For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used a variety of packers, including CyaX, to obfuscate malicious executables.2
campaign
Operation Spalax C0005
- First seen
- November 2019
- Last seen
- January 2021
- Created
- 16 September 2022
- Last modified
- 31 July 2026
Operation Spalax was a campaign that primarily targeted Colombian government organizations and private companies, particularly those associated with the energy and metallurgical industries. The Operation Spalax threat actors distributed commodity malware and tools using generic phishing topics related to COVID-19, banking, and law enforcement action. Security researchers noted indicators of compromise and some infrastructure overlaps with other campaigns dating back to April 2018, including at least one separately attributed to APT-C-36, however identified enough differences to report this as separate, unattributed activity.[1]
17
Techniques50th pct
6
Tactics34th pct
2
Tools & malware63rd pct
0
Threat groupsNone recorded
Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.
MITRE reference C0005
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used packers that read pixel data from images contained in PE files' resource sections and build the next layer of execution from the data.3
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used XOR-encrypted payloads.4
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) scripts to install malware.5
During Operation Spalax, the threat actors used OneDrive and MediaFire to host payloads.6
For Operation Spalax, the threat actors used a variety of packers and droppers to decrypt malicious payloads.7
Standing C0005
Reach is how much of ATT&CK this campaign touches. Coverage is how well defended each thing it does is, as a median per technique rather than a total — a total would just restate the reach. Each figure is ranked against all 56 ATT&CK campaigns only where that population actually spreads. Where most of the population shares one value, a percentile would rank the tie instead of the entity, so the raw value is shown and no rank is claimed.
Reach
Techniques1750th pct
50th percentile · 50% of 56 ATT&CK campaigns have more Enterprise techniques.
Tactics634th pct
34th percentile · 66% of 56 ATT&CK campaigns have more tactics spanned.
Tools & malware263rd pct
63rd percentile · 63% of 56 ATT&CK campaigns have this many tools and malware or fewer.
Threat groups055% tie · 3 values
55% of the population shares a single value across only 3 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.
Coverage
Rules / technique7medBottom 16%
16th percentile · 84% of 56 ATT&CK campaigns have more detection rules per technique.
Tests / technique0med
Detection coverage C0005
390 distinct rules cover the 17 techniques recorded for this campaign. The 414 technique-to-rule mappings resolve to 390 distinct rules, because one rule can cover several techniques. 250 Sigma · 140 Splunk.
16 covered by at least one rule1 with no coverage390 distinct rules in total
tf
Loading...Drag headers to reorder | Drag edges to resize
tf
Loading detections...
| Select | Title | Description | Category | Status | Event | Product | MITRE ATT&CK | CVEs | Severity | Author | Created | Updated | ID | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
© 2026 The MITRE Corporation. ATT&CK® and D3FEND™ data reproduced with permission. SigmaHQ detection rules licensed under DRL 1.1. attack.mitre.org · d3fend.mitre.org · CAR analytics licensed under Apache 2.0 · car.mitre.org