Command and Control: Steganography Tool Detected

This document describes a threat finding type in Security Command Center. Threat findings are generated by threat detectors when they detect a potential threat in your cloud resources. For a full list of available threat findings, see Threat findings index.

Overview

A process was detected utilizing steganography tools commonly found in Unix-like distributions to potentially conceal communication. This behavior suggests an attempt to hide command and control (C2) traffic or sensitive data within seemingly harmless digital messages exchanged with an external entity. Adversaries often use steganography to evade network monitoring and make malicious activity less conspicuous. The presence of these tools suggests a deliberate attempt to obfuscate illicit data transfer. This behavior can lead to further compromise or exfiltration of sensitive information. Identifying the hidden content is essential to accurately assess the risks involved.

Cloud Run Threat Detection is the source of this finding.

How to respond

To respond to this finding, do the following:

Review finding details

  1. Open an Command and Control: Steganography Tool Detected finding as directed in Reviewing findings. Review the details on the Summary and JSON tabs.

  2. On the Summary tab, review the information in the following sections:

    • What was detected, especially the following fields:
      • Program binary: the absolute path of the executed binary
      • Arguments: the arguments passed during binary execution
    • Affected resource, especially the following fields:

  3. On the JSON, note the following fields.

    • resource:
      • project_display_name: the name of the project that contains the affected Cloud Run resource
    • finding:
      • processes:
      • binary:
        • path: the full path of the executed binary.
      • args: the arguments that were provided while executing the binary. of the affected Cloud Run resource

  4. Identify other findings that occurred at a similar time for this container. Related findings might indicate that this activity was malicious, instead of a failure to follow best practices.

  5. Review the settings of the affected container.

  6. Check the logs for the affected container.

Research attack and response methods

  1. Review MITRE ATT&CK framework entries for this finding type: Data Obfuscation: Steganography.
  2. Check the SHA-256 hash value for the binary flagged as malicious on VirusTotal by clicking the link in VirusTotal indicator. VirusTotal is an Alphabet-owned service that provides context on potentially malicious files, URLs, domains, and IP addresses.
  3. To develop a response plan, combine your investigation results with the MITRE research and VirusTotal analysis.

Implement your response

For response recommendations, see Respond to Cloud Run threat findings.

What's next