Skeleton Key
MITRE ATT&CK: S0007 View on attack.mitre.org
Aliases: Skeleton Key
- First seen
- 2014-01-01 00:00:00
- Malware type
- backdoor, credential-stealer
- Family
- Malware family
- Operating systems
- windows
- Profile updated
- 2026-07-07 15:28:05
Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector healthcare-and-pharmaceutical
Context
Skeleton Key is malware used to inject false credentials into domain controllers with the intent of creating a backdoor password. Functionality similar to Skeleton Key is included as a module in Mimikatz.
Malware & tools used
- Domain Controller Authentication (attack-pattern)
Used by threat actors
- APT5 (threat-actor)
Reports & references
- MITRE ATT&CK — S0007 (report)
- secureworks.com — Skeleton Key Malware Analysis (report)