malware
SUNBURST is a trojanized DLL designed to fit within the SolarWinds Orion software update framework. It was used by APT29 since at least February 2020.[1][2]
Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.
SUNBURST C2 data attempted to appear as benign XML related to .NET assemblies or as a faux JSON blob.456
SUNBURST masqueraded its network traffic as the Orion Improvement Program (OIP) protocol.7
SUNBURST collected a list of service names that were hashed using a FNV-1a + XOR algorithm to check against similarly-hashed hardcoded blocklists.10
SUNBURST collected the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\MachineGuid from compromised hosts.11
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.
96th percentile · 96% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many Enterprise techniques or fewer.
80th percentile · 80% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many tactics spanned or fewer.
61% of the population shares a single value across only 22 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.
85% of the population shares a single value across only 8 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.
40th percentile · 60% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more detection rules per technique.
1230 distinct rules cover the 36 techniques recorded for this malware. 817 Sigma · 413 Splunk.
| Select | Title | Description | Category | Status | Event | OS | Product | MITRE ATT&CK | CVEs | Severity | Author | Created | Updated | ID | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Detects file access requests to files ending with either the ".hive"/".reg" extension, usually associated with Windows Registry backups. | Hunting | test | file_access | windows | - | - | low | frack113 | 2023-09-15 | 2024-07-29 | 337a31c6-46c4-46be-886a-260d7aa78cac | ||||
Detect set Notification_Suppress to 1 to disable the Windows security center notification | Generic | test | registry_set | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | medium | frack113 | 2022-08-19 | 2023-08-17 | 0c93308a-3f1b-40a9-b649-57ea1a1c1d63 | ||||
Detect set DisallowRun to 1 to prevent user running specific computer program | Generic | test | registry_set | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | medium | frack113 | 2022-08-19 | 2023-08-17 | 275641a5-a492-45e2-a817-7c81e9d9d3e9 | ||||
Splunk | The following analytic detects the use of commands to add or set exclusions
in Windows Defender. It (...) | Generic | stable | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike | - | medium | Teoderick Contreras, Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk | 2021-11-25 | 2026-06-08 | 773b66fe-4dd9-11ec-8289-acde48001122 | |||
Detects execution of "reg.exe" commands with the "add" or "copy" flags on safe boot registry keys. (...) | Generic | test | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | high | Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) | 2022-09-02 | 2024-03-19 | d7662ff6-9e97-4596-a61d-9839e32dee8d | ||||
Detects suspicious local connections via a named pipe to the AD FS configuration database (Windows Internal Database). (...) | Generic | test | pipe_created | windows | Sysmon | - | medium | Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g | 2021-10-08 | 2023-11-30 | 1ea13e8c-03ea-409b-877d-ce5c3d2c1cb3 | ||||
Detects the deletion of the "Zone.Identifier" ADS. (...) | Hunting | test | file_delete | windows | Sysmon | - | 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 | - | medium | Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) | 2023-09-04 | 2025-07-04 | 3109530e-ab47-4cc6-a953-cac5ebcc93ae | ||||
Detects the creation of an "Active Directory Schema Cache File" (.sch) file by an uncommon tool. | Generic | test | file_event | windows | Sysmon | - | medium | xknow @xknow_infosec, Tim Shelton | 2019-03-24 | 2023-10-18 | 75bf09fa-1dd7-4d18-9af9-dd9e492562eb | ||||
Detects javaw.exe in AppData folder as used by Adwind / JRAT | Emerging | test | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | 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 | - | high | Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tom Ueltschi, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community | 2017-11-10 | 2022-12-02 | 0bcfabcb-7929-47f4-93d6-b33fb67d34d1 | ||||
Detect enable rdp feature to allow specific user to rdp connect on the targeted machine | Generic | test | registry_set | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | medium | frack113 | 2022-08-19 | 2023-08-17 | 37b437cf-3fc5-4c8e-9c94-1d7c9aff842b | ||||
Detects code fragments found in small and obfuscated AMSI bypass PowerShell scripts | Generic | test | ps_script | windows | PowerShell | - | high | Florian Roth (Nextron Systems) | 2022-11-09 | — | e0d6c087-2d1c-47fd-8799-3904103c5a98 | ||||
Detects attempts to disable AMSI (Anti-Malware Scan Interface) by modifying the AmsiEnable registry value. (...) | Generic | experimental | registry_set | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2025-12-25 | — | aa37cbb0-da36-42cb-a90f-fdf216fc7467 | ||||
Detects activity that indicates a user disabling the ability for Antivirus mini filter to inspect a "Dev Drive". | Generic | test | registry_set | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | high | @kostastsale, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) | 2023-11-05 | 2024-08-16 | 31e124fb-5dc4-42a0-83b3-44a69c77b271 | ||||
Detects the removal or uninstallation of an application via "Wmic.EXE". | Generic | test | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | 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 | - | 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 | - | 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 | - | medium | Pushkarev Dmitry | 2020-06-28 | 2025-12-03 | 401e5d00-b944-11ea-8f9a-00163ecd60ae | ||||
Detects DNS queries made by "AppInstaller.EXE". (...) | Generic | test | dns | windows | Sysmon | - | medium | frack113 | 2021-11-24 | 2023-11-09 | 7cff77e1-9663-46a3-8260-17f2e1aa9d0a | ||||
Detects suspicious user agent strings used in APT malware in proxy logs | Generic | test | proxy | - | - | - | high | Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis | 2019-11-12 | 2024-02-15 | 6ec820f2-e963-4801-9127-d8b2dce4d31b | ||||
Detects indicators of APT 29 (Cozy Bear) phishing-campaign as reported by mandiant | Emerging | stable | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | critical | Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), @41thexplorer | 2018-11-20 | 2023-03-08 | 7453575c-a747-40b9-839b-125a0aae324b | ||||
Detects indicators of APT 29 (Cozy Bear) phishing-campaign as reported by mandiant | Emerging | stable | file_event | windows | Sysmon | - | critical | @41thexplorer | 2018-11-20 | 2023-02-20 | 3a3f81ca-652c-482b-adeb-b1c804727f74 | ||||
Detects suspicious user agent string of APT40 Dropbox tool | Emerging | test | proxy | - | - | - | high | Thomas Patzke | 2019-11-12 | 2023-05-18 | 5ba715b6-71b7-44fd-8245-f66893e81b3d | ||||
Detects execution of GfxDownloadWrapper.exe with a URL as an argument to download file. | Generic | test | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | medium | Victor Sergeev, oscd.community | 2020-10-09 | 2023-10-18 | eee00933-a761-4cd0-be70-c42fe91731e7 | ||||
Detects actions that disable Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) in Linux, including:
- Use (...) | Generic | experimental | process_creation | linux | Linux Auditd | - | high | Milad Cheraghi | 2025-05-26 | 2025-12-05 | e497a24e-9345-4a62-9803-b06d7d7cb132 | ||||
Splunk | The following analytic detects the execution of tools commonly exploited by cybercriminals, such as those used for unauthorized access, network scanning, privilege escalation, password dumping or data exfiltration. (...) | Generic | stable | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike · Cisco NVM · Cisco | - | medium | Bhavin Patel, Splunk, sventec, Github Community | 2021-07-12 | 2026-09-22 | a51bfe1a-94f0-48cc-b4e4-16a110145893 | - | ||
Detect changes in auditd configuration files | Generic | test | file_event | linux | Linux Auditd | - | high | Mikhail Larin, oscd.community | 2019-10-25 | 2021-11-27 | 977ef627-4539-4875-adf4-ed8f780c4922 | ||||
Detects automated lateral movement by Turla group | Unsupported | unsupported | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | medium | Markus Neis | 2017-11-07 | 2023-02-24 | 75925535-ca97-4e0a-a850-00b5c00779dc | ||||
Detects deletion of an Amazon Bedrock guardrail, which may indicate attempts to remove
model safety (...) | Generic | experimental | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | medium | Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber) | 2026-07-10 | — | 59b70e4d-dd17-44a9-b740-acf07ae3eb6a | ||||
Detects updates to an Amazon Bedrock guardrail, which may indicate attempts to weaken
model safety c (...) | Generic | experimental | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | medium | Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber) | 2026-07-10 | — | 1c722651-254a-4b04-a9f4-99b62a2d0a1f | ||||
An attempt to export an AWS EC2 instance has been detected. (...) | Generic | test | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | low | Diogo Braz | 2020-04-16 | 2022-10-05 | 54b9a76a-3c71-4673-b4b3-2edb4566ea7b | ||||
Detects successful deletion or disabling of an AWS GuardDuty detector, possibly by an attacker trying to avoid detection of its malicious activities. (...) | Generic | experimental | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | high | suktech24 | 2025-11-27 | — | d2656e78-c069-4571-8220-9e0ab5913f19 | ||||
Detects updates of the GuardDuty list of trusted IPs, perhaps to disable security alerts against malicious IPs. | Generic | test | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | high | faloker | 2020-02-11 | 2022-10-09 | 6e61ee20-ce00-4f8d-8aee-bedd8216f7e3 | ||||
Detects evade to Macie detection. | Unsupported | unsupported | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | medium | Sittikorn S | 2021-07-06 | 2023-03-24 | 91f6a16c-ef71-437a-99ac-0b070e3ad221 | ||||
Detects the modification of the findings on SecurityHub. | Generic | stable | cloud_audit | - | AWS CloudTrail · AWS | - | high | Sittikorn S | 2021-06-28 | — | a607e1fe-74bf-4440-a3ec-b059b9103157 | ||||
Detects file creation events linked to the Axios NPM supply chain compromise. (...) | Emerging | experimental | file_event | linux | Sysmon | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2026-04-01 | — | b7cb840c-11f6-47f7-b3ef-5524739c9077 | ||||
Detects file creation events linked to the Axios NPM supply chain compromise on macOS devices. (...) | Emerging | experimental | file_event | macos | - | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2026-04-01 | — | 2db0458c-05c9-4069-a26f-77becd9c8c13 | ||||
Detects the Linux-specific execution chain of the plain-crypto-js malicious npm dependency by Axios NPM package, including payload download via curl and detached execution using nohup and python3. (...) | Emerging | experimental | process_creation | linux | Sysmon | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2026-04-01 | — | 0a23a62d-c5b3-468b-a072-25064a9a8c87 | ||||
Detects the macOS-specific execution chain of the plain-crypto-js malicious npm dependency in Axios NPM Package, including AppleScript execution via osascript, payload download, permission modification, execution, and cleanup. | Emerging | experimental | process_creation | macos | - | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2026-04-01 | — | a09ee860-31b3-4586-8a68-0ebd74ce0e5f | ||||
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 | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2026-04-01 | — | f6c27ecc-d890-4452-80e6-2e274a10e097 | ||||
Detects DNS queries for the malicious C2 domain associated with the plain-crypto-js/Axios npm package supply chain compromise. (...) | Emerging | experimental | dns | - | - | - | high | Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) | 2026-04-01 | — | 73e5d24f-493f-4092-bd2f-c72cabda40ee | ||||
Splunk | The following analytic detects when the risk-based step-up consent security setting in Azure AD is disabled. (...) | Generic | stable | account_management | - | Microsoft 365 | - | medium | Mauricio Velazco, Splunk | 2023-11-16 | 2026-05-13 | 875de3d7-09bc-4916-8c0a-0929f4ced3d8 | |||
This detection uses Windows security events to detect suspicious access attempts to the registry key of Azure AD Health monitoring agent. (...) | Generic | test | - | windows | WinEventLog Security | - | medium | Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research), MSTIC | 2021-08-26 | 2022-10-09 | ff151c33-45fa-475d-af4f-c2f93571f4fe | ||||
This detection uses Windows security events to detect suspicious access attempts to the registry key values and sub-keys of Azure AD Health service agents (e.g AD FS). (...) | Generic | test | - | windows | WinEventLog Security | - | medium | Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research), MSTIC | 2021-08-26 | 2022-10-09 | 1d2ab8ac-1a01-423b-9c39-001510eae8e8 | ||||
Detects when Events are deleted in Azure Kubernetes. (...) | Generic | test | cloud_audit | - | Azure Activity Logs · Azure | - | medium | Austin Songer @austinsonger | 2021-07-24 | 2022-08-23 | 225d8b09-e714-479c-a0e4-55e6f29adf35 | ||||
Detects backup catalog deletions | Generic | test | - | windows | WinEventLog Application | - | medium | Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Tom U. @c_APT_ure (collection) | 2017-05-12 | 2022-12-25 | 9703792d-fd9a-456d-a672-ff92efe4806a | ||||
Detects attackers using tooling with bad opsec defaults. (...) | Generic | test | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | high | Oleg Kolesnikov @securonix invrep_de, oscd.community, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Christian Burkard (Nextron Systems) | 2020-10-23 | 2024-08-15 | a7c3d773-caef-227e-a7e7-c2f13c622329 | ||||
Detects usage of the "FromBase64String" function in the commandline which is used to decode a base64 (...) | Generic | test | process_creation | windows | Sysmon · WinEventLog Security | - | high | Florian Roth (Nextron Systems) | 2020-01-29 | 2023-01-26 | e32d4572-9826-4738-b651-95fa63747e8a | ||||
Detects changes to the bitbucket audit log configuration. | Generic | test | cloud_audit | - | Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket | - | medium | Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf) | 2024-02-25 | — | 6aa12161-235a-4dfb-9c74-fe08df8d8da1 |
19th percentile · 81% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more atomic tests per technique.
54% of the population shares a single value across only 11 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.
57th percentile · 57% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many mitigations per technique or fewer.
5 of 8 axes carry an honest rank on this page. Coverage medians are taken across this malware’s 36 Enterprise techniques.
Technique Campaign use over its cumulative rule count.