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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S0233: MURKYTOP

MURKYTOP is a reconnaissance tool used by Leviathan. [1]

EnterpriseS0233MalwareObject v1.1Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

S0233: MURKYTOP describes [MURKYTOP](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0233) is a reconnaissance tool used by [Leviathan](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0065). (Citation: FireEye Periscope March 2018)

Executive priority

S0233: MURKYTOP 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 S0233: MURKYTOP 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 S0233: MURKYTOP 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

MURKYTOP

MURKYTOP is a reconnaissance tool used by Leviathan. [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
EnterpriseT1018Remote System Discovery

MURKYTOP has the capability to identify remote hosts on connected networks.[1]

EnterpriseT1082System Information Discovery

MURKYTOP has the capability to retrieve information about the OS.[1]

EnterpriseT1070.004File DeletionSub-technique

MURKYTOP has the capability to delete local files.[1]

EnterpriseT1059.003Windows Command ShellSub-technique

MURKYTOP uses the command-line interface.[1]

EnterpriseT1069Permission Groups Discovery

MURKYTOP has the capability to retrieve information about groups.[1]

EnterpriseT1053.002AtSub-technique

MURKYTOP has the capability to schedule remote AT jobs.[1]

EnterpriseT1135Network Share Discovery

MURKYTOP has the capability to retrieve information about shares on remote hosts.[1]

EnterpriseT1046Network Service Discovery

MURKYTOP has the capability to scan for open ports on hosts in a connected network.[1]

EnterpriseT1087.001Local AccountSub-technique

MURKYTOP has the capability to retrieve information about users on remote hosts.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

GroupEnterprise

G0065: Leviathan

Leviathan is a Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage group that has been attributed to the Ministry of State Security's (MSS) Hainan State Security Department and an affiliated front company.[1] Active since at least 2009, Leviathan has targeted the following sectors: academia, aerospace/aviation, biomedical, defense industrial base, government, healthcare, manufacturing, maritime, and transportation across the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.[1][2][3][4]

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
1.1
Created
Modified
Raw hash
fec5572a0fab0076...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
19.21.1Current bundlefec5572a0fab…
19.11.1Older bundlefec5572a0fab…
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]
    FireEye Periscope March 2018

    FireEye. (2018, March 16). Suspected Chinese Cyber Espionage Group (TEMP.Periscope) Targeting U.S. Engineering and Maritime Industries. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    MURKYTOP

    (Citation: FireEye Periscope March 2018)

  3. [3]
    mitre-attackS0233
    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.