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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S0582: LookBack

LookBack is a remote access trojan written in C++ that was used against at least three US utility companies in July 2019. The TALONITE activity group has been observed using LookBack.[1][2][3]

EnterpriseS0582MalwareObject v1.0Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

S0582: LookBack describes [LookBack](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0582) is a remote access trojan written in C++ that was used against at least three US utility companies in July 2019. The TALONITE activity group has been observed using [LookBack](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0582).(Citation: Proofpoint LookBack Malware Aug 2019)(Citation: Dragos TALONITE)(Citation: Dragos Threat Report 2020)

Executive priority

S0582: LookBack 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 S0582: LookBack 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 S0582: LookBack 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

LookBack

LookBack is a remote access trojan written in C++ that was used against at least three US utility companies in July 2019. The TALONITE activity group has been observed using LookBack.[1][2][3]

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.

16 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1489Service Stop

LookBack can kill processes and delete services.[1]

EnterpriseT1059.003Windows Command ShellSub-technique

LookBack executes the cmd.exe command.[1]

EnterpriseT1059.005Visual BasicSub-technique

LookBack has used VBA macros in Microsoft Word attachments to drop additional files to the host.[1]

EnterpriseT1007System Service Discovery

LookBack can enumerate services on the victim machine.[1]

EnterpriseT1057Process Discovery

LookBack can list running processes.[1]

EnterpriseT1529System Shutdown/Reboot

LookBack can shutdown and reboot the victim machine.[1]

EnterpriseT1036.005Match Legitimate Resource Name or LocationSub-technique

LookBack has a C2 proxy tool that masquerades as GUP.exe, which is software used by Notepad++.[1]

EnterpriseT1071.001Web ProtocolsSub-technique

LookBack’s C2 proxy tool sends data to a C2 server over HTTP.[1]

EnterpriseT1113Screen Capture

LookBack can take desktop screenshots.[1]

EnterpriseT1573.001Symmetric CryptographySub-technique

LookBack uses a modified version of RC4 for data transfer.[1]

EnterpriseT1547.001Registry Run Keys / Startup FolderSub-technique

LookBack sets up a Registry Run key to establish a persistence mechanism.[1]

EnterpriseT1070.004File DeletionSub-technique

LookBack removes itself after execution and can delete files on the system.[1]

EnterpriseT1095Non-Application Layer Protocol

LookBack uses a custom binary protocol over sockets for C2 communications.[1]

EnterpriseT1083File and Directory Discovery

LookBack can retrieve file listings from the victim machine.[1]

EnterpriseT1140Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information

LookBack has a function that decrypts malicious data.[1]

EnterpriseT1574.001DLLSub-technique

LookBack side loads its communications module as a DLL into the libcurl.dll loader.[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
19.2
Object version
1.0
Created
Modified
Raw hash
45ea0dd53c1159e4...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(3)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
20.01.0Older bundle45ea0dd53c11…
19.21.0Current bundle45ea0dd53c11…
19.11.0Older bundle45ea0dd53c11…
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]
    Proofpoint LookBack Malware Aug 2019

    Raggi, M. Schwarz, D.. (2019, August 1). LookBack Malware Targets the United States Utilities Sector with Phishing Attacks Impersonating Engineering Licensing Boards. Retrieved February 25, 2021.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Dragos TALONITE

    Dragos. (null). TALONITE. Retrieved February 25, 2021.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    Dragos Threat Report 2020

    Dragos. (n.d.). ICS Cybersecurity Year in Review 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2021.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    LookBack

    (Citation: Proofpoint LookBack Malware Aug 2019)

  5. [5]
    mitre-attackS0582
    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.