PowerDuke

MITRE ATT&CK: S0139 View on attack.mitre.org

Aliases: PowerDuke

First seen
2016-01-01 00:00:00
Malware type
backdoor
Family
Malware family
Operating systems
windows
Profile updated
2026-07-07 15:45:04

Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector technology-and-telecommunications media-and-entertainment

Targeted regions: country_code:us country_code:gb country_code:de

Context

PowerDuke is a backdoor that was used by APT29 in 2016. It has primarily been delivered through Microsoft Word or Excel attachments containing malicious macros.

Detection coverage

  • 1 YARA rules
  • 315 Sigma rules

Malware & tools used

  • System Network Configuration Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Steganography (attack-pattern)
  • Rundll32 (attack-pattern)
  • System Information Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • File and Directory Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Application Window Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Data Destruction (attack-pattern)
  • System Owner/User Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Process Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • System Time Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • File Deletion (attack-pattern)
  • Ingress Tool Transfer (attack-pattern)
  • NTFS File Attributes (attack-pattern)
  • Windows Command Shell (attack-pattern)
  • Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder (attack-pattern)

Used by threat actors

Detection rules

  • MALPEDIA_Win_Powerduke_Auto (yara-rule)

Reports & references

  • cocomelonc.github.io — Malware Tricks 35 (report)
  • carbonblack.com — The Dukes Of Moscow (report)
  • malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de — Win.Powerduke (report)
  • volexity.com — Powerduke Post Election Spear Phishing Campaigns Targeting Think Tanks And Ngos (report)
  • MITRE ATT&CK — S0139 (report)

External references