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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S0115: Crimson

Crimson is a remote access Trojan that has been used by Transparent Tribe since at least 2016.[1][2]

EnterpriseS0115MalwareObject v1.3Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

S0115: Crimson describes [Crimson](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0115) is a remote access Trojan that has been used by [Transparent Tribe](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0134) since at least 2016.(Citation: Proofpoint Operation Transparent Tribe March 2016)(Citation: Kaspersky Transparent Tribe August 2020)

Executive priority

S0115: Crimson is an official MITRE ATT&CK software. 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 S0115: Crimson by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Windows), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.

Likely telemetry

  • Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
  • Network, endpoint, and security-tool telemetry

Detection direction

  • Validate whether S0115: Crimson 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

Crimson

Crimson is a remote access Trojan that has been used by Transparent Tribe since at least 2016.[1][2]

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.

30 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1083File and Directory Discovery

Crimson contains commands to list files and directories, as well as search for files matching certain extensions from a defined list.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1125Video Capture

Crimson can capture webcam video on targeted systems.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1518.001Security Software DiscoverySub-technique

Crimson contains a command to collect information about anti-virus software on the victim.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1547.001Registry Run Keys / Startup FolderSub-technique

Crimson can add Registry run keys for persistence.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1070.004File DeletionSub-technique

Crimson has the ability to delete files from a compromised host.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1124System Time Discovery

Crimson has the ability to determine the date and time on a compromised host.[2]

EnterpriseT1082System Information Discovery

Crimson contains a command to collect the victim PC name and operating system.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1140Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information

Crimson can decode its encoded PE file prior to execution.[1]

EnterpriseT1497.003Time Based ChecksSub-technique

Crimson can determine when it has been installed on a host for at least 15 days before downloading the final payload.[1]

EnterpriseT1056.001KeyloggingSub-technique

Crimson can use a module to perform keylogging on compromised hosts.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1071.001Web ProtocolsSub-technique

Crimson can use a HTTP GET request to download its final payload.[1]

EnterpriseT1005Data from Local System

Crimson can collect information from a compromised host.CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1033System Owner/User Discovery

Crimson can identify the user on a targeted system.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1113Screen Capture

Crimson contains a command to perform screen captures.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1123Audio Capture

Crimson can perform audio surveillance using microphones.[2]

EnterpriseT1041Exfiltration Over C2 Channel

Crimson can exfiltrate stolen information over its C2.CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1057Process Discovery

Crimson contains a command to list processes.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1114.001Local Email CollectionSub-technique

Crimson contains a command to collect and exfiltrate emails from Outlook.[1]

EnterpriseT1112Modify Registry

Crimson can set a Registry key to determine how long it has been installed and possibly to indicate the version number.[1]

EnterpriseT1016System Network Configuration Discovery

Crimson contains a command to collect the victim MAC address and LAN IP.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1120Peripheral Device Discovery

Crimson has the ability to discover pluggable/removable drives to extract files from.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1025Data from Removable Media

Crimson contains a module to collect data from removable drives.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1091Replication Through Removable Media

Crimson can spread across systems by infecting removable media.[2]

EnterpriseT1614System Location Discovery

Crimson can identify the geographical location of a victim host.[2]

EnterpriseT1105Ingress Tool Transfer

Crimson contains a command to retrieve files from its C2 server.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

EnterpriseT1059.003Windows Command ShellSub-technique

Crimson has the ability to execute commands with the COMSPEC environment variable.[2]

EnterpriseT1095Non-Application Layer Protocol

Crimson uses a custom TCP protocol for C2.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1012Query Registry

Crimson can check the Registry for the presence of HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\last_edate to determine how long it has been installed on a host.[1]

EnterpriseT1555.003Credentials from Web BrowsersSub-technique

Crimson contains a module to steal credentials from Web browsers on the victim machine.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1680Local Storage Discovery

Crimson contains a command to collect disk drive information.[1][2]CitationCisco Talos Transparent Tribe Education Campaign July 2022

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

CampaignEnterprise

C0011: C0011

C0011 was a suspected cyber espionage campaign conducted by Transparent Tribe that targeted students at universities and colleges in India. Security researchers noted this campaign against students was a significant shift from Transparent Tribe's historic targeting Indian government, military, and think tank personnel, and assessed it was still ongoing as of July 2022.[1]

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
1.3
Created
Modified
Raw hash
d9a111ce51d1385d...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
19.21.3Current bundled9a111ce51d1…
19.11.3Older bundled9a111ce51d1…
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.

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]
    Proofpoint Operation Transparent Tribe March 2016

    Huss, D. (2016, March 1). Operation Transparent Tribe. Retrieved June 8, 2016.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Kaspersky Transparent Tribe August 2020

    Dedola, G. (2020, August 20). Transparent Tribe: Evolution analysis, part 1. Retrieved September 2, 2021.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    MSIL/Crimson

    (Citation: Proofpoint Operation Transparent Tribe March 2016)

  4. [4]
    mitre-attackS0115
    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.