S0430: Winnti for Linux
Winnti for Linux is a trojan, seen since at least 2015, designed specifically for targeting Linux systems. Reporting indicates the winnti malware family is shared across a number of actors including Winnti Group. The Windows variant is tracked separately under Winnti for Windows.[1]
Security context for executives and security teams
S0430: Winnti for Linux describes [Winnti for Linux](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0430) is a trojan, seen since at least 2015, designed specifically for targeting Linux systems. Reporting indicates the winnti malware family is shared across a number of actors including [Winnti Group](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0044). The Windows variant is tracked separately under [Winnti for Windows](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0141).(Citation: Chronicle Winnti for Linux May 2019)
Executive priority
S0430: Winnti for Linux 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 S0430: Winnti for Linux by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Linux), 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 S0430: Winnti for Linux 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.
Winnti for Linux
Winnti for Linux is a trojan, seen since at least 2015, designed specifically for targeting Linux systems. Reporting indicates the winnti malware family is shared across a number of actors including Winnti Group. The Windows variant is tracked separately under Winnti for Windows.[1]
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.
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.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1071.001 | Web ProtocolsSub-technique | Winnti for Linux has used HTTP in outbound communications.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1095 | Non-Application Layer Protocol | Winnti for Linux has used ICMP, custom TCP, and UDP in outbound communications.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1140 | Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information | Winnti for Linux has decoded XOR encoded strings holding its configuration upon execution.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1573.001 | Symmetric CryptographySub-technique | Winnti for Linux has used a custom TCP protocol with four-byte XOR for command and control (C2).[1] |
| Enterprise | T1205 | Traffic Signaling | Winnti for Linux has used a passive listener, capable of identifying a specific magic value before executing tasking, as a secondary command and control (C2) mechanism.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1027.013 | Encrypted/Encoded FileSub-technique | Winnti for Linux can encode its configuration file with single-byte XOR encoding.[1] |
| Enterprise | T1105 | Ingress Tool Transfer | Winnti for Linux has the ability to deploy modules directly from command and control (C2) servers, possibly for remote command execution, file exfiltration, and socks5 proxying on the infected host. [1] |
| Enterprise | T1014 | Rootkit | Winnti for Linux has used a modified copy of the open-source userland rootkit Azazel, named libxselinux.so, to hide the malware's operations and network activity.[1] |
Groups, software, and campaigns
G0096: APT41
APT41 is a threat group that researchers have assessed as Chinese state-sponsored espionage group that also conducts financially-motivated operations. Active since at least 2012, APT41 has been observed targeting various industries, including but not limited to healthcare, telecom, technology, finance, education, retail and video game industries in 14 countries.[1] Notable behaviors include using a wide range of malware and tools to complete mission objectives. APT41 overlaps at least partially with public reporting on groups including BARIUM and Winnti Group.[2][3]
G0143: Aquatic Panda
Aquatic Panda is a suspected China-based threat group with a dual mission of intelligence collection and industrial espionage. Active since at least May 2020, Aquatic Panda has primarily targeted entities in the telecommunications, technology, and government sectors.[1]
G1006: Earth Lusca
Earth Lusca is a suspected China-based cyber espionage group that has been active since at least April 2019. Earth Lusca has targeted organizations in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Germany, France, and the United States. Targets included government institutions, news media outlets, gambling companies, educational institutions, COVID-19 research organizations, telecommunications companies, religious movements banned in China, and cryptocurrency trading platforms; security researchers assess some Earth Lusca operations may be financially motivated.[1]
Earth Lusca has used malware commonly used by other Chinese threat groups, including APT41 and the Winnti Group cluster, however security researchers assess Earth Lusca's techniques and infrastructure are separate.[1]
All related ATT&CK context
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.
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.2 | 1.1 | Current bundle | b2095d3ef778… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.1 | Older bundle | b2095d3ef778… |
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.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
- [1]Chronicle Winnti for Linux May 2019
Chronicle Blog. (2019, May 15). Winnti: More than just Windows and Gates. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
Open source URL - [2]mitre-attackS0430Open source URL
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