T1071.004 DNS
Adversaries may communicate using the Domain Name System (DNS) application layer protocol to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. Commands to the remote system, and often the results of those commands, will be embedded within the protocol traffic between the client and server.
The DNS protocol serves an administrative function in computer networking and thus may be very common in environments. DNS traffic may also be allowed even before network authentication is completed. DNS packets contain many fields and headers in which data can be concealed. Often known as DNS tunneling, adversaries may abuse DNS to communicate with systems under their control within a victim network while also mimicking normal, expected traffic.31
Item | Value |
---|---|
ID | T1071.004 |
Sub-techniques | T1071.001, T1071.002, T1071.003, T1071.004 |
Tactics | TA0011 |
Platforms | Linux, Windows, macOS |
Version | 1.1 |
Created | 15 March 2020 |
Last Modified | 17 June 2022 |
Procedure Examples
ID | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
S0504 | Anchor | Variants of Anchor can use DNS tunneling to communicate with C2.1920 |
G0026 | APT18 | APT18 uses DNS for C2 communications.66 |
G0087 | APT39 | APT39 has used remote access tools that leverage DNS in communications with C2.62 |
G0096 | APT41 | APT41 used DNS for C2 communications.5758 |
S0360 | BONDUPDATER | BONDUPDATER can use DNS and TXT records within its DNS tunneling protocol for command and control.14 |
S1063 | Brute Ratel C4 | Brute Ratel C4 can use DNS over HTTPS for C2.45 |
G0114 | Chimera | Chimera has used Cobalt Strike to encapsulate C2 in DNS traffic.68 |
G0080 | Cobalt Group | Cobalt Group has used DNS tunneling for C2.596061 |
S0154 | Cobalt Strike | Cobalt Strike can use a custom command and control protocol that can be encapsulated in DNS. All protocols use their standard assigned ports.343335 |
S0338 | Cobian RAT | Cobian RAT uses DNS for C2.29 |
S1014 | DanBot | DanBot can use use IPv4 A records and IPv6 AAAA DNS records in C2 communications.51 |
S0354 | Denis | Denis has used DNS tunneling for C2 communications.151617 |
S1021 | DnsSystem | DnsSystem can direct queries to custom DNS servers and return C2 commands using TXT records.52 |
S0377 | Ebury | Ebury has used DNS requests over UDP port 53 for C2.21 |
G0046 | FIN7 | FIN7 has performed C2 using DNS via A, OPT, and TXT records.71 |
S0666 | Gelsemium | Gelsemium has the ability to use DNS in communication with C2.53 |
S0477 | Goopy | Goopy has the ability to communicate with its C2 over DNS.17 |
S0690 | Green Lambert | Green Lambert can use DNS for C2 communications.3031 |
S0170 | Helminth | Helminth can use DNS for C2.27 |
S1027 | Heyoka Backdoor | Heyoka Backdoor can use DNS tunneling for C2 communications.36 |
S0070 | HTTPBrowser | HTTPBrowser has used DNS for command and control.4348 |
S0260 | InvisiMole | InvisiMole has used a custom implementation of DNS tunneling to embed C2 communications in DNS requests and replies.49 |
G0004 | Ke3chang | Ke3chang malware RoyalDNS has used DNS for C2.69 |
S1020 | Kevin | Variants of Kevin can communicate over DNS through queries to the server for constructed domain names with embedded information.25 |
G0140 | LazyScripter | LazyScripter has leveraged dynamic DNS providers for C2 communications.70 |
S0167 | Matryoshka | Matryoshka uses DNS for C2.4445 |
S1015 | Milan | Milan has the ability to use DNS for C2 communications.402539 |
S1047 | Mori | Mori can use DNS tunneling to communicate with C2.5655 |
S0699 | Mythic | Mythic supports DNS-based C2 profiles.6 |
S0228 | NanHaiShu | NanHaiShu uses DNS for the C2 communications.28 |
G0049 | OilRig | OilRig has used DNS for C2 including the publicly available requestbin.net tunneling service.65236364 |
S0124 | Pisloader | Pisloader uses DNS as its C2 protocol.46 |
S0013 | PlugX | PlugX can be configured to use DNS for command and control.43 |
S0145 | POWERSOURCE | POWERSOURCE uses DNS TXT records for C2.2454 |
S0184 | POWRUNER | POWRUNER can use DNS for C2 communications.2223 |
S0269 | QUADAGENT | QUADAGENT uses DNS for C2 communications.26 |
S0495 | RDAT | RDAT has used DNS to communicate with the C2.32 |
S0125 | Remsec | Remsec is capable of using DNS for C2.101112 |
S0596 | ShadowPad | ShadowPad has used DNS tunneling for C2 communications.50 |
S1019 | Shark | Shark can use DNS in C2 communications.4039 |
S0633 | Sliver | Sliver can support C2 communications over DNS.789 |
S0615 | SombRAT | SombRAT can communicate over DNS with the C2 server.4142 |
S0157 | SOUNDBITE | SOUNDBITE communicates via DNS for C2.47 |
S0559 | SUNBURST | SUNBURST used DNS for C2 traffic designed to mimic normal SolarWinds API communications.18 |
S0663 | SysUpdate | SysUpdate has used DNS TXT requests as for its C2 communication.13 |
S0146 | TEXTMATE | TEXTMATE uses DNS TXT records for C2.24 |
G0081 | Tropic Trooper | Tropic Trooper‘s backdoor has communicated to the C2 over the DNS protocol.67 |
S0514 | WellMess | WellMess has the ability to use DNS tunneling for C2 communications.3738 |
Mitigations
ID | Mitigation | Description |
---|---|---|
M1037 | Filter Network Traffic | Consider filtering DNS requests to unknown, untrusted, or known bad domains and resources. Resolving DNS requests with on-premise/proxy servers may also disrupt adversary attempts to conceal data within DNS packets. |
M1031 | Network Intrusion Prevention | Network intrusion detection and prevention systems that use network signatures to identify traffic for specific adversary malware can be used to mitigate activity at the network level. |
Detection
ID | Data Source | Data Component |
---|---|---|
DS0029 | Network Traffic | Network Traffic Content |
References
-
Galobardes, R. (2018, October 30). Learn how easy is to bypass firewalls using DNS tunneling (and also how to block it). Retrieved March 15, 2020. ↩
-
Gardiner, J., Cova, M., Nagaraja, S. (2014, February). Command & Control Understanding, Denying and Detecting. Retrieved April 20, 2016. ↩
-
Palo Alto Networks. (n.d.). What Is DNS Tunneling?. Retrieved March 15, 2020. ↩
-
Harbison, M. and Renals, P. (2022, July 5). When Pentest Tools Go Brutal: Red-Teaming Tool Being Abused by Malicious Actors. Retrieved February 1, 2023. ↩
-
Kenefick, I. et al. (2022, October 12). Black Basta Ransomware Gang Infiltrates Networks via QAKBOT, Brute Ratel, and Cobalt Strike. Retrieved February 6, 2023. ↩
-
Thomas, C. (n.d.). Mythc Documentation. Retrieved March 25, 2022. ↩
-
NCSC, CISA, FBI, NSA. (2021, May 7). Further TTPs associated with SVR cyber actors. Retrieved July 29, 2021. ↩
-
Kervella, R. (2019, August 4). Cross-platform General Purpose Implant Framework Written in Golang. Retrieved July 30, 2021. ↩
-
BishopFox. (n.d.). Sliver DNS C2 . Retrieved September 15, 2021. ↩
-
Symantec Security Response. (2016, August 8). Backdoor.Remsec indicators of compromise. Retrieved August 17, 2016. ↩
-
Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team. (2016, August 9). The ProjectSauron APT. Retrieved August 17, 2016. ↩
-
Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team. (2016, August 9). The ProjectSauron APT. Technical Analysis. Retrieved August 17, 2016. ↩
-
Daniel Lunghi. (2023, March 1). Iron Tiger’s SysUpdate Reappears, Adds Linux Targeting. Retrieved March 20, 2023. ↩
-
Wilhoit, K. and Falcone, R. (2018, September 12). OilRig Uses Updated BONDUPDATER to Target Middle Eastern Government. Retrieved February 18, 2019. ↩
-
Dahan, A. (2017, May 24). OPERATION COBALT KITTY: A LARGE-SCALE APT IN ASIA CARRIED OUT BY THE OCEANLOTUS GROUP. Retrieved November 5, 2018. ↩
-
Shulmin, A., Yunakovsky, S. (2017, April 28). Use of DNS Tunneling for C&C Communications. Retrieved November 5, 2018. ↩
-
Dahan, A. (2017). Operation Cobalt Kitty. Retrieved December 27, 2018. ↩↩
-
FireEye. (2020, December 13). Highly Evasive Attacker Leverages SolarWinds Supply Chain to Compromise Multiple Global Victims With SUNBURST Backdoor. Retrieved January 4, 2021. ↩
-
Dahan, A. et al. (2019, December 11). DROPPING ANCHOR: FROM A TRICKBOT INFECTION TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE ANCHOR MALWARE. Retrieved September 10, 2020. ↩
-
Grange, W. (2020, July 13). Anchor_dns malware goes cross platform. Retrieved September 10, 2020. ↩
-
M.Léveillé, M.. (2014, February 21). An In-depth Analysis of Linux/Ebury. Retrieved April 19, 2019. ↩
-
Sardiwal, M, et al. (2017, December 7). New Targeted Attack in the Middle East by APT34, a Suspected Iranian Threat Group, Using CVE-2017-11882 Exploit. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩
-
Davis, S. and Caban, D. (2017, December 19). APT34 - New Targeted Attack in the Middle East. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩↩
-
Miller, S., et al. (2017, March 7). FIN7 Spear Phishing Campaign Targets Personnel Involved in SEC Filings. Retrieved March 8, 2017. ↩↩
-
Kayal, A. et al. (2021, October). LYCEUM REBORN: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Retrieved June 14, 2022. ↩↩
-
Lee, B., Falcone, R. (2018, July 25). OilRig Targets Technology Service Provider and Government Agency with QUADAGENT. Retrieved August 9, 2018. ↩
-
Falcone, R. and Lee, B.. (2016, May 26). The OilRig Campaign: Attacks on Saudi Arabian Organizations Deliver Helminth Backdoor. Retrieved May 3, 2017. ↩
-
F-Secure Labs. (2016, July). NANHAISHU RATing the South China Sea. Retrieved July 6, 2018. ↩
-
Yadav, A., et al. (2017, August 31). Cobian RAT – A backdoored RAT. Retrieved November 13, 2018. ↩
-
Sandvik, Runa. (2021, October 1). Made In America: Green Lambert for OS X. Retrieved March 21, 2022. ↩
-
Sandvik, Runa. (2021, October 18). Green Lambert and ATT&CK. Retrieved March 21, 2022. ↩
-
Falcone, R. (2020, July 22). OilRig Targets Middle Eastern Telecommunications Organization and Adds Novel C2 Channel with Steganography to Its Inventory. Retrieved July 28, 2020. ↩
-
Mavis, N. (2020, September 21). The Art and Science of Detecting Cobalt Strike. Retrieved April 6, 2021. ↩
-
Strategic Cyber LLC. (2017, March 14). Cobalt Strike Manual. Retrieved May 24, 2017. ↩
-
Strategic Cyber LLC. (2020, November 5). Cobalt Strike: Advanced Threat Tactics for Penetration Testers. Retrieved April 13, 2021. ↩
-
Chen, Joey. (2022, June 9). Aoqin Dragon | Newly-Discovered Chinese-linked APT Has Been Quietly Spying On Organizations For 10 Years. Retrieved July 14, 2022. ↩
-
PWC. (2020, July 16). How WellMess malware has been used to target COVID-19 vaccines. Retrieved September 24, 2020. ↩
-
National Cyber Security Centre. (2020, July 16). Advisory: APT29 targets COVID-19 vaccine development. Retrieved September 29, 2020. ↩
-
Accenture. (2021, November 9). Who are latest targets of cyber group Lyceum?. Retrieved June 16, 2022. ↩↩
-
ClearSky Cyber Security . (2021, August). New Iranian Espionage Campaign By “Siamesekitten” - Lyceum. Retrieved June 6, 2022. ↩↩
-
The BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team. (2020, November 12). The CostaRicto Campaign: Cyber-Espionage Outsourced. Retrieved May 24, 2021. ↩
-
McLellan, T. and Moore, J. et al. (2021, April 29). UNC2447 SOMBRAT and FIVEHANDS Ransomware: A Sophisticated Financial Threat. Retrieved June 2, 2021. ↩
-
Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit Threat Intelligence. (2015, August 5). Threat Group-3390 Targets Organizations for Cyberespionage. Retrieved August 18, 2018. ↩↩
-
ClearSky Cyber Security and Trend Micro. (2017, July). Operation Wilted Tulip: Exposing a cyber espionage apparatus. Retrieved August 21, 2017. ↩
-
Minerva Labs LTD and ClearSky Cyber Security. (2015, November 23). CopyKittens Attack Group. Retrieved September 11, 2017. ↩
-
Grunzweig, J., et al. (2016, May 24). New Wekby Attacks Use DNS Requests As Command and Control Mechanism. Retrieved August 17, 2016. ↩
-
Carr, N.. (2017, May 14). Cyber Espionage is Alive and Well: APT32 and the Threat to Global Corporations. Retrieved June 18, 2017. ↩
-
Shelmire, A.. (2015, July 6). Evasive Maneuvers. Retrieved January 22, 2016. ↩
-
Hromcova, Z. and Cherpanov, A. (2020, June). INVISIMOLE: THE HIDDEN PART OF THE STORY. Retrieved July 16, 2020. ↩
-
Kaspersky Lab. (2017, August). ShadowPad: popular server management software hit in supply chain attack. Retrieved March 22, 2021. ↩
-
SecureWorks 2019, August 27 LYCEUM Takes Center Stage in Middle East Campaign Retrieved. 2019/11/19 ↩
-
Shivtarkar, N. and Kumar, A. (2022, June 9). Lyceum .NET DNS Backdoor. Retrieved June 23, 2022. ↩
-
Dupuy, T. and Faou, M. (2021, June). Gelsemium. Retrieved November 30, 2021. ↩
-
Brumaghin, E. and Grady, C.. (2017, March 2). Covert Channels and Poor Decisions: The Tale of DNSMessenger. Retrieved March 8, 2017. ↩
-
Cyber National Mission Force. (2022, January 12). Iranian intel cyber suite of malware uses open source tools. Retrieved September 30, 2022. ↩
-
FBI, CISA, CNMF, NCSC-UK. (2022, February 24). Iranian Government-Sponsored Actors Conduct Cyber Operations Against Global Government and Commercial Networks. Retrieved September 27, 2022. ↩
-
Fraser, N., et al. (2019, August 7). Double DragonAPT41, a dual espionage and cyber crime operation APT41. Retrieved September 23, 2019. ↩
-
Rostovcev, N. (2021, June 10). Big airline heist APT41 likely behind a third-party attack on Air India. Retrieved August 26, 2021. ↩
-
Svajcer, V. (2018, July 31). Multiple Cobalt Personality Disorder. Retrieved September 5, 2018. ↩
-
Positive Technologies. (2016, December 16). Cobalt Snatch. Retrieved October 9, 2018. ↩
-
Matveeva, V. (2017, August 15). Secrets of Cobalt. Retrieved October 10, 2018. ↩
-
Rusu, B. (2020, May 21). Iranian Chafer APT Targeted Air Transportation and Government in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Retrieved May 22, 2020. ↩
-
Bromiley, M., et al.. (2019, July 18). Hard Pass: Declining APT34’s Invite to Join Their Professional Network. Retrieved August 26, 2019. ↩
-
Check Point. (2021, April 8). Iran’s APT34 Returns with an Updated Arsenal. Retrieved May 5, 2021. ↩
-
Unit42. (2016, May 1). Evasive Serpens Unit 42 Playbook Viewer. Retrieved February 6, 2023. ↩
-
Grunzweig, J., et al. (2016, May 24). New Wekby Attacks Use DNS Requests As Command and Control Mechanism. Retrieved November 15, 2018. ↩
-
Chen, J.. (2020, May 12). Tropic Trooper’s Back: USBferry Attack Targets Air gapped Environments. Retrieved May 20, 2020. ↩
-
Jansen, W . (2021, January 12). Abusing cloud services to fly under the radar. Retrieved January 19, 2021. ↩
-
Smallridge, R. (2018, March 10). APT15 is alive and strong: An analysis of RoyalCli and RoyalDNS. Retrieved April 4, 2018. ↩
-
Jazi, H. (2021, February). LazyScripter: From Empire to double RAT. Retrieved November 24, 2021. ↩
-
Carr, N., et al. (2018, August 01). On the Hunt for FIN7: Pursuing an Enigmatic and Evasive Global Criminal Operation. Retrieved August 23, 2018. ↩