SLOWPULSE can hide malicious code in the padding regions between legitimate functions in the Pulse Secure libdsplibs.so file.2
tool
SLOWPULSE S1104
- Type
- malware
- Platform
- Network Devices
- Created
- 6 February 2024
- Last modified
- 15 April 2025
SLOWPULSE is a malware that was used by APT5 as early as 2020 including against U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies. SLOWPULSE has several variants and can modify legitimate Pulse Secure VPN files in order to log credentials and bypass single and two-factor authentication flows.[1]
6
Techniques29th pct
5
Tactics41st pct
1
Threat groupunranked
0
CampaignsNone recorded
Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.
MITRE reference S1104
SLOWPULSE can write logged ACE credentials to /home/perl/PAUS.pm in append mode, using the format string %s:%s\n.3
SLOWPULSE can log credentials on compromised Pulse Secure VPNs during the DSAuth::AceAuthServer::checkUsernamePasswordACE-2FA authentication procedure.4
SLOWPULSE is applied in compromised environments through modifications to legitimate Pulse Secure files.5
SLOWPULSE can modify LDAP and two factor authentication flows by inspecting login credentials and forcing successful authentication if the provided password matches a chosen backdoor password.6
SLOWPULSE can insert malicious logic to bypass RADIUS and ACE two factor authentication (2FA) flows if a designated attacker-supplied password is provided.7
Standing S1104
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
Techniques629th pct
29th percentile · 71% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more Enterprise techniques.
Tactics541st pct
41st percentile · 59% 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 / technique7.5medBottom 10%
10th percentile · 90% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more detection rules per technique.
Tests / technique0med
Detection coverage S1104
147 distinct rules cover the 6 techniques recorded for this tool. 119 Sigma · 28 Splunk.
5 covered by at least one rule1 with no coverage147 distinct rules in total
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