Malicious Velvet Ant Linux Backdoor and Credential Harvesting Artifacts (via file_event)

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Collection

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1556.003Pluggable Authentication Modules
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1556.003Pluggable Authentication Modules
Cred Access
- T1556.003Pluggable Authentication Modules
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
- T1005Data from Local System
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of file artifacts tied to the Velvet Ant Operation Highland intrusion, including a renamed GS-Netcat backdoor and hidden logs written by backdoored SSH and PAM components to store harvested credentials and keystrokes. These specific paths are not part of a standard Linux installation.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Velvet Ant Linux Backdoor and Credential Harvesting Artifacts (via file_event)

Pivot detection · T1005 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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