpected ports/protocols, which may include exfiltration of data over those ports/protocols. Coverage factor is partial, since these metrics are limited to exfiltration from IoT devices, resulting in an overall score of Partial.
    References
      amazon_virtual_private_cloud Amazon Virtual Private Cloud technique_scores T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol
      Comments
      VPC security groups and network access control lists (NACLs) can limit access to the minimum required ports and therefore protect against adversaries attempting to exfiltrate data using a different protocol than that of the existing command and control channel. In environments where unrestricted Internet access is required, security groups and NACLs can still be used to block known malicious endpoints. Because in such environments the protection is limited to known malicious IP addresses and domains and does not provide protection from such attacks from unknown domains and IP addresses, this is scored as partial coverage resulting in an overall Partial score.
      References
        aws_network_firewall AWS Network Firewall technique_scores T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 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