T1678: Delay Execution
Adversaries may employ various time-based methods to evade detection and analysis. These techniques often exploit system clocks, delays, or timing mechanisms to obscure malicious activity, blend in with benign activity, and avoid scrutiny. Adversaries can perform this behavior within virtualization/sandbox environments or natively on host systems.
Adversaries may utilize programmatic `sleep` commands or native system scheduling functionality, for example Scheduled Task/Job. Benign commands or other operations may also be used to delay malware execution or ensure prior commands have had time to execute properly. Loops or otherwise needless repetitions of commands, such as `ping`, may be used to delay malware execution and potentially exceed time thresholds of automated analysis environments.[1][2] Another variation, commonly referred to as API hammering, involves making various calls to Native API functions in order to delay execution (while also potentially overloading analysis environments with junk data).[3][4]
Analyst context for executives and security teams
Delay Execution matters because it is a stealth behavior that can make malware or scripts look quiet during the exact window when sandboxes, EDR triage, or analysts expect activity. For leaders, the business issue is not the delay itself; it is whether detection, malware analysis, and incident response processes can still see suspicious behavior after time passes, scheduled execution occurs, or repeated benign-looking operations are used to outwait automated checks.
Executive priority
Prioritize this as an assurance question for SOC and IR readiness: do your controls observe execution over time, or only at process start and short sandbox detonation windows? This technique is mapped by ATT&CK to multiple software entries and a campaign relationship, including supply-chain and ransomware-relevant software contexts, so it can affect confidence in malware triage, containment timing, and evidence quality. Executives should ask whether detection coverage includes delayed execution paths on Windows, Linux, and macOS, and whether incident playbooks account for payloads that activate after initial investigation windows.
Technical view
ATT&CK defines T1678 as adversaries using time-based methods to evade detection and analysis across Linux, macOS, and Windows under the stealth tactic. Examples in the official description include programmatic sleep commands, native scheduling functionality such as Scheduled Task/Job, benign commands or operations used as delays, repeated commands such as ping loops, and API hammering through many Native API calls. MITRE does not provide official detection text for this object, but relationship context indicates DET0372 is a detection strategy for this technique. SOC teams should validate whether endpoint, process, scheduler, command-line, and API-level telemetry can correlate delayed activation with the original parent process, file, user, host, and network activity.
Likely telemetry
- Process creation and termination events with command-line arguments and parent-child lineage
- Script interpreter and shell execution logs on Windows, Linux, and macOS
- Scheduled task, cron, launchd, or other native scheduling records where available
- Endpoint telemetry showing long sleep intervals, repeated benign commands, or unusual loops
- API-level or EDR behavioral telemetry that can surface high-volume or repetitive Native API calls
Detection direction
- Validate that sandbox and automated malware-analysis timeouts are not the only control used to judge a sample benign.
- Tune detections to correlate suspicious parent processes with later scheduled or delayed child activity rather than treating the delayed event in isolation.
- Look for combinations of needless repetition, long waits, scheduling, and subsequent suspicious network, file, or persistence behavior; the delay alone may be benign.
- Account for false positives from legitimate installers, update mechanisms, administrative scripts, test harnesses, and operational jobs that intentionally wait or retry.
- Use relationship context to guide threat-informed testing: ATT&CK maps this behavior to multiple software objects and the 3CX Supply Chain Attack, but local detection should be validated against observed platforms and tools.
Mitigation priorities
- Extend or tune malware detonation and behavioral-analysis windows where risk justifies it, especially for suspicious files and scripts from supply-chain, email, or download paths.
- Ensure endpoint logging retains parent-child process lineage and delayed follow-on activity long enough for SOC correlation.
- Restrict and monitor native scheduling mechanisms according to least privilege and administrative need.
- Harden script and command execution controls so routine delay primitives cannot be easily combined with unauthorized payload execution.
- Improve IR playbooks so containment and scoping include delayed jobs, queued tasks, and follow-on execution after the initial alert.
Analyst notes and limits
The ATT&CK object has no official detection text, so this take focuses on validation direction derived from the official description, platform list, stealth tactic, external references, and supplied relationships. The relationship set is broad and includes groups, a campaign, and many software objects; it should be used for prioritization and testing context, not as proof of exposure in any specific environment.
This summary does not establish active exploitation, customer exposure, or guaranteed detection coverage. Platform scope is based on the official technique platforms of Linux, macOS, and Windows; some related software entries list additional platforms, but local relevance requires environment-specific validation. Concrete detection logic depends on available EDR, OS logging, sandbox duration, and telemetry retention.
Delay Execution
Adversaries may employ various time-based methods to evade detection and analysis. These techniques often exploit system clocks, delays, or timing mechanisms to obscure malicious activity, blend in with benign activity, and avoid scrutiny. Adversaries can perform this behavior within virtualization/sandbox environments or natively on host systems.
Adversaries may utilize programmatic `sleep` commands or native system scheduling functionality, for example Scheduled Task/Job. Benign commands or other operations may also be used to delay malware execution or ensure prior commands have had time to execute properly. Loops or otherwise needless repetitions of commands, such as `ping`, may be used to delay malware execution and potentially exceed time thresholds of automated analysis environments.[1][2] Another variation, commonly referred to as API hammering, involves making various calls to Native API functions in order to delay execution (while also potentially overloading analysis environments with junk data).[3][4]
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
Groups, software, and campaigns
G0094: Kimsuky
Kimsuky is a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)-based cyber espionage group that has been active since at least 2012. The group initially targeted South Korean government agencies, think tanks, and subject-matter experts in various fields. Its operations expanded to include the United Nations and organizations in the government, education, business services, and manufacturing sectors across the United States, Japan, Russia, and Europe. Kimsuky has focused collection on foreign policy and national security issues tied to the Korean Peninsula, nuclear policy, and sanctions. Kimsuky operations have overlapped with those of other North Korean state-sponsored cyber espionage actors as a result of ad hoc collaborations or other limited resource sharing.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Kimsuky was assessed to be responsible for the 2014 Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. compromise; other notable campaigns include Operation STOLEN PENCIL (2018), Operation Kabar Cobra (2019), and Operation Smoke Screen (2019).[7][8][9] In 2023, Kimsuky was observed using commercial large language models (LLMs) to assist with vulnerability research, scripting, social engineering and reconnaissance.[10]
DPRK threat actor cluster boundaries overlap in open source reporting, with some security researchers consolidating all attributed North Korean state-sponsored cyber activity under Lazarus Group, rather than tracking operationally distinct subgroups.
G0129: Mustang Panda
Mustang Panda is a China-based cyber espionage threat actor that has been conducting operations since at least 2012. Mustang Panda has been known to use tailored phishing lures and decoy documents to deliver malicious payloads. Mustang Panda has targeted government, diplomatic, and non-governmental organizations, including think tanks, religious institutions, and research entities, across the United States, Europe, and Asia, with notable activity in Russia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Vietnam. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
S9032: MuddyViper
MuddyViper is custom backdoor written in C and C++ used by MuddyWater for command and control (C2) communications and persistence. MuddyViper is loaded by Fooder and sends frequent messages to the C2 server.[1]
S1239: TONESHELL
S9024: SPAWNCHIMERA
SPAWNCHIMERA is a backdoor that supports command and control and can inject malicious components into native processes.[1][2][3] SPAWNCHIMERA It incorporates capabilities from multiple tools within the SPAWN malware family, including SPAWNANT, SPAWNMOLE, and SPAWNSNAIL.[4][2][3] SPAWNCHIMERA was first reported in April 2024.[2] SPAWNCHIMERA has been observed in activity attributed to People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored threat actors, including UNC5221..[4][5][2][6]
S9008: Shai-Hulud
Shai-Hulud is a supply chain worm, first reported in September 2025, that spreads through code repositories, including GitHub and NPM packages. It exploits CI/CD pipeline dependencies to propagate to victims and poisons the supply chain by publishing malicious packages. Once inside a victim environment, Shai-Hulud steals credentials and access tokens from compromised repository accounts and exfiltrates them to attacker-controlled servers via encoded GitHub Actions workflows.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
S9010: GlassWorm
GlassWorm is a worm that propagated through supply chain attacks by compromising repository credentials from victim environments and having malicious payloads added to those compromised accounts for distribution to victims across the various development ecosystems.[1][2][3] GlassWorm has numerous variants, including Rust binaries, encrypted JavaScript and a variant leveraging invisible Unicode characters that made reverse engineering difficult.[4][1][5] GlassWorm has employed a unique command and control (C2) methodology using Solana blockchain.[6][1] GlassWorm was first reported in October 2025.[6][1][3]
S9014: PHASEJAM
S9037: RustyWater
RustyWater is a Rust-based implant used by MuddyWater. Historically, MuddyWater has used PowerShell-based tools and RustyWater reflects a shift in tooling, demonstrating better techniques for defense evasion and reverse engineering.[1]
S9001: SystemBC
SystemBC is a malware family offered as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) that is used to establish command and control and facilitate follow-on activity, including ransomware deployment.SystemBC executes a variety of tasks including setting up SOCKS5 proxies, maintaining persistence, ingesting malicious files, and handing C2 communication. SystemBC was first detected in 2018, and has been used by Wizard Spider since at least 2020, and by FIN7 since at least 2022.[1][2][3][4][5]
S1230: HIUPAN
HIUPAN (aka U2DiskWatch) is a is a worm that propagates through removable drives known to be leveraged by Mustang Panda and was first observed utilized in 2024. [1][2]
S9015: BRICKSTORM
BRICKSTORM is a cross-platform backdoor with variants written in Go and Rust that facilitates command and control, the ingress transfer of other malware, and the exfiltration of data.[1][2][3][4] BRICKSTORM has also been created from a .NET application using ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation to blend in within victim environments.[1] BRICKSTORM was first observed in April 2024.[5] BRICKSTORM has previously been leveraged by People's Republic of China (PRC) state-nexus actors identified as UNC6201, UNC5221, WARP PANDA, PunyToad, and SYLVANITE.[6][7][1][8][9][10][3][4]
S1242: Qilin
Qilin is a ransomware family operated as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) that has been active since at least 2022. It includes variants written in Go and Rust capable of targeting Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi environments. Qilin shares functionality overlaps with Black Basta, REvil, and BlackCat ransomware. Qilin affiliates have targeted multiple entities worldwide with the majority of victims in the US, France, Canada, and the UK, primarily in the manufacturing, technology, financial services, and healthcare sectors.[1][2][3][4][5]
S9033: Fooder
Fooder is a custom 64-bit C/C++ loader used by MuddyWater that can decrypt and reflectively load embedded payloads such as a go-socks5 proxy utility, the open-source HackBrowserData infostealer, or the MuddyViper backdoor. Fooder has frequently masqueraded as an entertainment executable, such as the Snake game (e.g., `Snake_Game.exe`).[1]
C0057: 3CX Supply Chain Attack
The 3CX Supply Chain Attack was the first publicly reported case of one supply chain compromise triggering another, leading to a cascading, two-stage intrusion. The initial supply chain attack began when a 3CX employee downloaded and executed a trojanized, end-of-life version of the X_Trader trading software from Trading Technologies. This provided UNC4736, a threat cluster associated with AppleJeus, access to the 3CX environment. From there UNC4736 compromised the Windows and macOS build environments used to distribute the 3CX desktop application to their customers.[1] While 3CX serves more than 600,000 customers and 12 million users, only a subset of systems were affected. Subsequent targeting focused on victims in the defense and cryptocurrency sectors, where attackers deployed secondary payloads such as Gopuram for credential theft and persistence.[2] The campaign began in late 2022 and was disrupted after security vendors publicly reported the compromise in March 2023.[3][4]
All related ATT&CK context
Object version and sync metadata
The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 2.0 | Current bundle | 89dda56422ff… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
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[1]
Revil Independence Day
Loman, M. et al. (2021, July 4). Independence Day: REvil uses supply chain exploit to attack hundreds of businesses. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
Open source URL -
[2]
Netskope Nitol
Malik, A. (2016, October 14). Nitol Botnet makes a resurgence with evasive sandbox analysis technique. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
Open source URL -
[3]
Joe Sec Nymaim
Joe Security. (2016, April 21). Nymaim - evading Sandboxes with API hammering. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
Open source URL -
[4]
Joe Sec Trickbot
Joe Security. (2020, July 13). TrickBot's new API-Hammering explained. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
Open source URL -
[5]
mitre-attack T1678Open source URL
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