Techniques › T1132.002 › AN0930
AN0930 Analytic 0930
ESXi · attack.mitre.org · ATT&CK Enterprise v19.2
<p>ESXi shell or scripts produce long, high-entropy tokens (non-standard alphabets) in shell.log/hostd, followed by outbound flows (NSX/Zeek) with asymmetric ratios or protocol mismatches to non-management endpoints.</p>
- Detects
- T1132.002 Non-Standard Encoding
- Part of
- DET0326 Behavior-chain detection for T1132.002 Data Encoding: Non-Standard Encoding across Windows, Linux, macOS, ESXi
Log sources and channels
Exactly as MITRE states them in x_mitre_log_source_references. Where a channel is vague, it is vague in the source; kevmap does not tidy it.
| Log source | Channel | Data component |
|---|---|---|
| esxi:shell | commands containing long non-standard tokens or custom lookup tables | DC0032 Process Creation |
| esxi:hostd | unexpected script invocations producing long encoded strings | DC0038 Application Log Content |
| NSM:Flow | network_flow: bytes_out >> bytes_in, fixed packet sizes/intervals to non-approved CIDRs | DC0078 Network Traffic Flow |
| NSM:Flow | http: HTTP bodies from ESXi host IPs containing long, non-standard tokens | DC0085 Network Traffic Content |
Mutable elements
Parameters MITRE marks as environment-specific. These are the knobs you are expected to tune; they are why an analytic is not a rule.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
MgmtCIDRs | CIDRs allowed for normal ESXi mgmt/backup. |
BytesOutToInRatio | Asymmetry cutoff (e.g., ≥3). |
TokenLengthThreshold | Minimum token length. |
TimeWindow | Correlation window. |