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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S0393: PowerStallion

PowerStallion is a lightweight PowerShell backdoor used by Turla, possibly as a recovery access tool to install other backdoors.[1]

EnterpriseS0393MalwareObject v1.1Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

S0393: PowerStallion describes [PowerStallion](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0393) is a lightweight [PowerShell](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/001) backdoor used by [Turla](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0010), possibly as a recovery access tool to install other backdoors.(Citation: ESET Turla PowerShell May 2019)

Executive priority

S0393: PowerStallion 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 S0393: PowerStallion 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 S0393: PowerStallion 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

PowerStallion

PowerStallion is a lightweight PowerShell backdoor used by Turla, possibly as a recovery access tool to install other backdoors.[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.

5 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1102.002Bidirectional CommunicationSub-technique

PowerStallion uses Microsoft OneDrive as a C2 server via a network drive mapped with net use.[1]

EnterpriseT1027Obfuscated Files or Information

PowerStallion uses a XOR cipher to encrypt command output written to its OneDrive C2 server.[1]

EnterpriseT1059.001PowerShellSub-technique

PowerStallion uses PowerShell loops to iteratively check for available commands in its OneDrive C2 server.[1]

EnterpriseT1070.006TimestompSub-technique

PowerStallion modifies the MAC times of its local log files to match that of the victim's desktop.ini file.[1]

EnterpriseT1057Process Discovery

PowerStallion has been used to monitor process lists.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

GroupEnterprise

G0010: Turla

Turla is a cyber espionage threat group that has been attributed to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). They have compromised victims in over 50 countries since at least 2004, spanning a range of industries including government, embassies, military, education, research and pharmaceutical companies. Turla is known for conducting watering hole and spearphishing campaigns, and leveraging in-house tools and malware, such as Uroburos.[1][2][3][4][5]

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
f2c1f9c4f20a5ba0...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(3)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
20.01.1Older bundlef2c1f9c4f20a…
19.21.1Current bundlef2c1f9c4f20a…
19.11.1Older bundlef2c1f9c4f20a…
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]
    ESET Turla PowerShell May 2019

    Faou, M. and Dumont R.. (2019, May 29). A dive into Turla PowerShell usage. Retrieved June 14, 2019.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    mitre-attackS0393
    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.