SUNSPOT encrypted log entries it collected with the stream cipher RC4 using a hard-coded key. It also uses AES128-CBC encrypted blobs for SUNBURST source code and data extracted from the SolarWinds Orion <MsBuild.exe</code> process.2
tool
SUNSPOT S0562
- Type
- malware
- Platform
- Windows
- Created
- 12 January 2021
- Last modified
- 16 April 2025
SUNSPOT is an implant that injected the SUNBURST backdoor into the SolarWinds Orion software update framework. It was used by APT29 since at least February 2020.[1]
12
Techniques54th pct
6
Tactics53rd pct
1
Threat groupunranked
1
Campaignunranked
Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.
MITRE reference S0562
SUNSPOT was identified on disk with a filename of taskhostsvc.exe and it created an encrypted log file at C:\Windows\Temp\vmware-vmdmp.log.3
SUNSPOT monitored running processes for instances of MsBuild.exe by hashing the name of each running process and comparing it to the corresponding value 0x53D525. It also extracted command-line arguments and individual arguments from the running MsBuild.exe process to identify the directory path of the Orion software Visual Studio solution.4
Following the successful injection of SUNBURST, SUNSPOT deleted a temporary file it created named InventoryManager.bk after restoring the original SolarWinds Orion source code to the software library.5
SUNSPOT enumerated the Orion software Visual Studio solution directory path.6
SUNSPOT used Windows API functions such as MoveFileEx and NtQueryInformationProcess as part of the SUNBURST injection process.7
Standing S0562
Reach is how much of ATT&CK this tool 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
Techniques1254th pct
54th percentile · 54% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many Enterprise techniques or fewer.
Tactics653rd pct
53rd percentile · 53% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many tactics spanned or fewer.
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.
Campaign185% 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 / technique17med40th pct
40th percentile · 60% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more detection rules per technique.
Tests / technique4med
Detection coverage S0562
281 distinct rules cover the 12 techniques recorded for this tool. The 287 technique-to-rule mappings resolve to 281 distinct rules, because one rule can cover several techniques. 229 Sigma · 52 Splunk.
11 covered by at least one rule1 with no coverage281 distinct rules in total
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