Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over a different protocol than that of the existing command and control channel. The data may also be sent to an alternate network location from the main command and control server.
Alternate protocols include FTP, SMTP, HTTP/S, DNS, SMB, or any other network protocol not being used as the main command and control channel. Adversaries may also opt to encrypt and/or obfuscate these alternate channels.
Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol can be done using various common operating system utilities such as Net/SMB or FTP.[1] On macOS and Linux curl may be used to invoke protocols such as HTTP/S or FTP/S to exfiltrate data from a system.[2]
Many IaaS and SaaS platforms (such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, GitHub, and AWS S3) support the direct download of files, emails, source code, and other sensitive information via the web console or Cloud API.
Threat groups56th percentile · 46% of ATT&CK techniques have fewer threat groups attributed.
0
CampaignsNone recorded
CampaignsNone recorded · 54% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.
7
Tools & malware71st pct
Tools & malware71st percentile · 69% of ATT&CK techniques have fewer tools implementing them.
19
Detection rulesTop 14%
Detection rules86th percentile · 85% of ATT&CK techniques have fewer detection rules written.
Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol MITRE reference T1048
56th pctamong all ATT&CK techniques for number of groups
2 groups have been recorded using this technique. Newest first; each entry carries MITRE’s procedure text and a link to the group’s full record. Click a name to filter the rules below.
Has sent locally staged files with collected credentials to C2 servers using cURL.1
created 2021-10-011 reference
All 2 groups for this technique
7 software entries are documented implementing this technique. MITRE files each as a tool or as malware; newest first, then by how many groups carry them.
Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol detection strategy DET0131
MITRE names one behaviour worth catching for this technique and breaks it into 5 analytics, one per platform. Each carries the log sources it needs and the fields you tune per environment.
Behavioral Detection Strategy for Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Enterprise
5 platforms
AN0367 · Windows
Detects unusual outbound file transfer behavior using protocols like FTP, SMB, SMTP, or DNS, involving non-standard processes, off-hour activity, or uncommonly high volume.
Log sources
The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.
MITRE calls these the analytic’s mutable elements: the thresholds and filters you set for your own environment.
Field
What you tune
DataVolumeThresholdMB
Set threshold for outbound volume (e.g., >50MB in a single connection).
ProtocolAllowList
Allow-listed protocols in use for specific machines or users (e.g., FTP allowed for backups).
TimeWindow
Define allowed time-of-day windows (e.g., flag after-hours file transfer).
ParentProcessAnomaly
Identify anomalous parent-child process relationships (e.g., winword.exe spawning ftp.exe).
AN0368 · Linux
Detects file exfiltration using tools like curl, scp, or custom binaries over protocols such as FTP, HTTP/S, or DNS tunneling, especially outside baseline user behavior.
Log sources
The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.
MITRE calls these the analytic’s mutable elements: the thresholds and filters you set for your own environment.
Field
What you tune
ProtocolType
Flag unexpected protocols (e.g., HTTP on port 53 or FTP traffic from non-standard tools).
UserContext
Scope for privilege escalation or service account behavior.
FileExtensionSensitivity
Track movement of file types of interest (e.g., .csv, .sql, .key).
AN0369 · macOS
Detects non-native file transfer via curl, Python scripts, or AppleScript using uncommon protocols like FTP, SMTP, or DNS exfiltration through mDNSResponder abuse.
Log sources
The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.
Enforce proxies and use dedicated servers for services such as DNS and only allow those systems to communicate over respective ports/protocols, instead of all systems within a network. Cloud service providers support IP-based restrictions when accessing cloud resources. Consider using IP allowlisting along with user account management to ensure that data access is restricted not only to valid users but only from expected IP ranges to mitigate the use of stolen credentials to access data.
Network intrusion detection and prevention systems that use network signatures to identify traffic for specific adversary command and control infrastructure and malware can be used to mitigate activity at the network level.
Configure user permissions groups and roles for access to cloud storage. Implement strict Identity and Access Management (IAM) controls to prevent access to storage solutions except for the applications, users, and services that require access. Ensure that temporary access tokens are issued rather than permanent credentials, especially when access is being granted to entities outside of the internal security boundary.
Tests4Executorssh 2 · powershell 1 · bash 1Need elevation0 of 4Have prerequisites2Have cleanup0Platformsmacos, linux, windows
#
Test
Platform
Executor
Elevation
Prereqs
Cleanup
Ref
01
Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol - SSH
macos, linux
sh
—
—
—
Input a domain and test Exfiltration over SSH
Remote to Local
Upon successful execution, sh will spawn ssh contacting a remote domain (default: target.example.com) writing a tar.gz file.
Input a domain and test Exfiltration over SSH
Local to Remote
Upon successful execution, tar will compress /Users/* directory and password protect the file modification of Users.tar.gz.enc as output.
DNSExfiltrator enables the transfer (exfiltration) of a file over a DNS request covert channel. This is basically a data leak testing tool allowing to exfiltrate data over a covert channel.
!!! Test will fail without a domain under your control with A record and NS record !!!
See this github page for more details - https://github.com/Arno0x/DNSExfiltrator
Inputs
Name
Description
Type
Default Value
doh
Google or CloudFlare DoH (DNS over HTTP) server
string
google
time
The time in milliseconds to wait between each DNS request
string
500
domain
The domain name to use for DNS requests
string
target.example.com
encoding
Set to '-b32' to use base32 encoding of data. Might be required by some DNS resolvers.
string
—
password
Password used to encrypt the data to be exfiltrated
This test demonstrates how an attacker can exfiltrate sensitive information by encoding it as a subdomain (using base64 encoding) and
making DNS queries via the dig command to a controlled DNS server.
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Detects DNS queries to attacker-controlled infrastructure used by the Mini Shai-Hulud campaign targeting TanStack npm packages along with other packages such as mistralai, uipath and so on. (...)