BPFDoor can require a password to activate the backdoor and uses RC4 encryption or static library encryption libtomcrypt.3
tool
BPFDoor S1161
- Type
- malware
- Platform
- Linux
- Created
- 20 September 2024
- Last modified
- 12 May 2026
BPFDoor is a Linux based passive long-term backdoor used by China-based threat actors. First seen in 2021, BPFDoor is named after its usage of Berkley Packet Filter (BPF) to execute single task instructions. BPFDoor supports multiple protocols for communicating with a C2 including TCP, UDP, and ICMP and can start local or reverse shells that bypass firewalls using iptables.[1][2]
13
Techniques57th pct
5
Tactics41st pct
0
Threat groupsNone recorded
0
CampaignsNone recorded
Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.
MITRE reference S1161
After initial execution, BPFDoor forks itself and runs the fork with the --init flag, which allows it to execute secondary clean up operations. The parent process terminates leaving the forked process to be inherited by the legitimate process init.4
BPFDoor overwrites the argv[0] value used by the Linux /proc filesystem to determine the command line and command name to display for each process. BPFDoor selects a name from 10 hardcoded names that resemble Linux system daemons, such as; /sbin/udevd -d, dbus-daemon --system, avahi-daemon: chroot helper, /sbin/auditd -n, and /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald.5
BPFDoor can create a reverse shell and supports vt100 emulator formatting.6
BPFDoor clears the file location /proc/<PID>/environ removing all environment variables for the process.7
After initial setup, BPFDoor's original execution process deletes the dropped binary and exits.8
Standing S1161
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
Techniques1357th pct
57th percentile · 57% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many Enterprise techniques or fewer.
Tactics541st pct
41st percentile · 59% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more tactics spanned.
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.
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 / technique3medBottom 3%
3rd percentile · 97% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more detection rules per technique.
Tests / technique2med
Detection coverage S1161
231 distinct rules cover the 13 techniques recorded for this tool. The 235 technique-to-rule mappings resolve to 231 distinct rules, because one rule can cover several techniques. 171 Sigma · 60 Splunk.
9 covered by at least one rule4 with no coverage231 distinct rules in total
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© 2026 The MITRE Corporation. ATT&CK® and D3FEND™ data reproduced with permission. SigmaHQ detection rules licensed under DRL 1.1. attack.mitre.org · d3fend.mitre.org · CAR analytics licensed under Apache 2.0 · car.mitre.org