C0048: Operation MidnightEclipse
Operation MidnightEclipse was a campaign conducted in March and April 2024 that involved initial exploit of zero-day vulnerability CVE-2024-3400, a critical command injection vulnerability in the GlobalProtect feature of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS.[1][2]
Security context for executives and security teams
C0048: Operation MidnightEclipse describes [Operation MidnightEclipse](https://attack.mitre.org/campaigns/C0048) was a campaign conducted in March and April 2024 that involved initial exploit of zero-day vulnerability CVE-2024-3400, a critical command injection vulnerability in the GlobalProtect feature of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS.(Citation: Volexity UPSTYLE 2024)(Citation: Palo Alto MidnightEclipse APR 2024)
Executive priority
C0048: Operation MidnightEclipse 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 C0048: Operation MidnightEclipse 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 C0048: Operation MidnightEclipse 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.
Operation MidnightEclipse
Operation MidnightEclipse was a campaign conducted in March and April 2024 that involved initial exploit of zero-day vulnerability CVE-2024-3400, a critical command injection vulnerability in the GlobalProtect feature of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS.[1][2]
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 | T1005 | Data from Local System | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors stole saved cookies and login data from targeted systems.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1078.002 | Domain AccountsSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors used a compromised domain admin account to move laterally.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1003.003 | NTDSSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors obtained active directory credentials via the NTDS.DIT file.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1059.004 | Unix ShellSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors piped output from stdout to bash for execution.[1][2] |
| Enterprise | T1090 | Proxy | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors used the GO Simple Tunnel reverse proxy tool.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1559 | Inter-Process Communication | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors wrote output to stdout then piped it to bash for execution.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1071.001 | Web ProtocolsSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors used `wget` via HTTP to retrieve payloads.[1][2] |
| Enterprise | T1078 | Valid Accounts | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors extracted sensitive credentials while moving laterally through compromised networks.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors exploited CVE-2024-3400 in Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect.[1][2] |
| Enterprise | T1584.003 | Virtual Private ServerSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors abused Virtual Private Servers to store malicious files.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1105 | Ingress Tool Transfer | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors downloaded additional payloads on compromised devices.[1][2] |
| Enterprise | T1588.002 | ToolSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors used the GO Simple Tunnel (GOST) reverse proxy tool.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1053.003 | CronSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors configured cron jobs to retrieve payloads from actor-controlled infrastructure.[1][2] |
| Enterprise | T1021.002 | SMB/Windows Admin SharesSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors used SMB to pivot internally in victim networks.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1074.001 | Local Data StagingSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors copied files to the web application folder on compromised devices for exfiltration.[2] |
| Enterprise | T1021.006 | Windows Remote ManagementSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors used WinRM to move laterally in targeted networks.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1584.006 | Web ServicesSub-technique | During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors abused compromised AWS buckets to store files.[1] |
Groups, software, and campaigns
S1164: UPSTYLE
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 | 8b3ea31e1c49… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Older bundle | cd9ffb98cd3b… |
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]Volexity UPSTYLE 2024
Volexity Threat Research. (2024, April 12). Zero-Day Exploitation of Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in GlobalProtect (CVE-2024-3400). Retrieved November 20, 2024.
Open source URL - [2]Palo Alto MidnightEclipse APR 2024
Unit 42. (2024, April 12). Threat Brief: Operation MidnightEclipse, Post-Exploitation Activity Related to CVE-2024-3400 . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
Open source URL - [3]mitre-attackC0048Open source URL
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