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T1048: T1048

View on MITRE ATT&CK The MITRE Corporation · Published 31/05/2017 23:30 · Modified 15/04/2026 18:28

Essential information

MITRE technique ID
T1048
Confidence
100/100
Revoked
No
Published
31/05/2017 23:30
Modified
15/04/2026 18:28
Author / Source
The MITRE Corporation

Aliases

Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol

Platforms

windows macos linux Network Devices IaaS ESXi Office Suite SaaS

Description

Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over a different protocol than that of the existing command and control channel. The data may also be sent to an alternate network location from the main command and control server. Alternate protocols include FTP, SMTP, HTTP/S, DNS, SMB, or any other network protocol not being used as the main command and control channel. Adversaries may also opt to encrypt and/or obfuscate these alternate channels. [Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1048) can be done using various common operating system utilities such as [Net](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0039)/SMB or FTP.(Citation: Palo Alto OilRig Oct 2016) On macOS and Linux `curl` may be used to invoke protocols such as HTTP/S or FTP/S to exfiltrate data from a system.(Citation: 20 macOS Common Tools and Techniques) Many IaaS and SaaS platforms (such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, GitHub, and AWS S3) support the direct download of files, emails, source code, and other sensitive information via the web console or [Cloud API](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/009).

Kill chain phases

Kill chainPhase
mitre-attack exfiltration

Marking (TLP)

TLP:CLEAR Copyright 2015-2025, The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation.

External references

Related entities

Intrusion sets, malware, reports, vulnerabilities, indicators and other entities linked to this technique.