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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S0519: SYNful Knock

SYNful Knock is a stealthy modification of the operating system of network devices that can be used to maintain persistence within a victim's network and provide new capabilities to the adversary.[1][2]

EnterpriseS0519MalwareObject v1.1Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Automated summary not available

Glexia publishes ATT&CK takes only after source-hash and schema validation. Until then, use the official MITRE definition below and the defensive relationship context on this page.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

SYNful Knock

SYNful Knock is a stealthy modification of the operating system of network devices that can be used to maintain persistence within a victim's network and provide new capabilities to the adversary.[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.

3 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1601.001Patch System ImageSub-technique

SYNful Knock is malware that is inserted into a network device by patching the operating system image.[1][2]

EnterpriseT1205Traffic Signaling

SYNful Knock can be sent instructions via special packets to change its functionality. Code for new functionality can be included in these messages.[1]

EnterpriseT1556.004Network Device AuthenticationSub-technique

SYNful Knock has the capability to add its own custom backdoor password when it modifies the operating system of the affected network device.[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
20.0
Object version
1.1
Created
Modified
Raw hash
3510599abaf5aa91...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(3)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
20.01.1Current bundle3510599abaf5…
19.21.1Older bundle3510599abaf5…
19.11.1Older bundle3510599abaf5…
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]
    Mandiant - Synful Knock

    Bill Hau, Tony Lee, Josh Homan. (2015, September 15). SYNful Knock - A Cisco router implant - Part I. Retrieved November 17, 2024.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Cisco Synful Knock Evolution

    Graham Holmes. (2015, October 8). Evolution of attacks on Cisco IOS devices. Retrieved October 19, 2020.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    mitre-attackS0519
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

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