S0647: Turian

Turian is a backdoor that has been used by BackdoorDiplomacy to target Ministries of Foreign Affairs, telecommunication companies, and charities in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. First reported in 2021, Turian is likely related to Quarian, an older backdoor that was last observed being used in 2013 against diplomatic targets in Syria and the United States.[1]

EnterpriseS0647MalwareObject v1.0ModifiedApr 25, 2025, 14:43 UTC (UTC+00:00)

S0647: Turian describes [Turian](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0647) is a backdoor that has been used by [BackdoorDiplomacy](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0135) to target Ministries of Foreign Affairs, telecommunication companies, and charities in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. First reported in 2021, [Turian](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0647) is likely related to Quarian, an older backdoor that was last observed being used in 2013 against diplomatic targets in Syria and the United States.(Citation: ESET Backdoo...

Executive priority

S0647: Turian 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 S0647: Turian by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Windows, 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 S0647: Turian 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

Turian

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	Turian has the ability to use `/bin/sh` to execute commands.[1]
Enterprise	T1083	File and Directory Discovery	Turian can search for specific files and list directories.[1]
Enterprise	T1027	Obfuscated Files or Information	Turian can use VMProtect for obfuscation.[1]
Enterprise	T1113	Screen Capture	Turian has the ability to take screenshots.[1]
Enterprise	T1033	System Owner/User Discovery	Turian can retrieve usernames.[1]
Enterprise	T1547.001	Registry Run Keys / Startup FolderSub-technique	Turian can establish persistence by adding Registry Run keys.[1]
Enterprise	T1560.001	Archive via UtilitySub-technique	Turian can use WinRAR to create a password-protected archive for files of interest.[1]
Enterprise	T1140	Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information	Turian has the ability to use a XOR decryption key to extract C2 server domains and IP addresses.[1]
Enterprise	T1016	System Network Configuration Discovery	Turian can retrieve the internal IP address of a compromised host.[1]
Enterprise	T1059.006	PythonSub-technique	Turian has the ability to use Python to spawn a Unix shell.[1]
Enterprise	T1074.001	Local Data StagingSub-technique	Turian can store copied files in a specific directory prior to exfiltration.[1]
Enterprise	T1001.001	Junk DataSub-technique	Turian can insert pseudo-random characters into its network encryption setup.[1]
Enterprise	T1071.001	Web ProtocolsSub-technique	Turian has the ability to use HTTP for its C2.[1]
Enterprise	T1105	Ingress Tool Transfer	Turian can download additional files and tools from its C2.[1]
Enterprise	T1059.003	Windows Command ShellSub-technique	Turian can create a remote shell and execute commands using cmd.[1]
Enterprise	T1082	System Information Discovery	Turian can retrieve system information including OS version, memory usage, local hostname, and system adapter information.[1]
Enterprise	T1036.004	Masquerade Task or ServiceSub-technique	Turian can disguise as a legitimate service to blend into normal operations.[1]
Enterprise	T1120	Peripheral Device Discovery	Turian can scan for removable media to collect data.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

G0135: BackdoorDiplomacy

BackdoorDiplomacy is a cyber espionage threat group that has been active since at least 2017. BackdoorDiplomacy has targeted Ministries of Foreign Affairs and telecommunication companies in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.[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: Sep 21, 2021, 15:21 UTC (UTC+00:00)
Modified: Apr 25, 2025, 14:43 UTC (UTC+00:00)
Raw hash: edc9bb48be3ca7e5...

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)	1.0	Apr 25, 2025, 14:43 UTC (UTC+00:00)	Current bundle	`edc9bb48be3c…`
19.1	Jul 14, 2026, 09:14 UTC (UTC+00:00)	1.0	Apr 25, 2025, 14:43 UTC (UTC+00:00)	Older bundle	`edc9bb48be3c…`

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]
ESET BackdoorDiplomacy Jun 2021
Adam Burgher. (2021, June 10). BackdoorDiplomacy: Upgrading from Quarian to Turian. Retrieved September 1, 2021
Open source URL
[2]
mitre-attackS0647
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.

Official MITRE ATT&CK site Official STIX data repository MITRE ATT&CK terms of use