malware

ZIPLINE S1114

Type: malware
Platform: Network Devices
Created: 1 March 2024
Last modified: 15 April 2025

ZIPLINE is a passive backdoor that was used during Cutting Edge on compromised Secure Connect VPNs for reverse shell and proxy functionality.[1]

Techniques44th pct

Tactics53rd pct

Threat groupsNone recorded

Campaignunranked

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

ZIPLINE MITRE reference S1114

Process Discovery T1057 ↗

ZIPLINE can identify running processes and their names.2

Discovery10 detection rules

Unix Shell T1059.004 ↗

ZIPLINE can use /bin/sh to create a reverse shell and execute commands.3

Execution31 detection rules

File and Directory Discovery T1083 ↗

ZIPLINE can find and append specific files on Ivanti Connect Secure VPNs based upon received commands.4

Discovery29 detection rules

Proxy T1090 ↗

ZIPLINE can create a proxy server on compromised hosts.5 6

Command and Control30 detection rules

Non-Application Layer Protocol T1095 ↗

ZIPLINE can communicate with C2 using a custom binary protocol.7

Command and Control4 detection rules

Ingress Tool Transfer T1105 ↗

ZIPLINE can download files to be saved on the compromised system.8 9

Command and Control131 detection rules

Standing S1114

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

Techniques944th pct

44th percentile · 56% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more Enterprise techniques.

Tactics653rd pct

53rd percentile · 53% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many tactics spanned or fewer.

Threat groups061% 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 / technique29med73rd pct

73rd percentile · 73% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many detection rules per technique or fewer.

Tests / technique9medTop 19%

81st percentile · 81% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many atomic tests per technique or fewer.

Data comps / technique5med54% tie · 11 values

54% of the population shares a single value across only 11 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Mitigations / technique2medTop 9%

91st percentile · 91% 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 9 Enterprise techniques.

Range

Technique Campaign use over its cumulative rule count.

Campaigns · 1Sigma rules (cumulative) · 326Splunk ESCU (cumulative) · 192

Standing S1114

Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID
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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-09-02	2024-03-19	d7662ff6-9e97-4596-a61d-9839e32dee8d
	Detects code fragments found in small and obfuscated AMSI bypass PowerShell scripts	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	high	@kostastsale, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-11-05	2024-08-16	31e124fb-5dc4-42a0-83b3-44a69c77b271
	Detects DNS queries made by "AppInstaller.EXE". (...)	Generic	test	dns	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	frack113	2021-11-24	2023-11-09	7cff77e1-9663-46a3-8260-17f2e1aa9d0a
	Detects execution of GfxDownloadWrapper.exe with a URL as an argument to download file.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Privilege Escalation, Stealth Process Injection Proc Memory	-	high	Milad Cheraghi	2025-05-26	2025-12-05	e497a24e-9345-4a62-9803-b06d7d7cb132
	Detect changes in auditd configuration files	Generic	test	file_event	linux	Linux Auditd	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	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 deletion of an Amazon Bedrock guardrail, which may indicate attempts to remove model safety (...)	Generic	experimental	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber)	2026-07-10	—	1c722651-254a-4b04-a9f4-99b62a2d0a1f
	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 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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Disable or Modify Cloud Log	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	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	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	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	-	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	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	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Unix Shell Python Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	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	-	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter AppleScript Unix Shell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Initial Access Supply Chain Compromise Compromise Software Supply Chain	-	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	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 when the risk-based step-up consent security setting in Azure AD is disabled. (...)	Generic	stable	account_management	-	Microsoft 365	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Mauricio Velazco, Splunk	2023-11-16	2026-05-13	875de3d7-09bc-4916-8c0a-0929f4ced3d8
	Detects when Events are deleted in Azure Kubernetes. (...)	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Azure Activity Logs · Azure	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Austin Songer @austinsonger	2021-07-24	2022-08-23	225d8b09-e714-479c-a0e4-55e6f29adf35
	Detects changes to the bitbucket audit log configuration.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	6aa12161-235a-4dfb-9c74-fe08df8d8da1
	Detects Bitbucket global secret scanning rule deletion activity.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	e16cf0f0-ee88-4901-bd0b-4c8d13d9ee05
	Detects Bitbucket global SSH access configuration changes.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Lateral Movement Remote Services SSH	-	medium	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	16ab6143-510a-44e2-a615-bdb80b8317fc
	Detects when a secret scanning allowlist rule is added for projects.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	low	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	42ccce6d-7bd3-4930-95cd-e4d83fa94a30
	Detects when a repository is exempted from secret scanning feature.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	high	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	b91e8d5e-0033-44fe-973f-b730316f23a1
	Detects when secret scanning rule is deleted for the project or repository.	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	Bitbucket Audit · Bitbucket	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	low	Muhammad Faisal (@faisalusuf)	2024-02-25	—	ff91e3f0-ad15-459f-9a85-1556390c138d
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of `bitsadmin.exe` with the `transfer` parameter to download a remote object. (...)	Generic	stable	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security · CrowdStrike	Execution, Persistence, Stealth BITS Jobs Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Michael Haag, Sittikorn S	2021-03-30	2026-10-02	80630ff4-8e4c-11eb-aab5-acde48001122
	Detects the usage of the unsafe bpftrace option	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Unix Shell	-	medium	Andreas Hunkeler (@Karneades)	2022-02-11	—	f8341cb2-ee25-43fa-a975-d8a5a9714b39
	Detects execution of Chromium based browser in headless mode	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Stealth Hide Artifacts Hidden Window Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-09-12	—	ef9dcfed-690c-4c5d-a9d1-482cd422225c
	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
Splunk	Adversaries may intentionally suppress or reduce the volume of core Cisco ASA syslog messages to evade detection or cover their tracks. (...)	Hunting	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	CVE-2025-20362 CVE-2025-20333	medium	Bhavin Patel, Micheal Haag, Splunk	2025-09-25	2026-05-13	4b4f8fdd-1f9e-45d8-9b0f-1f64c0b297a4
Splunk	This analytic detects the disabling of logging functionality on a Cisco ASA device through CLI comma (...)	Generic	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Bhavin Patel, Micheal Haag, Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-09-25	2026-05-13	7b4c9f3e-5a88-4b7b-9c4b-94d8e5d67201
Splunk	This analytic detects tampering with logging filter configurations on Cisco ASA devices via CLI or ASDM. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-11-21	2026-05-13	b87b48a8-6d1a-4280-9cf1-16a950dbf901
Splunk	This analytic provides comprehensive monitoring of configuration changes on Cisco devices by analyzing archive logs. (...)	Hunting	stable	configuration_change	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Persistence, Privilege Escalation Account Manipulation Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Persistence Server Software Component Web Shell	CVE-2018-0171	medium	Bhavin Patel, Michael Haag, Splunk	2025-08-21	2026-05-13	f52d5c0b-d45d-4304-b300-a4f6a1130dec
	Turn off logging locally or remote	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools	-	high	Austin Clark	2019-08-11	2023-01-04	9e8f6035-88bf-4a63-96b6-b17c0508257e
	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
	Detects the manual disablement of IEEE 802.1X (dot1x) on a Cisco network device interface. (...)	Generic	experimental	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Persistence, Defense Impairment, Credential Access Modify Authentication Process Network Device Authentication	-	medium	Luc Génaux	2026-04-28	—	ef0ff092-a24a-4fbc-beea-06c08d53e085
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 creation of a Cisco IOS-XE tunnel interface with tunnel source, tunnel destination, and an IP address in the 10.10.12.0 network. (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_device	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali	2026-05-19	2026-05-20	8654314d-8e4d-4971-9f35-b9d477bf668e
Splunk	This analytic detects rapid modification of Cisco IOS-XE VTY access-class settings. (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_device	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Defense Impairment Disable or Modify Tools Lateral Movement Remote Services	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali	2026-05-19	2026-05-20	a01ca274-16cb-476d-a814-d2ffe29d8905
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of curl commands with insecure flags within the Cisco Isovalent environment. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	-	Cisco	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Bhavin Patel, Splunk	2026-01-05	2026-10-02	c16c4899-d3f7-461b-92c2-cc0ef5758855
Splunk	This analytic identifies the use of Chromium-based browsers (like Microsoft Edge) running in headless mode with the `--dump-dom` argument. (...)	Generic	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	cd0e816f-f67d-4dbe-a153-480b546e867e
Splunk	This analytic detects unexpected outbound network connections initiated by known webserver processes such as `httpd.exe`, `nginx.exe`, or `tomcat.exe` to common file sharing or public content hosting services like GitHub, Discord CDN, Transfer.sh, or Pastebin. (...)	Generic	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	1984f997-3b49-4d4b-a7e9-dc5dbf88370e
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 detects file transfers flagged as malware that occurred over non-standard ports (other than 80 and 443). (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Command and Control Non-Standard Port	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-09	2026-09-22	f26445a8-a6a2-4855-bec0-0c39e52e5b8f

Title

Description