Operation AkaiRyū C0060

First seen: June 2024
Last seen: September 2024
Created: 17 April 2026
Last modified: 31 July 2026

Operation AkaiRyū (Japanese for RedDragon) was a cyberespionage spearphishing campaign conducted by MirrorFace between June and September 2024 against entities in Japan and Central Europe. Operation AkaiRyū notably included the first reported targeting of a European entity by MirrorFace, as well as their use of UPPERCUT, which was thought to be exclusive to menuPass.[1][2]

TechniquesTop 23%

Tactics48th pct

Tools & malwareTop 7%

Threat groupunranked

Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.

Operation AkaiRyū detections C0060

735 distinct rules cover the 26 techniques recorded for this campaign. 507 Sigma · 228 Splunk.

20 covered by at least one rule6 with no coverage735 distinct rules in total

Showing 1-50 of 700+ rules

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Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID	Refs
	Detects the deletion of the "Zone.Identifier" ADS. (...)	Hunting	test	file_delete	windows	Sysmon	Stealth Indicator Removal File Deletion	-	low	frack113	2023-09-04	—	7eac0a16-5832-4e81-865f-0268a6d19e4b
	Detects the deletion of the "Zone.Identifier" ADS by an uncommon process. (...)	Generic	test	file_delete	windows	Sysmon	Stealth Indicator Removal File Deletion	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-09-04	2025-07-04	3109530e-ab47-4cc6-a953-cac5ebcc93ae
	Detects javaw.exe in AppData folder as used by Adwind / JRAT	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Visual Basic JavaScript	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tom Ueltschi, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community	2017-11-10	2022-10-09	1fac1481-2dbc-48b2-9096-753c49b4ec71
	Detects javaw.exe in AppData folder as used by Adwind / JRAT	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Visual Basic JavaScript	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tom Ueltschi, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community	2017-11-10	2022-12-02	0bcfabcb-7929-47f4-93d6-b33fb67d34d1
	Detects alternate PowerShell hosts potentially bypassing detections looking for powershell.exe	Generic	test	ps_module	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g	2019-08-11	2025-10-17	64e8e417-c19a-475a-8d19-98ea705394cc
	Detects alternate PowerShell hosts potentially bypassing detections looking for powershell.exe	Generic	test	pipe_created	windows	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g, Tim Shelton	2019-09-12	2025-10-07	58cb02d5-78ce-4692-b3e1-dce850aae41a
	Detects the removal or uninstallation of an application via "Wmic.EXE".	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	frack113	2022-01-28	2024-07-02	b53317a0-8acf-4fd1-8de8-a5401e776b96
	Detects an attempt to terminate a process via "wmic" with the "call terminate" flag. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-09-11	—	49d9671b-0a0a-4c09-8280-d215bfd30662
	Detects when AppLocker "Audit only" enforcement mode reports that an Application, DLL, Script, MSI, or Packaged-App would have been blocked if AppLocker "Enforce rules" enforcement mode was enabled.	Generic	experimental	-	windows	AppLocker	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Python Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	heyyanu	2026-03-26	—	557e3bd3-7f21-495d-8d50-7c8bdfb8041c
	Detects when AppLocker prevents the execution of an Application, DLL, Script, MSI, or Packaged-App from running.	Generic	test	-	windows	AppLocker	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Python Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Pushkarev Dmitry	2020-06-28	2025-12-03	401e5d00-b944-11ea-8f9a-00163ecd60ae
	The .SettingContent-ms file type was introduced in Windows 10 and allows a user to create "shortcuts" to various Windows 10 setting pages. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Initial Access Phishing Spearphishing Attachment Execution User Execution	-	medium	Sreeman	2020-03-13	2022-04-14	24de4f3b-804c-4165-b442-5a06a2302c7e
	Adversaries may enumerate browser bookmarks to learn more about compromised hosts. (...)	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Discovery Browser Information Discovery	-	low	frack113	2021-12-13	2022-12-25	e0565f5d-d420-4e02-8a68-ac00d864f9cf
	Detects automated lateral movement by Turla group	Unsupported	unsupported	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Network Share Discovery Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares	-	medium	Markus Neis	2017-11-07	2023-02-24	75925535-ca97-4e0a-a850-00b5c00779dc
	Detects changes to the EC2 instance startup script. (...)	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Unix Shell	-	high	faloker	2020-02-12	2022-06-07	1ab3c5ed-5baf-417b-bb6b-78ca33f6c3df
	Detects the specific Windows execution chain and process tree associated with the Axios NPM supply chain compromise. (...)	Emerging	experimental	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-04-01	—	f6c27ecc-d890-4452-80e6-2e274a10e097
Splunk	The following analytic identifies Azure Device Code Phishing attacks, which can lead to Azure Account Take-Over (ATO). (...)	Generic	stable	authentication	-	Microsoft 365	Initial Access Phishing Spearphishing Link Credential Access Steal Application Access Token	-	medium	Mauricio Velazco, Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Splunk	2023-11-16	2026-05-13	d68d8732-6f7e-4ee5-a6eb-737f2b990b91
	Detects backup catalog deletions	Generic	test	-	windows	WinEventLog Application	Stealth Indicator Removal File Deletion	-	medium	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tom U. @c_APT_ure (collection)	2017-05-12	2022-12-25	9703792d-fd9a-456d-a672-ff92efe4806a
	focuses on trivial artifacts observed in variants of prevalent offensive ps1 payloads, including Cob (...)	Generic	test	ps_module	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	critical	ok @securonix invrep_de, oscd.community	2020-10-09	2022-12-25	8d31a8ce-46b5-4dd6-bdc3-680931f1db86
	Detects usage of the "FromBase64String" function in the commandline which is used to decode a base64 (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information Stealth Obfuscated Files or Information	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2020-01-29	2023-01-26	e32d4572-9826-4738-b651-95fa63747e8a
Splunk	The following analytic detects the creation of a batch file (.bat) within the Windows system directory tree, specifically in the System32 or SysWOW64 folders. (...)	Anomaly	stable	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Steven Dick, Michael Haag, Rico Valdez, Splunk	2020-04-29	2026-07-02	503d17cb-9eab-4cf8-a20e-01d5c6987ae3	-
	Detects user data export activity.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Collection Data from Information Repositories Reconnaissance Gather Victim Org Information Identify Roles Discovery System Information Discovery	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	5259cbf2-0a75-48bf-b57a-c54d6fabaef3
	Detects user permission data export attempt.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Collection Data from Information Repositories Reconnaissance Gather Victim Org Information Identify Roles Discovery System Information Discovery	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	87cc6698-3e07-4ba2-9b43-a85a73e151e2
	Detects default file names outputted by the BloodHound collection tool SharpHound	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Domain Account Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Discovery Domain Trust Discovery Discovery Permission Groups Discovery Local Groups Domain Groups	-	high	C.J. May	2022-08-09	2026-02-19	02773bed-83bf-469f-b7ff-e676e7d78bab
	Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Trent Liffick (@tliffick)	2020-05-14	2022-10-09	c3198a27-23a0-4c2c-af19-e5328d49680e
	Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird	Emerging	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Trent Liffick (@tliffick)	2020-05-14	2023-08-17	92b0b372-a939-44ed-a11b-5136cf680e27
	Detects powershell execution with that make use of to the bxor (Bitwise XOR). (...)	Hunting	test	ps_classic_start	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	low	Teymur Kheirkhabarov, Harish Segar	2020-06-29	2024-12-11	812837bb-b17f-45e9-8bd0-0ec35d2e3bd6
	Detects usage of "getcap" binary. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-12-28	2026-01-24	d8d97d51-122d-4cdd-9e2f-01b4b4933530
	Detects calls to cmdlets that are used to export certificates from the local certificate store. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Credential Access Unsecured Credentials Private Keys	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-05-18	—	9e716b33-63b2-46da-86a4-bd3c3b9b5dfb
	Detects changing the PowerShell script execution policy to a potentially insecure level using the "-ExecutionPolicy" flag.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	frack113	2021-11-01	2025-10-07	87e3c4e8-a6a8-4ad9-bb4f-46e7ff99a180
	Detects changing the PowerShell script execution policy to a potentially insecure level using the "Set-ExecutionPolicy" cmdlet.	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	frack113	2021-10-20	2023-12-14	61d0475c-173f-4844-86f7-f3eebae1c66b
	Detects execution of ChromeLoader malware via a registered scheduled task	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Scheduled Task Persistence Software Extensions	-	high	@kostastsale	2022-01-10	—	0a74c5a9-1b71-4475-9af2-7829d320d5c2
Splunk	This analytic detects potential reconnaissance activities on Cisco ASA devices by identifying execution of multiple information-gathering "show" commands within a short timeframe. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Reconnaissance Gather Victim Network Information Domain Properties IP Addresses Discovery System Information Discovery	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-11-21	2026-05-13	6e9d4f7a-3c8b-4a9e-8d2f-7b5c9e1a6f3d
	Find information about network devices that is not stored in config files	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Password Policy Discovery Discovery Process Discovery Discovery Remote System Discovery Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery System Network Connections Discovery Discovery System Owner/User Discovery Discovery System Time Discovery	-	low	Austin Clark	2019-08-12	2023-01-04	9705a6a1-6db6-4a16-a987-15b7151e299b
	See what files are being deleted from flash file systems	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Impact Disk Wipe Disk Content Wipe Disk Structure Wipe Stealth Indicator Removal File Deletion	-	medium	Austin Clark	2019-08-12	2023-01-04	71d65515-c436-43c0-841b-236b1f32c21e	-
Splunk	This analytic detects Cisco IOS-XE command sequences where show logging, clear logging, and exit occur within a short period. (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_device	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Clear Windows Event Logs	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali	2026-05-19	2026-05-20	e20a6709-5f2c-4508-83fb-b3af6f705717
Splunk	This analytic detects bursts of Cisco IOS or NX-OS discovery commands associated with Salt Typhoon tradecraft. (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_device	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Reconnaissance Gather Victim Network Information Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Network Configuration Discovery	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali	2026-05-19	2026-05-20	71ac5328-2364-40cf-8381-92b8dc531399
Splunk	This analytic detects suspicious use of 'mshta.exe' or 'rundll32.exe' invoking 'mshtml.dll' or the ' (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Visual Basic Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Mshta	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	f2a9df84-9b01-4a21-9e3a-7aa1a217f69e
Splunk	This analytic detects script execution (`wscript.exe` or `cscript.exe`) triggered from compressed fi (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Visual Basic Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	8b07c2c9-0cde-4c44-9fa6-59dcf2b25777
Splunk	This analytic identifies non-browser processes reaching out to public IP lookup or geolocation servi (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Reconnaissance Gather Victim Network Information IP Addresses Discovery System Network Configuration Discovery	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk, Janantha Marasinghe	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	568cb83e-d79e-4a23-85ec-6e1f6c30cb2f
Splunk	The following analytic detects potential reverse shell activity by identifying connections involving ports commonly associated with remote access tools, shell listeners, or tunneling utilities. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Command and Control Non-Standard Port Privilege Escalation, Stealth Process Injection Command and Control Remote Access Tools Lateral Movement Remote Services	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	d85c05c8-42c0-4e4a-87e7-4e1bb3e844e3
Splunk	The following analytic detects outbound connections to commonly abused file sharing and pastebin-style hosting domains. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Resource Development Obtain Capabilities Tool Command and Control Proxy External Proxy	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	f7e5e792-d907-46c1-a58e-4ff974dc462a
Splunk	The following analytic highlights high-impact intrusion events assigned by Cisco Secure Firewall. (...)	Anomaly	experimental	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Resource Development Develop Capabilities Malware Execution Exploitation for Client Execution	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-16	2026-05-13	244a77bb-3b2a-46f1-bf2c-b4f7cd29276d
Splunk	The following analytic detects network traffic associated with known remote access software applicat (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Remote Access Tools	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-05-28	2026-09-22	ac54d39e-a75d-4f42-971d-006db3a0423a
Splunk	This analytic detects exploitation activity of CVE-2023-27532 using Cisco Secure Firewall Intrusion Events. (...)	Generic	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application Lateral Movement Exploitation of Remote Services Credential Access OS Credential Dumping LSASS Memory	CVE-2023-27532	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk, Talos NTDR	2025-04-16	2026-05-13	7b7c2e92-f0b2-48d2-9c9b-b8de52b6b2ae
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of `cipher.exe` with the `/w` flag to clear unallocated sectors on a disk. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Stealth Indicator Removal File Deletion	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2021-06-10	2026-05-13	cd80a6ac-c9d9-11eb-8839-acde48001122
	Detects CLR DLL being loaded by an Office Product	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Antonlovesdnb	2020-02-19	2023-03-29	d13c43f0-f66b-4279-8b2c-5912077c1780
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of `cmd.exe /c` to execute commands, a technique often employed by adversaries and malware to run batch commands or invoke other shells like PowerShell. (...)	Hunting	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	CVE-2021-44228	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Bhavin Patel, Splunk	2021-10-21	2026-05-13	54a6ed00-3256-11ec-b031-acde48001122
Splunk	The following analytic identifies the use of named-pipe impersonation for privilege escalation, commonly associated with Cobalt Strike and similar frameworks. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-05-27	2026-05-13	eb277ba0-b96b-11eb-b00e-acde48001122
	Detects the use of the redirection character ">" to redirect information on the command line. (...)	Hunting	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery System Information Discovery	-	low	frack113	2022-01-22	2024-03-19	4f4eaa9f-5ad4-410c-a4be-bc6132b0175a
	Detects Windows command lines that miss a space before or after the /c flag when running a command using the cmd.exe. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-08-23	2026-05-13	a16980c2-0c56-4de0-9a79-17971979efdd

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Operation AkaiRyū C0060

Operation AkaiRyū C0060

Operation AkaiRyū MITRE reference C0060

Operation AkaiRyū MITRE reference C0060

Standing C0060

Reach

Coverage

Operation AkaiRyū detections C0060