Adversaries may stage collected data in a central location or directory prior to Exfiltration. Data may be kept in separate files or combined into one file through techniques such as Archive Collected Data. Interactive command shells may be used, and common functionality within cmd and bash may be used to copy data into a staging location.(Citation: PWC Cloud Hopper April 2017) In cloud environments, adversaries may stage data within a particular instance or virtual machine before exfiltration. An adversary may Create Cloud Instance and stage data in that instance.(Citation: Mandiant M-Trends 2020) Adversaries may choose to stage data from a victim network in a centralized location prior to Exfiltration to minimize the number of connections made to their C2 server and better evade detection.
Detects files collected into user temp or shared directories followed by compression with ditto, zip, or custom scripts.
Detects staging of sensitive files into temporary or public directories, compression with 7zip/WinRAR, or batch copy prior to exfiltration.
Detects snapshots or data stored in VMFS volumes from root CLI or remote agents.