S0545: TERRACOTTA
TERRACOTTA is an ad fraud botnet that has been capable of generating over 2 billion fraudulent requests per week.[1]
Security context for executives and security teams
S0545: TERRACOTTA describes [TERRACOTTA](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0545) is an ad fraud botnet that has been capable of generating over 2 billion fraudulent requests per week.(Citation: WhiteOps TERRACOTTA)
Executive priority
S0545: TERRACOTTA 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 S0545: TERRACOTTA by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Android), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.
Likely telemetry
- Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
Detection direction
- Validate whether S0545: TERRACOTTA 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.
TERRACOTTA
TERRACOTTA is an ad fraud botnet that has been capable of generating over 2 billion fraudulent requests per week.[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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | T1406 | Obfuscated Files or Information | TERRACOTTA has stored encoded strings.[1] |
| Mobile | T1575 | Native API | TERRACOTTA has included native modules.[1] |
| Mobile | T1643 | Generate Traffic from Victim | TERRACOTTA has generated non-human advertising impressions.[1] |
| Mobile | T1417.002 | GUI Input CaptureSub-technique | TERRACOTTA has displayed a form to collect user data after installation.[1] |
| Mobile | T1422.001 | Internet Connection DiscoverySub-technique | TERRACOTTA has collected the device’s phone number and can check if the active network connection is metered.[1] |
| Mobile | T1603 | Scheduled Task/Job | TERRACOTTA has used timer events in React Native to initiate the foreground service.[1] |
| Mobile | T1633.001 | System ChecksSub-technique | TERRACOTTA checks whether its call stack has been modified, an indication that it is running in an analysis environment, and if so, does not decrypt its obfuscated strings[1]. |
| Mobile | T1516 | Input Injection | TERRACOTTA can inject clicks to launch applications, share posts on social media, and interact with WebViews to perform fraudulent actions.[1] |
| Mobile | T1541 | Foreground Persistence | TERRACOTTA has utilized foreground services.[1] |
| Mobile | T1624.001 | Broadcast ReceiversSub-technique | TERRACOTTA has registered several broadcast receivers.[1] |
| Mobile | T1418 | Software Discovery | TERRACOTTA can obtain a list of installed apps.[1] |
| Mobile | T1481.002 | Bidirectional CommunicationSub-technique | TERRACOTTA has used Firebase for C2 communication.[1] |
| Mobile | T1422 | System Network Configuration Discovery | TERRACOTTA has collected the device’s phone number and can check if the active network connection is metered.[1] |
| Mobile | T1407 | Download New Code at Runtime | TERRACOTTA can download additional modules at runtime via JavaScript `eval` statements.[1] |
| Mobile | T1582 | SMS Control | TERRACOTTA can send SMS messages.[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 | 1.0 | Current bundle | 2e417484f813… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Older bundle | 2e417484f813… |
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]WhiteOps TERRACOTTA
Satori Threat Intelligence and Research Team. (2020, August). TERRACOTTA Android Malware: A Technical Study. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
Open source URL - [2]mitre-attackS0545Open source URL
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