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MITRE ATT&CK® Malware

S9021: DOWNIISSA

DOWNIISSA is a shellcode downloader that has been used by MirrorFace since at least 2022 to deploy payloads, including the LODEINFO backdoor.[1]

EnterpriseS9021MalwareObject v1.0Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

S9021: DOWNIISSA describes [DOWNIISSA](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S9021) is a shellcode downloader that has been used by [MirrorFace](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1054) since at least 2022 to deploy payloads, including the [LODEINFO](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S9020) backdoor.(Citation: Kaspersky LODEINFO OCT 2022)

Executive priority

S9021: DOWNIISSA 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 S9021: DOWNIISSA 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 S9021: DOWNIISSA 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

DOWNIISSA

DOWNIISSA is a shellcode downloader that has been used by MirrorFace since at least 2022 to deploy payloads, including the LODEINFO backdoor.[1]

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.

7 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1027.013Encrypted/Encoded FileSub-technique

DOWNIISSA code is base64 encoded and XOR encrypted.[1]

EnterpriseT1105Ingress Tool Transfer

DOWNIISSA can download files to the compromised host.[1]

EnterpriseT1070.004File DeletionSub-technique

DOWNIISSA can delete files after download.[1]

EnterpriseT1140Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information

DOWNIISSA can decode strings prior to execution.[1]

EnterpriseT1218.007MsiexecSub-technique

DOWNIISSA can create an instance of msiexec.exe and inject LODEINFO shellcode into the memory of the process.[1]

EnterpriseT1055Process Injection

DOWNIISSA can inject shellcode directly into process memory including WINWORD.exe and msiexec.exe.[1]

EnterpriseT1106Native API

DOWNIISSA can use the `URLDownloadToFileA()` API to download from remote resources.[1]

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

GroupEnterprise

G1054: MirrorFace

MirrorFace is a People's Republic of China (PRC)-aligned cyberespionage actor believed to be a subgroup under the menuPass umbrella based on targeting, tools, and infrastructure overlaps. MirrorFace has been active since at least 2019, at first exclusively targeting Japanese organizations across the media, defense, diplomatic, financial, manufacturing, and academic sectors. Subsequent MirrorFace operations included targets in Central Europe and featured use of LODEINFO, HiddenFace, and UPPERCUT malware.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

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
192e9b3f1e0df797...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
19.21.0Current bundle192e9b3f1e0d…
19.11.0Older bundle192e9b3f1e0d…
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]
    Kaspersky LODEINFO OCT 2022

    Ishimaru, S. (2022, October 31). APT10: Tracking down LODEINFO 2022, part I. Retrieved April 17, 2026.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    mitre-attackS9021
    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.