S9012: TRAILBLAZE
TRAILBLAZE is an in-memory dropper used to deploy the passive backdoor BRUSHFIRE. First reported in March 2025, TRAILBLAZE has been observed in operations attributed to People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored affiliated actors, including UNC5221 and SYLVANITE. [1][2][3]
Security context for executives and security teams
S9012: TRAILBLAZE describes [TRAILBLAZE](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S9012) is an in-memory dropper used to deploy the passive backdoor [BRUSHFIRE](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S9011). First reported in March 2025, TRAILBLAZE has been observed in operations attributed to People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored affiliated actors, including UNC5221 and SYLVANITE. (Citation: Dragos SYLVANITE MuddyWater Electrum March 2026)(Citation: Google UNC5221 Ivanti April 2025)(Citation: Picus Security UNC5221 Ivanti May 2025)
Executive priority
S9012: TRAILBLAZE 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 S9012: TRAILBLAZE by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (Linux, 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 S9012: TRAILBLAZE 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.
TRAILBLAZE
TRAILBLAZE is an in-memory dropper used to deploy the passive backdoor BRUSHFIRE. First reported in March 2025, TRAILBLAZE has been observed in operations attributed to People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored affiliated actors, including UNC5221 and SYLVANITE. [1][2][3]
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 | T1057 | Process Discovery | TRAILBLAZE has conducted process discovery by searching for specific named processes such as `/home/bin/web`.[2][3] |
| Enterprise | T1070.004 | File DeletionSub-technique | TRAILBLAZE has the ability to delete temporary files and contents in specified directories to cover its tracks.[2][3] |
| Enterprise | T1055.012 | Process HollowingSub-technique | TRAILBLAZE has injected a hook into an existing process to load BRUSHFIRE in the spaces allocated memory to include the Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) web process named `web`.[2][3] |
| Enterprise | T1106 | Native API | TRAILBLAZE has leveraged raw syscalls to execute commands.[2][3] |
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 | 3b9ece31a6ac… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Older bundle | 3b9ece31a6ac… |
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]Dragos SYLVANITE MuddyWater Electrum March 2026
Dragos. (2026, March 24). Dragos 2026 OT Cybersecurity Report: Year in Review, O&G and Petrochemicals Focus. Retrieved April 17, 2026.
Open source URL - [2]Google UNC5221 Ivanti April 2025
John Wolfram, Michael Edie, Jacob Thompson, Matt Lin, Josh Murchie. (2025, April 3). Suspected China-Nexus Threat Actor Actively Exploiting Critical Ivanti Connect Secure Vulnerability (CVE-2025-22457). Retrieved April 13, 2026.
Open source URL - [3]Picus Security UNC5221 Ivanti May 2025
Sila Ozeren Hacioglu. (2025, May 5). UNC5221’s Latest Exploit: Weaponizing CVE-2025-22457 in Ivanti Connect Secure. Retrieved April 13, 2026.
Open source URL - [4]mitre-attackS9012Open source URL
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