TEXTMATE S0146

Type: malware
Platform: Windows
Created: 31 May 2017
Last modified: 16 April 2025

TEXTMATE is a second-stage PowerShell backdoor that is memory-resident. It was observed being used along with POWERSOURCE in February 2017. [1]

TechniquesBottom 7%

TacticsBottom 12%

Threat groupunranked

CampaignsNone recorded

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

TEXTMATE MITRE reference S0146

Windows Command Shell T1059.003 ↗

TEXTMATE executes cmd.exe to provide a reverse shell to adversaries.2 3

Execution63 detection rules

DNS T1071.004 ↗

TEXTMATE uses DNS TXT records for C2.4

Command and Control33 detection rules

Standing S0146

Reach is how much of ATT&CK this malware 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 825 ATT&CK software entries 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

Techniques2Bottom 7%

7th percentile · 93% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more Enterprise techniques.

Tactics2Bottom 12%

12th percentile · 88% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more tactics spanned.

Threat group161% tie · 22 values

61% of the population shares a single value across only 22 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Campaigns085% tie · 8 values

85% of the population shares a single value across only 8 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Coverage

Rules / technique48medTop 9%

91st percentile · 91% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many detection rules per technique or fewer.

Tests / technique5med

TEXTMATE detections S0146

94 distinct rules cover the 2 techniques recorded for this malware. 68 Sigma · 26 Splunk.

2 covered by at least one rule94 distinct rules in total

Showing 1-50 of 94 rules

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Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID	Refs
	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
	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 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 suspicious DNS queries known from Cobalt Strike beacons	Generic	test	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2018-05-10	2022-10-09	2975af79-28c4-4d2f-a951-9095f229df29
	Detects a suspicious command line execution that includes an URL and AppData string in the command l (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community	2019-01-16	2021-11-27	1ac8666b-046f-4201-8aba-1951aaec03a3
	detects the usage of path traversal in conhost.exe indicating possible command/argument confusion/hi (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-06-14	—	ee5e119b-1f75-4b34-add8-3be976961e39
Splunk	The following analytic detects potential exploitation of the CrushFTP authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2025-31161). (...)	Generic	stable	file_event	-	CrushFTP	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application	CVE-2025-31161	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2025-04-14	2026-09-08	82eb7f64-d219-4e21-acfe-956de84c1a35
Splunk	The following analytic detects executions of cmd.exe spawned by processes that are commonly abused by attackers and do not typically launch cmd.exe. (...)	Hunting	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	medium	Bhavin Patel, Splunk	2020-04-29	2026-05-13	dcfd6b40-42f9-469d-a433-2e53f7486664	-
Splunk	The following detects the execution of cscript.exe or wscript.exe processes spawned by cmd.exe, leveraging Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) telemetry mapped to the Endpoint data model, with additional contextual filtering to improve fidelity and reduce false positives. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	medium	Bhavin Patel, Mauricio Velazco, Splunk	2020-04-29	2026-05-13	b89919ed-fe5f-492c-b139-95dbb162039e
	Well-known DNS Exfiltration tools execution	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Command and Control Data Encoding Standard Encoding Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Symmetric Encrypted Non-C2 Protocol	-	high	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2019-10-24	2021-11-27	98a96a5a-64a0-4c42-92c5-489da3866cb0
Splunk	Detects DNS-based Kerberos coercion attacks where adversaries inject marshaled credential structures into DNS records to spoof SPNs and redirect authentication such as in CVE-2025-33073. (...)	Generic	stable	dns	windows	Suricata · Sysmon	Credential Access, Collection Adversary-in-the-Middle Name Resolution Poisoning and SMB Relay Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Credential Access Forced Authentication	CVE-2025-33073	medium	Raven Tait, Splunk	2025-11-18	2026-09-08	8551252d-b5b6-4b6e-8a82-51460aeb29a3
	Detects DNS queries made by the finger utility, which can be abused by threat actors to retrieve remote commands for execution on Windows devices. (...)	Generic	experimental	dns	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2025-11-19	—	c082c2b0-525b-4dbc-9a26-a57dc4692074
	Detects DNS queries to domains commonly used by threat actors to host malware payloads or redirect through URL shorteners. (...)	Generic	experimental	dns	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	medium	Ahmed Nosir (@egycondor)	2025-06-02	—	f8c1e80b-c73a-476a-ae24-6c72528b1521
	Detects DNS queries to domains associated with Katz Stealer malware. (...)	Emerging	experimental	dns	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2025-05-22	—	9c3d6e32-f4c8-4d73-8b8f-95c3b383a13c
	Detects DNS queries to domains associated with Katz Stealer malware. (...)	Emerging	experimental	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2025-05-22	—	6b0c762f-0e1b-435f-a829-5943b08fe36a
	Detects strings used in command execution in DNS TXT Answer	Generic	test	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	high	Markus Neis	2018-08-08	2021-11-27	8ae51330-899c-4641-8125-e39f2e07da72
	The PowerShell implementation of DNSCat2 calls nslookup to craft queries. (...)	Unsupported	unsupported	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Command and Control Data Obfuscation Protocol or Service Impersonation Exfiltration Exfiltration Over C2 Channel	-	high	Cian Heasley	2020-08-08	2023-02-24	b11d75d6-d7c1-11ea-87d0-0242ac130003
	Detects Elise backdoor activity used by APT32	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2018-01-31	2023-03-09	e507feb7-5f73-4ef6-a970-91bb6f6d744f
Splunk	The following analytic identifies excessive DNS query failures by counting DNS responses that do not indicate success, triggering when there are more than 50 occurrences. (...)	Anomaly	experimental	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	medium	bowesmana, Bhavin Patel, Splunk	2019-10-16	2026-05-13	104658f4-afdc-499e-9719-17243f9826f1	-
	Detects the exploitation of Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central Java Deserialization vulnerability rep (...)	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application	CVE-2020-10189	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2020-03-25	2023-01-21	846b866e-2a57-46ee-8e16-85fa92759be7
	Detects exploitation attempt of privilege escalation vulnerability via SetupComplete.cmd and Partner (...)	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Privilege Escalation Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow	CVE-2019-1378	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), oscd.community, Jonhnathan Ribeiro	2019-11-15	2021-11-27	1c373b6d-76ce-4553-997d-8c1da9a6b5f5
	This rule detect common flag combinations used by CrackMapExec in order to detect its use even if the binary has been replaced.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Credential Access Brute Force Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Discovery Password Policy Discovery Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-02-25	2023-03-08	42a993dd-bb3e-48c8-b372-4d6684c4106c
	Detects various execution patterns of the CrackMapExec pentesting framework	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Thomas Patzke	2020-05-22	2023-11-06	058f4380-962d-40a5-afce-50207d36d7e2
	Detects the use of Jlaive to execute assemblies in a copied PowerShell	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	medium	Jose Luis Sanchez Martinez (@Joseliyo_Jstnk)	2022-05-24	2023-02-22	0a99eb3e-1617-41bd-b095-13dc767f3def
	Detects command line parameters used by Koadic hack tool	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Visual Basic JavaScript	-	high	wagga, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community	2020-01-12	2023-02-11	5cddf373-ef00-4112-ad72-960ac29bac34
	Detects actions caused by the RedMimicry Winnti playbook a automated breach emulations utility	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Execution Native API Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Rundll32	-	high	Alexander Rausch	2020-06-24	2023-03-01	95022b85-ff2a-49fa-939a-d7b8f56eeb9b
	Detects the launch of a child process via "conhost.exe" with the "--headless" flag. (...)	Hunting	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2024-07-23	—	00ca75ab-d5ce-43be-b86c-55ff39c6abfc
	High DNS requests amount from host per short period of time	Unsupported	unsupported	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol	-	medium	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2019-10-24	2023-03-24	b4163085-4001-46a3-a79a-55d8bbbc7a3a	-
	High DNS requests amount from host per short period of time	Unsupported	unsupported	firewall	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol	-	medium	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2019-10-24	2023-03-24	51186749-7415-46be-90e5-6914865c825a	-
	Extremely high rate of NULL record type DNS requests from host per short period of time. (...)	Unsupported	unsupported	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol	-	medium	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2019-10-24	2023-03-24	44ae5117-9c44-40cf-9c7c-7edad385ca70	-
	Extremely high rate of TXT record type DNS requests from host per short period of time. (...)	Unsupported	unsupported	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol	-	medium	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2019-10-24	2023-03-24	f0a8cedc-1d22-4453-9c44-8d9f4ebd5d35	-
	Detects a suspicious child process of a Microsoft HTML Help (HH.exe)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic JavaScript Initial Access Phishing Spearphishing Attachment Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Compiled HTML File Regsvr32 Rundll32 Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Maxim Pavlunin, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2020-04-01	2023-04-12	52cad028-0ff0-4854-8f67-d25dfcbc78b4
	Detects DNS queries to domains within known low reputation eTLDs. (...)	Hunting	experimental	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	medium	Norbert Jaśniewicz (AlphaSOC)	2025-08-04	—	cf5ee356-65c4-4556-8d11-6977fcdfed4b
	Detects network connections via finger.exe, which can be abused by threat actors to retrieve remote commands for execution on Windows devices. (...)	Generic	experimental	network_connection	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2025-11-19	—	2fdaf50b-9fd5-449f-ba69-f17248119af6
	Detects suspicious powershell download cradle using nslookup. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-09-05	2026-10-13	1b3b01c7-84e9-4072-86e5-fc285a41ff23
	Detects OilRig activity as reported by Nyotron in their March 2018 report	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Scheduled Task	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2018-03-23	2023-03-08	ce6e34ca-966d-41c9-8d93-5b06c8b97a06
	Detects OilRig registry persistence as reported by Nyotron in their March 2018 report	Emerging	test	registry_event	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Scheduled Task	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2018-03-23	2023-03-08	7bdf2a7c-3acc-4091-9581-0a77dad1c5b5
	Detects OilRig schedule task persistence as reported by Nyotron in their March 2018 report	Emerging	test	scheduled_job	windows	WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Scheduled Task	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2018-03-23	2023-03-08	c0580559-a6bd-4ef6-b9b7-83703d98b561
	Detects OilRig schedule task persistence as reported by Nyotron in their March 2018 report	Emerging	test	service	windows	WinEventLog System	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Persistence, Privilege Escalation Create or Modify System Process Windows Service Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Scheduled Task	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2018-03-23	2023-03-08	53ba33fd-3a50-4468-a5ef-c583635cfa92
	Detects the OpenEDR ssh-shellhost.exe spawning a command shell (cmd.exe) or PowerShell with PTY (pseudo-terminal) capabilities. (...)	Generic	experimental	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell Command and Control Remote Access Tools Lateral Movement Remote Services SSH	-	medium	@kostastsale	2026-02-19	—	7f3a9c2d-4e8b-4a7f-9d3e-5c6f8a9b2e1d
	Detects use of Cobalt Strike commands accidentally entered in the CMD shell	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	high	_pete_0, TheDFIRReport	2022-05-06	2023-01-30	647c7b9e-d784-4fda-b9a0-45c565a7b729
	Detects Cobalt Strike module/commands accidentally entered in CMD shell	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	high	_pete_0, TheDFIRReport	2022-05-06	2023-01-30	4f154fb6-27d1-4813-a759-78b93e0b9c48
	Normally, DNS logs contain a limited amount of different dns queries for a single domain. (...)	Unsupported	unsupported	dns	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol DNS Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol	-	high	Patrick Bareiss	2019-04-07	2023-03-24	1ec4b281-aa65-46a2-bdae-5fd830ed914e
	Detects potential APT FIN7 exploitation activity as reported by Google. (...)	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell	-	medium	Alex Walston (@4ayymm)	2024-07-29	—	6676896b-2cce-422d-82af-5a1abe65e241
	Detects activity that could be related to Baby Shark malware	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Discovery Query Registry Stealth System Binary Proxy Execution Mshta	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2019-02-24	2023-03-08	2b30fa36-3a18-402f-a22d-bf4ce2189f35
	Detects potential path traversal attempt via cmd.exe. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Windows Command Shell	-	high	xknow @xknow_infosec, Tim Shelton	2020-06-11	2023-03-06	087790e3-3287-436c-bccf-cbd0184a7db1
	Detects suspicious child processes created by CrushFTP. (...)	Emerging	experimental	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application Privilege Escalation Exploitation for Privilege Escalation	CVE-2025-54309	high	Nisarg Suthar	2025-08-01	—	0fdc7c7f-c690-4217-9ae3-31f5156eed72