TA0003 · PERSISTENCE
Traffic Signaling
Adversaries may use traffic signaling to hide open ports or other malicious functionality used for persistence or command and control.
Detect it with
Record network packets sent to and from the system, looking for extraneous packets that do not belong to established flows. The Wake-on-LAN magic packet consists of 6 bytes of FF followed by sixteen repetitions of the target system's IEEE address.
Why it matters on shift
Traffic Signaling is one of the concrete ways adversaries achieve persistence. Recognising it in telemetry lets you name the technique in your ticket and pivot to what came before and after.
What to look for next
After persistence, the next tactic is usually Privilege Escalation. Search your telemetry for the transition before closing the ticket.
2 sub-techniques
How it shows up in practice
- T1205.001
Port Knocking
Adversaries may use port knocking to hide open ports used for persistence or command and control. To enable a port, an adversary sends a series of attempted connections to a predefined sequence of closed ports.
- T1205.002
Socket Filters
Adversaries may attach filters to a network socket to monitor then activate backdoors used for persistence or command and control.
Kill-chain context