Crutch

MITRE ATT&CK: S0538 View on attack.mitre.org

Aliases: Crutch

First seen
2015-01-01 00:00:00
Malware type
backdoor
Family
Malware family
Operating systems
windows
Profile updated
2026-07-07 12:43:59

Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector

Context

Crutch is a backdoor designed for document theft that has been used by Turla since at least 2015.

Detection coverage

  • 1 YARA rules
  • 208 Sigma rules

Malware & tools used

  • Peripheral Device Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Bidirectional Communication (attack-pattern)
  • Web Protocols (attack-pattern)
  • Scheduled Task (attack-pattern)
  • Exfiltration to Cloud Storage (attack-pattern)
  • Data from Removable Media (attack-pattern)
  • Masquerade Task or Service (attack-pattern)
  • DLL (attack-pattern)
  • Automated Exfiltration (attack-pattern)
  • Automated Collection (attack-pattern)
  • Data from Local System (attack-pattern)
  • Fallback Channels (attack-pattern)
  • Local Data Staging (attack-pattern)
  • Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (attack-pattern)
  • Archive via Utility (attack-pattern)

Used by threat actors

Detection rules

  • MALPEDIA_Win_Crutch_Auto (yara-rule)

Reports & references

  • ESET — Turla Crutch Keeping Back Door Open (report)
  • ESET — Eset Industry Report Government (report)
  • malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de — Win.Crutch (report)
  • MITRE ATT&CK — S0538 (report)

External references