CyberStack

MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1071.002

Application Layer Protocol: File Transfer Protocols

ID
T1071.002
Tactics
TA0011 Command and Control
Sub-technique of
T1071 Application Layer Protocol
Platforms
ESXi, Linux, macOS, Network Devices, Windows
Data sources
Network Connection Creation, Process Creation, Network Traffic Content, Network Traffic Flow, Command Execution
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
4 Sep 2026

Adversaries may communicate using application layer protocols associated with transferring files to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. Commands to the remote system, and often the results of those commands, will be embedded within the protocol traffic between the client and server.

Protocols such as SMB[1], FTP[2], FTPS, and TFTP that transfer files may be very common in environments. Packets produced from these protocols may have many fields and headers in which data can be concealed. Data could also be concealed within the transferred files. An adversary may abuse these protocols to communicate with systems under their control within a victim network while also mimicking normal, expected traffic.

Detection

Mitigations (2)

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.

M1037 Filter Network Traffic

Filter outbound FTP/SFTP traffic from sensitive systems, allowing file transfers only to trusted internal or known IP addresses. This measure can prevent attackers from transferring data or payloads via FTP/SFTP channels to or from unauthorized external systems.

Groups (6)

Software (20)

References

  1. US-CERT TA18-074A
  2. ESET Machete July 2019