C0037: Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution
Pikabot was distributed in Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution throughout 2023 by an entity linked to BlackBasta ransomware deployment via email attachments. This activity followed the take-down of QakBot, with several technical overlaps and similarities with QakBot, indicating a possible connection. The identified activity led to the deployment of tools such as Cobalt Strike, while coinciding with campaigns delivering DarkGate and IcedID en route to ransomware deployment.[1]
Security context for executives and security teams
C0037: Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution describes [Pikabot](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S1145) was distributed in [Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution](https://attack.mitre.org/campaigns/C0037) throughout 2023 by an entity linked to BlackBasta ransomware deployment via email attachments. This activity followed the take-down of [QakBot](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0650), with several technical overlaps and similarities with [QakBot](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0650), indicating a possible connection. The identified activity led to the deployment...
Executive priority
C0037: Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution is an official MITRE ATT&CK campaign. Glexia treats it as defensive behavior context for prioritizing monitoring, control validation, and response planning without using the object by itself as an attribution claim.
Technical view
Security teams should validate C0037: Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (the platforms named in the official object), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.
Likely telemetry
- Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
Detection direction
- Validate whether C0037: Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution appears in your detection coverage and tabletop scenarios.
- Use the object to align executive risk language with SOC, incident response, and detection engineering work.
- Do not treat ATT&CK relationship context as attribution without corroborating evidence.
Mitigation priorities
- Map the object to existing controls and identify missing telemetry or response ownership.
- Prioritize mitigations that reduce exposure on the listed platforms and tactics.
- Review adjacent ATT&CK relationships before changing policy, detections, or reporting language.
Additional notes and limits
Baseline Glexia take generated from the official MITRE ATT&CK STIX object, source hash, tactics, platforms, and detection fields. It is safe to replace with a richer model-generated take for the same source hash later.
This baseline take is source-grounded and schema-validated, but it does not include environment-specific telemetry, incident evidence, or threat-intelligence corroboration.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution
Pikabot was distributed in Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution throughout 2023 by an entity linked to BlackBasta ransomware deployment via email attachments. This activity followed the take-down of QakBot, with several technical overlaps and similarities with QakBot, indicating a possible connection. The identified activity led to the deployment of tools such as Cobalt Strike, while coinciding with campaigns delivering DarkGate and IcedID en route to ransomware deployment.[1]
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.
Techniques used
This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1204.002 | Malicious FileSub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution delivered Pikabot installers as password-protected ZIP files containing heavily obfuscated JavaScript, or IMG files containing an LNK mimicking a Word document and a malicious DLL.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1059.003 | Windows Command ShellSub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution installation via JavaScript will launch follow-on commands via cmd.exe.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1204 | User Execution | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution requires users to interact with malicious attachments in order to start Pikabot installation.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1105 | Ingress Tool Transfer | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution used Curl.exe to download the Pikabot payload from an external server, saving the file to the victim machine's temporary directory.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1204.001 | Malicious LinkSub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution distributed a PDF attachment containing a malicious link to a Pikabot installer.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1589.002 | Email AddressesSub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution utilizes thread spoofing of existing email threads in order to execute spear phishing operations.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1566.001 | Spearphishing AttachmentSub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution attached password-protected ZIP archives to deliver Pikabot installers.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1059.007 | JavaScriptSub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution initial delivery included obfuscated JavaScript objects stored in password-protected ZIP archives.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1140 | Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution used highly obfuscated JavaScript files as one initial installer for Pikabot.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1218.011 | Rundll32Sub-technique | Water Curupira Pikabot Distribution utilizes rundll32.exe to execute the final Pikabot payload, using the named exports `Crash` or `Limit` depending on the variant.[1] |
Groups, software, and campaigns
S1145: Pikabot
Pikabot is a backdoor used for initial access and follow-on tool deployment active since early 2023. Pikabot is notable for extensive use of multiple encoding, encryption, and defense evasion mechanisms to evade defenses and avoid analysis. Pikabot has some overlaps with QakBot, but insufficient evidence exists to definitively link these two malware families. Pikabot is frequently used to deploy follow on tools such as Cobalt Strike or ransomware variants.[1][2][3]
S1111: DarkGate
DarkGate first emerged in 2018 and has evolved into an initial access and data gathering tool associated with various criminal cyber operations. Written in Delphi and named "DarkGate" by its author, DarkGate is associated with credential theft, cryptomining, cryptotheft, and pre-ransomware actions.[1] DarkGate use increased significantly starting in 2022 and is under active development by its author, who provides it as a Malware-as-a-Service offering.[2]
S0483: IcedID
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(2)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.2 | 1.0 | Current bundle | 762e7d1b7262… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Older bundle | 6b61cb2d7ec0… |
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.
- [1]TrendMicro Pikabot 2024
Shinji Robert Arasawa, Joshua Aquino, Charles Steven Derion, Juhn Emmanuel Atanque, Francisrey Joshua Castillo, John Carlo Marquez, Henry Salcedo, John Rainier Navato, Arianne Dela Cruz, Raymart Yambot & Ian Kenefick. (2024, January 9). Black Basta-Affiliated Water Curupira’s Pikabot Spam Campaign. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
Open source URL - [2]mitre-attackC0037Open source URL
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