TeamPCP

Adversaries may search freely available websites and/or domains for information about victims that can be used during targeting. Information about victims may be available in various online sites, such as social media, new sites, or those hosting information about business operations such as hiring or requested/rewarded contracts.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may acquire domains that can be used during targeting. Domain names are the human readable names used to represent one or more IP addresses. They can be purchased or, in some cases, acquired for free.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network. Adversaries may choose not to use malware or tools in conjunction with the legitimate access those credentials provide to make it harder to detect their presence.

Evidence: 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · ATT&CK page ↗

Valid accounts in cloud environments may allow adversaries to perform actions to achieve Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Cloud accounts are those created and configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration of resources within a cloud service provider or SaaS application. Cloud Accounts can exist solely in the cloud; alternatively, they may be hybrid-joined between on-premises systems and the cloud through syncing or federation with other identity sources such as Windows Active Directory.

Evidence: 2026-08-28/teampcp-afp-fbi-disruption-shai-hulud-arrests · 2026-08-15/trivy-not-litellm-behind-2500-org-credential-collection · 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network. The weakness in the system can be a software bug, a temporary glitch, or a misconfiguration.

Evidence: 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may manipulate products or product delivery mechanisms prior to receipt by a final consumer for the purpose of data or system compromise.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · 2026-05-12/teampcp-unc6780-pcpjack-ecosystem-backdoors-the-checkmarx-je · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may manipulate software dependencies and development tools prior to receipt by a final consumer for the purpose of data or system compromise. Applications often depend on external software to function properly. Popular open source projects that are used as dependencies in many applications, such as pip and NPM packages, may be targeted as a means to add malicious code to users of the dependency. This may also include abandoned packages, which in some cases could be re-registered by threat actors after being removed by adversaries. Adversaries may also employ "typosquatting" or name-confusion by choosing names similar to existing popular libraries or packages in order to deceive a user.

Evidence: 2026-08-28/teampcp-afp-fbi-disruption-shai-hulud-arrests · 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-07-14/talos-serpents-tongue-python-package-code-execution-taxonomy · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may manipulate application software prior to receipt by a final consumer for the purpose of data or system compromise. Supply chain compromise of software can take place in a number of ways, including manipulation of the application source code, manipulation of the update/distribution mechanism for that software, or replacing compiled releases with a modified version.

Evidence: 2026-08-15/trivy-not-litellm-behind-2500-org-credential-collection · 2026-05-28/nx-console-tanstack-daemon-tools-supply-chain-cascade-lands · 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · 2026-05-15/datadog-security-labs-analyzes-leaked-teampcp-shai-hulud-off · 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · 2026-05-12/teampcp-unc6780-pcpjack-ecosystem-backdoors-the-checkmarx-je · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may breach or otherwise leverage organizations who have access to intended victims. Access through trusted third party relationship abuses an existing connection that may not be protected or receives less scrutiny than standard mechanisms of gaining access to a network.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries. These interfaces and languages provide ways of interacting with computer systems and are a common feature across many different platforms. Most systems come with some built-in command-line interface and scripting capabilities, for example, macOS and Linux distributions include some flavor of Unix Shell while Windows installations include the Windows Command Shell and PowerShell.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may abuse Unix shell commands and scripts for execution. Unix shells are the primary command prompt on Linux, macOS, and ESXi systems, though many variations of the Unix shell exist (e.g. sh, ash, bash, zsh, etc.) depending on the specific OS or distribution. Unix shells can control every aspect of a system, with certain commands requiring elevated privileges.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · 2026-05-15/datadog-security-labs-analyzes-leaked-teampcp-shai-hulud-off · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may abuse Python commands and scripts for execution. Python is a very popular scripting/programming language, with capabilities to perform many functions. Python can be executed interactively from the command-line (via the <code>python.exe</code> interpreter) or via scripts (.py) that can be written and distributed to different systems. Python code can also be compiled into binary executables.

Evidence: 2026-07-14/talos-serpents-tongue-python-package-code-execution-taxonomy · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may abuse various implementations of JavaScript for execution. JavaScript (JS) is a platform-independent scripting language (compiled just-in-time at runtime) commonly associated with scripts in webpages, though JS can be executed in runtime environments outside the browser.

Evidence: 2026-06-02/miasma-worm-backdoors-32-red-hat-cloud-services-npm-packages · ATT&CK page ↗

An adversary may rely upon specific actions by a user in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to execute malicious code by, for example, opening a malicious document file or link. These user actions will typically be observed as follow-on behavior from forms of Phishing.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to open a file that will lead to code execution. This user action will typically be observed as follow-on behavior from Spearphishing Attachment. Adversaries may use several types of files that require a user to execute them, including .doc, .pdf, .xls, .rtf, .scr, .exe, .lnk, .pif, .cpl, .reg, and .iso.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries. The PATH environment variable contains a list of directories (User and System) that the OS searches sequentially through in search of the binary that was called from a script or the command line.

Evidence: 2026-07-14/talos-serpents-tongue-python-package-code-execution-taxonomy · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network. Adversaries may choose not to use malware or tools in conjunction with the legitimate access those credentials provide to make it harder to detect their presence.

Evidence: 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · ATT&CK page ↗

Valid accounts in cloud environments may allow adversaries to perform actions to achieve Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Cloud accounts are those created and configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration of resources within a cloud service provider or SaaS application. Cloud Accounts can exist solely in the cloud; alternatively, they may be hybrid-joined between on-premises systems and the cloud through syncing or federation with other identity sources such as Windows Active Directory.

Evidence: 2026-08-28/teampcp-afp-fbi-disruption-shai-hulud-arrests · 2026-08-15/trivy-not-litellm-behind-2500-org-credential-collection · 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may backdoor web servers with web shells to establish persistent access to systems. A Web shell is a Web script that is placed on an openly accessible Web server to allow an adversary to access the Web server as a gateway into a network. A Web shell may provide a set of functions to execute or a command-line interface on the system that hosts the Web server.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may add or modify XDG Autostart Entries to execute malicious programs or commands when a user’s desktop environment is loaded at login. XDG Autostart entries are available for any XDG-compliant Linux system. XDG Autostart entries use Desktop Entry files (`.desktop`) to configure the user’s desktop environment upon user login. These configuration files determine what applications launch upon user login, define associated applications to open specific file types, and define applications used to open removable media.

Evidence: 2026-06-02/miasma-worm-backdoors-32-red-hat-cloud-services-npm-packages · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network. Adversaries may choose not to use malware or tools in conjunction with the legitimate access those credentials provide to make it harder to detect their presence.

Evidence: 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · ATT&CK page ↗

Valid accounts in cloud environments may allow adversaries to perform actions to achieve Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Cloud accounts are those created and configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration of resources within a cloud service provider or SaaS application. Cloud Accounts can exist solely in the cloud; alternatively, they may be hybrid-joined between on-premises systems and the cloud through syncing or federation with other identity sources such as Windows Active Directory.

Evidence: 2026-08-28/teampcp-afp-fbi-disruption-shai-hulud-arrests · 2026-08-15/trivy-not-litellm-behind-2500-org-credential-collection · 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may add or modify XDG Autostart Entries to execute malicious programs or commands when a user’s desktop environment is loaded at login. XDG Autostart entries are available for any XDG-compliant Linux system. XDG Autostart entries use Desktop Entry files (`.desktop`) to configure the user’s desktop environment upon user login. These configuration files determine what applications launch upon user login, define associated applications to open specific file types, and define applications used to open removable media.

Evidence: 2026-06-02/miasma-worm-backdoors-32-red-hat-cloud-services-npm-packages · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may attempt to make an executable or file difficult to discover or analyze by encrypting, encoding, or otherwise obfuscating its contents on the system or in transit. This is common behavior that can be used across different platforms and the network to evade defenses.

Evidence: 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may attempt to manipulate features of their artifacts to make them appear legitimate or benign to users and/or security tools. Masquerading occurs when the name or location of an object, legitimate or malicious, is manipulated or abused for the sake of evading defenses and observation. This may include manipulating file metadata, tricking users into misidentifying the file type, and giving legitimate task or service names.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may match or approximate the name or location of legitimate files, Registry keys, or other resources when naming/placing them. This is done for the sake of evading defenses and observation.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network. Adversaries may choose not to use malware or tools in conjunction with the legitimate access those credentials provide to make it harder to detect their presence.

Evidence: 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · ATT&CK page ↗

Valid accounts in cloud environments may allow adversaries to perform actions to achieve Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Cloud accounts are those created and configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration of resources within a cloud service provider or SaaS application. Cloud Accounts can exist solely in the cloud; alternatively, they may be hybrid-joined between on-premises systems and the cloud through syncing or federation with other identity sources such as Windows Active Directory.

Evidence: 2026-08-28/teampcp-afp-fbi-disruption-shai-hulud-arrests · 2026-08-15/trivy-not-litellm-behind-2500-org-credential-collection · 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may use Obfuscated Files or Information to hide artifacts of an intrusion from analysis. They may require separate mechanisms to decode or deobfuscate that information depending on how they intend to use it. Methods for doing that include built-in functionality of malware or by using utilities present on the system.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries. The PATH environment variable contains a list of directories (User and System) that the OS searches sequentially through in search of the binary that was called from a script or the command line.

Evidence: 2026-07-14/talos-serpents-tongue-python-package-code-execution-taxonomy · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may undermine security controls that will either warn users of untrusted activity or prevent execution of untrusted programs. Operating systems and security products may contain mechanisms to identify programs or websites as possessing some level of trust. Examples of such features would include a program being allowed to run because it is signed by a valid code signing certificate, a program prompting the user with a warning because it has an attribute set from being downloaded from the Internet, or getting an indication that you are about to connect to an untrusted site.

Evidence: 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may create, acquire, or steal code signing materials to sign their malware or tools. Code signing provides a level of authenticity on a binary from the developer and a guarantee that the binary has not been tampered with. The certificates used during an operation may be created, acquired, or stolen by the adversary. Unlike Invalid Code Signature, this activity will result in a valid signature.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`. The proc filesystem is a pseudo-filesystem used as an interface to kernel data structures for Linux based systems managing virtual memory. For each process, the `/proc/<PID>/maps` file shows how memory is mapped within the process’s virtual address space. And `/proc/<PID>/mem`, exposed for debugging purposes, provides access to the process’s virtual address space.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained. Without knowledge of the password for an account or set of accounts, an adversary may systematically guess the password using a repetitive or iterative mechanism. Brute forcing passwords can take place via interaction with a service that will check the validity of those credentials or offline against previously acquired credential data, such as password hashes.

Evidence: 2026-05-21/verizon-2026-dbir-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-crede · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials. These credentials can be stored and/or misplaced in many locations on a system, including plaintext files (e.g. Shell History), operating system or application-specific repositories (e.g. Credentials in Registry), or other specialized files/artifacts (e.g. Private Keys).

Evidence: 2026-08-28/teampcp-afp-fbi-disruption-shai-hulud-arrests · 2026-08-08/wiz-cloud-threat-highlights-h1-2026-ai-toolchain-exposure · 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · 2026-05-12/teampcp-unc6780-pcpjack-ecosystem-backdoors-the-checkmarx-je · 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may search local file systems and remote file shares for files containing insecurely stored credentials. These can be files created by users to store their own credentials, shared credential stores for a group of individuals, configuration files containing passwords for a system or service, or source code/binary files containing embedded passwords.

Evidence: 2026-08-15/trivy-not-litellm-behind-2500-org-credential-collection · 2026-05-28/nx-console-tanstack-daemon-tools-supply-chain-cascade-lands · 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · 2026-05-15/datadog-security-labs-analyzes-leaked-teampcp-shai-hulud-off · 2026-05-12/teampcp-unc6780-pcpjack-ecosystem-backdoors-the-checkmarx-je · 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may search for common password storage locations to obtain user credentials. Passwords are stored in several places on a system, depending on the operating system or application holding the credentials. There are also specific applications and services that store passwords to make them easier for users to manage and maintain, such as password managers and cloud secrets vaults. Once credentials are obtained, they can be used to perform lateral movement and access restricted information.

Evidence: 2026-06-02/miasma-worm-backdoors-32-red-hat-cloud-services-npm-packages · ATT&CK page ↗

An adversary may forge SAML tokens with any permissions claims and lifetimes if they possess a valid SAML token-signing certificate. The default lifetime of a SAML token is one hour, but the validity period can be specified in the <code>NotOnOrAfter</code> value of the <code>conditions ...</code> element in a token. This value can be changed using the <code>AccessTokenLifetime</code> in a <code>LifetimeTokenPolicy</code>. Forged SAML tokens enable adversaries to authenticate across services that use SAML 2.0 as an SSO (single sign-on) mechanism.

Evidence: 2026-05-13/mini-shai-hulud-s-github-actions-pwn-request-oidc-token-thef · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system. Adversaries may use the information from File and Directory Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions.

Evidence: 2026-05-24/packagist-supply-chain-wave-laravel-lang-autoloader-backdoor · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may access data from cloud storage.

Evidence: 2026-05-28/nx-console-tanstack-daemon-tools-supply-chain-cascade-lands · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may communicate using OSI application layer protocols to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. Commands to the remote system, and often the results of those commands, will be embedded within the protocol traffic between the client and server.

Evidence: 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may communicate using application layer protocols associated with web traffic to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. Commands to the remote system, and often the results of those commands, will be embedded within the protocol traffic between the client and server.

Evidence: 2026-05-12/gtig-ai-threat-tracker-may-2026-first-confirmed-ai-generated · ATT&CK page ↗

Adversaries may use an existing, legitimate external Web service to exfiltrate data rather than their primary command and control channel. Popular Web services acting as an exfiltration mechanism may give a significant amount of cover due to the likelihood that hosts within a network are already communicating with them prior to compromise. Firewall rules may also already exist to permit traffic to these services.

Evidence: 2026-05-28/nx-console-tanstack-daemon-tools-supply-chain-cascade-lands · ATT&CK page ↗