G1008: SideCopy

SideCopy is a Pakistani threat group that has primarily targeted South Asian countries, including Indian and Afghani government personnel, since at least 2019. SideCopy's name comes from its infection chain that tries to mimic that of Sidewinder, a suspected Indian threat group.[1]

EnterpriseG1008GroupObject v1.0ModifiedJul 31, 2026, 18:47 UTC (UTC+00:00)

G1008: SideCopy describes [SideCopy](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1008) is a Pakistani threat group that has primarily targeted South Asian countries, including Indian and Afghani government personnel, since at least 2019. [SideCopy](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1008)'s name comes from its infection chain that tries to mimic that of [Sidewinder](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0121), a suspected Indian threat group.(Citation: MalwareBytes SideCopy Dec 2021)

Executive priority

G1008: SideCopy 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 G1008: SideCopy 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 G1008: SideCopy 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

SideCopy

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.

Filter related techniques16 rows

Domain	ID	Name	Relationship / procedure
Enterprise	T1614	System Location Discovery	SideCopy has identified the country location of a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise	T1518.001	Security Software DiscoverySub-technique	SideCopy uses a loader DLL file to collect AV product names from an infected host.[1]
Enterprise	T1584.001	DomainsSub-technique	SideCopy has compromised domains for some of their infrastructure, including for C2 and staging malware.[1]
Enterprise	T1105	Ingress Tool Transfer	SideCopy has delivered trojanized executables via spearphishing emails that contacts actor-controlled servers to download malicious payloads.[1]
Enterprise	T1016	System Network Configuration Discovery	SideCopy has identified the IP address of a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise	T1608.001	Upload MalwareSub-technique	SideCopy has used compromised domains to host its malicious payloads.[1]
Enterprise	T1106	Native API	SideCopy has executed malware by calling the API function `CreateProcessW`.[1]
Enterprise	T1059.005	Visual BasicSub-technique	SideCopy has sent Microsoft Office Publisher documents to victims that have embedded malicious macros that execute an hta file via calling `mshta.exe`.[1]
Enterprise	T1518	Software Discovery	SideCopy has collected browser information from a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise	T1566.001	Spearphishing AttachmentSub-technique	SideCopy has sent spearphishing emails with malicious hta file attachments.[1]
Enterprise	T1574.001	DLLSub-technique	SideCopy has used a malicious loader DLL file to execute the `credwiz.exe` process and side-load the malicious payload `Duser.dll`.[1]
Enterprise	T1204.002	Malicious FileSub-technique	SideCopy has attempted to lure victims into clicking on malicious embedded archive files sent via spearphishing campaigns.[1]
Enterprise	T1082	System Information Discovery	SideCopy has identified the OS version of a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise	T1598.002	Spearphishing AttachmentSub-technique	SideCopy has crafted generic lures for spam campaigns to collect emails and credentials for targeting efforts.[1]
Enterprise	T1036.005	Match Legitimate Resource Name or LocationSub-technique	SideCopy has used a legitimate DLL file name, `Duser.dll` to disguise a malicious remote access tool.[1]
Enterprise	T1218.005	MshtaSub-technique	SideCopy has utilized `mshta.exe` to execute a malicious hta file.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

S1029: AuTo Stealer

AuTo Stealer is malware written in C++ has been used by SideCopy since at least December 2021 to target government agencies and personnel in India and Afghanistan.[1]

Windows

S1028: Action RAT

Action RAT is a remote access tool written in Delphi that has been used by SideCopy since at least December 2021 against Indian and Afghani government personnel.[1]

Windows

Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

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: 19.2
Object version: 1.0
Created: Aug 7, 2022, 13:52 UTC (UTC+00:00)
Modified: Jul 31, 2026, 18:47 UTC (UTC+00:00)
Raw hash: f6a0e0e98b0e3355...

Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)

Release	Bundle imported	Object version	Modified	Status	Raw hash
19.2	Aug 6, 2026, 02:58 UTC (UTC+00:00)	1.0	Jul 31, 2026, 18:47 UTC (UTC+00:00)	Current bundle	`f6a0e0e98b0e…`
19.1	Jul 14, 2026, 09:14 UTC (UTC+00:00)	1.0	Apr 16, 2025, 20:37 UTC (UTC+00:00)	Older bundle	`bc0bc90651d7…`

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 JSON Open 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]
MalwareBytes SideCopy Dec 2021
Threat Intelligence Team. (2021, December 2). SideCopy APT: Connecting lures victims, payloads to infrastructure. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
Open source URL
[2]
mitre-attackG1008
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.

Official MITRE ATT&CK site Official STIX data repository MITRE ATT&CK terms of use