S0587: Penquin

S0587: Penquin describes [Penquin](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0587) is a remote access trojan (RAT) with multiple versions used by [Turla](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0010) to target Linux systems since at least 2014.(Citation: Kaspersky Turla Penquin December 2014)(Citation: Leonardo Turla Penquin May 2020)

Executive priority

S0587: Penquin 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 S0587: Penquin 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 S0587: Penquin 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

Penquin

Penquin is a remote access trojan (RAT) with multiple versions used by Turla to target Linux systems since at least 2014.[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.

Filter related techniques18 rows

Domain	ID	Name	Relationship / procedure
Enterprise	T1059.004	Unix ShellSub-technique	Penquin can execute remote commands using bash scripts.[2]
Enterprise	T1016	System Network Configuration Discovery	Penquin can report the IP of the compromised host to attacker controlled infrastructure.[2]
Enterprise	T1205	Traffic Signaling	Penquin will connect to C2 only after sniffing a "magic packet" value in TCP or UDP packets matching specific conditions.[2][1]
Enterprise	T1036.005	Match Legitimate Resource Name or LocationSub-technique	Penquin has mimicked the Cron binary to hide itself on compromised systems.[2]
Enterprise	T1105	Ingress Tool Transfer	Penquin can execute the command code `do_download` to retrieve remote files from C2.[2]
Enterprise	T1680	Local Storage Discovery	Penquin can report the disk space of a compromised host to C2.[2]
Enterprise	T1053.003	CronSub-technique	Penquin can use Cron to create periodic and pre-scheduled background jobs.[2]
Enterprise	T1040	Network Sniffing	Penquin can sniff network traffic to look for packets matching specific conditions.[2][1]
Enterprise	T1573.002	Asymmetric CryptographySub-technique	Penquin can encrypt communications using the BlowFish algorithm and a symmetric key exchanged with Diffie Hellman.[2]
Enterprise	T1027.005	Indicator Removal from ToolsSub-technique	Penquin can remove strings from binaries.[2]
Enterprise	T1222.002	Linux and Mac PermissionsSub-technique	Penquin can add the executable flag to a downloaded file.[2]
Enterprise	T1041	Exfiltration Over C2 Channel	Penquin can execute the command code `do_upload` to send files to C2.[2]
Enterprise	T1205.002	Socket FiltersSub-technique	Penquin installs a `TCP` and `UDP` filter on the `eth0` interface.[2]
Enterprise	T1095	Non-Application Layer Protocol	The Penquin C2 mechanism is based on TCP and UDP packets.[1][2]
Enterprise	T1083	File and Directory Discovery	Penquin can use the command code `do_vslist` to send file names, size, and status to C2.[2]
Enterprise	T1082	System Information Discovery	Penquin can report the file system type of a compromised host to C2.[2]
Enterprise	T1070.004	File DeletionSub-technique	Penquin can delete downloaded executables after running them.[2]
Enterprise	T1027.013	Encrypted/Encoded FileSub-technique	Penquin has encrypted strings in the binary for obfuscation.[2]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

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: 1.3
Created: Mar 11, 2021, 15:06 UTC (UTC+00:00)
Modified: Oct 22, 2025, 03:16 UTC (UTC+00:00)
Raw hash: 2ce8ccca6c2bbb0f...

Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)

Release	Bundle imported	Object version	Modified	Status	Raw hash
19.2	Aug 6, 2026, 02:58 UTC (UTC+00:00)	1.3	Oct 22, 2025, 03:16 UTC (UTC+00:00)	Current bundle	`2ce8ccca6c2b…`
19.1	Jul 14, 2026, 09:14 UTC (UTC+00:00)	1.3	Oct 22, 2025, 03:16 UTC (UTC+00:00)	Older bundle	`2ce8ccca6c2b…`

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.

Open mirrored raw JSON Open MITRE-hosted copy

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]
Kaspersky Turla Penquin December 2014
Baumgartner, K. and Raiu, C. (2014, December 8). The ‘Penquin’ Turla. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
Open source URL
[2]
Leonardo Turla Penquin May 2020
Leonardo. (2020, May 29). MALWARE TECHNICAL INSIGHT TURLA “Penquin_x64”. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
Open source URL
[3]
Penquin 2.0
(Citation: Leonardo Turla Penquin May 2020)
[4]
Penquin_x64
(Citation: Leonardo Turla Penquin May 2020)
[5]
mitre-attackS0587
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.

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