S1114: ZIPLINE
ZIPLINE is a passive backdoor that was used during Cutting Edge on compromised Secure Connect VPNs for reverse shell and proxy functionality.[1]
Security context for executives and security teams
S1114: ZIPLINE describes [ZIPLINE](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S1114) is a passive backdoor that was used during [Cutting Edge](https://attack.mitre.org/campaigns/C0029) on compromised Secure Connect VPNs for reverse shell and proxy functionality.(Citation: Mandiant Cutting Edge January 2024)
Executive priority
S1114: ZIPLINE 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 S1114: ZIPLINE by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Network Devices), 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 S1114: ZIPLINE 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.
ZIPLINE
ZIPLINE is a passive backdoor that was used during Cutting Edge on compromised Secure Connect VPNs for reverse shell and proxy functionality.[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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1090 | Proxy | |
| Enterprise | T1057 | Process Discovery | |
| Enterprise | T1205 | Traffic Signaling | |
| Enterprise | T1095 | Non-Application Layer Protocol | ZIPLINE can communicate with C2 using a custom binary protocol.CitationMandiant Cutting Edge Part 2 January 2024 |
| Enterprise | T1573.001 | Symmetric CryptographySub-technique | ZIPLINE can use AES-128-CBC to encrypt data for both upload and download.CitationMandiant Cutting Edge Part 2 January 2024 |
| Enterprise | T1059.004 | Unix ShellSub-technique | |
| Enterprise | T1083 | File and Directory Discovery | |
| Enterprise | T1105 | Ingress Tool Transfer | |
| Enterprise | T1685 | Disable or Modify Tools |
Groups, software, and campaigns
C0029: Cutting Edge
Cutting Edge was a campaign conducted by suspected China-nexus espionage actors, variously identified as UNC5221/UTA0178 and UNC5325, that began as early as December 2023 with the exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure (previously Pulse Secure) VPN appliances. Cutting Edge targeted the U.S. defense industrial base and multiple sectors globally including telecommunications, financial, aerospace, and technology. Cutting Edge featured the use of defense evasion and living-off-the-land (LoTL) techniques along with the deployment of web shells and other custom malware.[1][2][3][4][5]
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 | 1.1 | Current bundle | 28bd9e681f43… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.1 | Older bundle | 28bd9e681f43… |
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]Mandiant Cutting Edge January 2024
McLellan, T. et al. (2024, January 12). Cutting Edge: Suspected APT Targets Ivanti Connect Secure VPN in New Zero-Day Exploitation. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
Open source URL - [2]mitre-attackS1114Open source URL
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