Fallback Channels

ID: T1008
Tactics: TA0011 Command and Control
Platforms: ESXi, Linux, macOS, Windows
Data sources: Network Connection Creation, Network Traffic Flow
Source: attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified: 10 Sep 2026

Adversaries may use fallback or alternate communication channels if the primary channel is compromised or inaccessible in order to maintain reliable command and control and to avoid data transfer thresholds.

Detection

DET0499 Behavioral Detection of Fallback or Alternate C2 Channels
Data components: Network Connection Creation, Network Traffic Flow

Mitigations (1)

M1031 Network Intrusion Prevention: Network intrusion detection and prevention systems that use network signatures to identify traffic for specific adversary malware can be used to mitigate activity at the network level. Signatures are often for unique indicators within protocols and may be based on the specific protocol used by a particular adversary or tool, and will likely be different across various malware families and versions. Adversaries will likely change tool C2 signatures over time or construct protocols in such a way as to avoid detection by common defensive tools. ^[1]

Groups (5)

Software (52)

References

University of Birmingham C2