T1560 Archive Collected Data

T1560 Archive Collected Data

High-Level Description

An adversary may compress and/or encrypt data that is collected prior to exfiltration. Compressing the data can help to obfuscate the collected data and minimize the amount of data sent over the network. Encryption can be used to hide information that is being exfiltrated from detection or make exfiltration less conspicuous upon inspection by a defender.

Both compression and encryption are done prior to exfiltration, and can be performed using a utility, 3rd party library, or custom method.

Kill Chain Phase

• Collection (TA0009)

Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows

What to Check

• Identify if Archive Collected Data technique is applicable to target environment
• Check Linux systems for indicators of Archive Collected Data
• Check macOS systems for indicators of Archive Collected Data
• Check Windows systems for indicators of Archive Collected Data
• Verify mitigations are bypassed or absent (1 known mitigations)
• Assess detection coverage (1 detection strategies)

How to Test

Atomic Red Team Tests

The following tests are from Atomic Red Team and provide actionable ways to test this technique:

Atomic Test 1: Compress Data for Exfiltration With PowerShell

An adversary may compress data (e.g., sensitive documents) that is collected prior to exfiltration. When the test completes you should find the files from the $env:USERPROFILE directory compressed in a file called T1560-data-ps.zip in the $env:USERPROFILE directory

Supported Platforms: windows

dir #{input_file} -Recurse | Compress-Archive -DestinationPath #{output_file}