Suspicious MQTT Command and Control Connection by WikiLoader

ATT&CK techniques

C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1071.001Web Protocols
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects outbound network connections to MQTT broker ports used by a unique WikiLoader variant for command and control after a spoofed GlobalProtect infection. Repurposing the MQTT messaging protocol provides a resilient channel that many defenses do not inspect. Detecting connections on these ports from endpoints exposes potential WikiLoader beaconing.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1071.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Outbound Connection to TuxBot Botnet C2 Ports

Malicious Axios Supply Chain C2 Beacon Domain (via dns_query)

Malicious DNS Query to Autonomous AI Attack C2 Proxy Domain

Possible Spectre Ops C2 Beacon via nico and yfat Query Parameters via proxy

Possible ZharkBot C2 Beacon via socket Endpoint with Bot Parameters via proxy

Malicious Dropbox Cloud C2 via Spoofed Googlebot User Agent

Possible FluBot C2 Polling via Known Malware URI Paths

Malicious MetaStealer C2 via cpp-httplib User-Agent (via proxy)

Possible Cobalt Strike Beacon URI Pattern via Web C2

Suspicious MQTT Command and Control Connection by WikiLoader

Pivot detection · T1071.001 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →