LiteDuke

MITRE ATT&CK: S0513 View on attack.mitre.org

Aliases: LiteDuke

First seen
2014-01-01 00:00:00
Malware type
backdoor
Family
Malware family
Operating systems
windows
Profile updated
2026-07-07 13:20:52

Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector

Targeted regions: country_code:us country_code:ru

Context

LiteDuke is a third stage backdoor that was used by APT29, primarily in 2014-2015. LiteDuke used the same dropper as PolyglotDuke, and was found on machines also compromised by MiniDuke.

Detection coverage

  • 1 YARA rules
  • 250 Sigma rules

Malware & tools used

  • Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information (attack-pattern)
  • System Information Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Steganography (attack-pattern)
  • System Network Configuration Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Web Protocols (attack-pattern)
  • Query Registry (attack-pattern)
  • Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder (attack-pattern)
  • File Deletion (attack-pattern)
  • Software Packing (attack-pattern)
  • Ingress Tool Transfer (attack-pattern)
  • Time Based Checks (attack-pattern)
  • Security Software Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • System Owner/User Discovery (attack-pattern)

Used by threat actors

Detection rules

  • MALPEDIA_Win_Liteduke_Auto (yara-rule)

Reports & references

  • ESET — Eset Operation Ghost Dukes (report)
  • carbonblack.com — The Dukes Of Moscow (report)
  • malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de — Win.Liteduke (report)
  • norfolkinfosec.com — Looking Back At Liteduke (report)
  • MITRE ATT&CK — S0513 (report)

External references