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MITRE ATT&CK® Group

G0054: Sowbug

Sowbug is a threat group that has conducted targeted attacks against organizations in South America and Southeast Asia, particularly government entities, since at least 2015. [1]

EnterpriseG0054GroupObject v1.1Modified
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Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

G0054: Sowbug describes [Sowbug](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0054) is a threat group that has conducted targeted attacks against organizations in South America and Southeast Asia, particularly government entities, since at least 2015. (Citation: Symantec Sowbug Nov 2017)

Executive priority

G0054: Sowbug is an official MITRE ATT&CK group. 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 G0054: Sowbug 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 G0054: Sowbug 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.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

Sowbug

Sowbug is a threat group that has conducted targeted attacks against organizations in South America and Southeast Asia, particularly government entities, since at least 2015. [1]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

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.

ATT&CK relationship table

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.

9 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1083File and Directory Discovery

Sowbug identified and extracted all Word documents on a server by using a command containing * .doc and *.docx. The actors also searched for documents based on a specific date range and attempted to identify all installed software on a victim.[1]

EnterpriseT1039Data from Network Shared Drive

Sowbug extracted Word documents from a file server on a victim network.[1]

EnterpriseT1560.001Archive via UtilitySub-technique

Sowbug extracted documents and bundled them into a RAR archive.[1]

EnterpriseT1059.003Windows Command ShellSub-technique

Sowbug has used command line during its intrusions.[1]

EnterpriseT1056.001KeyloggingSub-technique

Sowbug has used keylogging tools.[1]

EnterpriseT1135Network Share Discovery

Sowbug listed remote shared drives that were accessible from a victim.[1]

EnterpriseT1036.005Match Legitimate Resource Name or LocationSub-technique

Sowbug named its tools to masquerade as Windows or Adobe Reader software, such as by using the file name adobecms.exe and the directory CSIDL_APPDATA\microsoft\security.[1]

EnterpriseT1003OS Credential Dumping

Sowbug has used credential dumping tools.[1]

EnterpriseT1082System Information Discovery

Sowbug obtained OS version and hardware configuration from a victim.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

uses · TechniqueT1083: File and Directory DiscoveryEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1039: Data from Network Shared DriveEnterpriseuses · MalwareS0188: StarloaderEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1560.001: Archive via UtilityEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1059.003: Windows Command ShellEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1056.001: KeyloggingEnterpriseuses · MalwareS0171: FelismusEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1135: Network Share DiscoveryEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1036.005: Match Legitimate Resource Name or LocationEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1003: OS Credential DumpingEnterpriseuses · TechniqueT1082: System Information DiscoveryEnterprise
Change history

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.

ATT&CK release
20.0
Object version
1.1
Created
Modified
Raw hash
331889c33ff77b98...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(3)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
20.01.1Current bundle331889c33ff7…
19.21.1Older bundle331889c33ff7…
19.11.1Older bundlec94752c2b4d5…
Raw source

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.

Open mirrored raw JSONOpen MITRE-hosted copy
Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    Symantec Sowbug Nov 2017

    Symantec Security Response. (2017, November 7). Sowbug: Cyber espionage group targets South American and Southeast Asian governments. Retrieved November 16, 2017.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Sowbug

    (Citation: Symantec Sowbug Nov 2017)

  3. [3]
    mitre-attackG0054
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

Source: MITRE ATT&CK®. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Glexia is not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE.

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