CyberStack

MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1102.002

Web Service: Bidirectional Communication

ID
T1102.002
Tactics
TA0011 Command and Control
Sub-technique of
T1102 Web Service
Platforms
ESXi, Linux, macOS, Windows
Data sources
Network Connection Creation, Process Creation, Network Traffic Content, Network Traffic Flow
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
4 Sep 2026

Adversaries may use an existing, legitimate external Web service as a means for sending commands to and receiving output from a compromised system over the Web service channel. Compromised systems may leverage popular websites and social media to host command and control (C2) instructions. Those infected systems can then send the output from those commands back over that Web service channel. The return traffic may occur in a variety of ways, depending on the Web service being utilized. For example, the return traffic may take the form of the compromised system posting a comment on a forum, issuing a pull request to development project, updating a document hosted on a Web service, or by sending a Tweet.

Popular websites and social media acting as a mechanism for C2 may give a significant amount of cover due to the likelihood that hosts within a network are already communicating with them prior to a compromise. Using common services, such as those offered by Google or Twitter, makes it easier for adversaries to hide in expected noise. Web service providers commonly use SSL/TLS encryption, giving adversaries an added level of protection.

Detection

Mitigations (2)

M1021 Restrict Web-Based Content

Web proxies can be used to enforce external network communication policy that prevents use of unauthorized external services.

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.

Groups (16)

Software (38)