Heyoka Backdoor

MITRE ATT&CK: S1027 View on attack.mitre.org

Aliases: Heyoka Backdoor

First seen
2013-01-01 00:00:00
Malware type
backdoor
Family
Malware family
Operating systems
windows
Profile updated
2026-07-07 13:04:33

Targeted industries: government-and-public-sector defense-and-aerospace education-and-nonprofits

Context

Heyoka Backdoor is a custom backdoor--based on the Heyoka open source exfiltration tool--that has been used by Aoqin Dragon since at least 2013.

Detection coverage

  • 190 Sigma rules

Malware & tools used

  • Dynamic-link Library Injection (attack-pattern)
  • File Deletion (attack-pattern)
  • Protocol Tunneling (attack-pattern)
  • Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information (attack-pattern)
  • DNS (attack-pattern)
  • Local Storage Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • System Service Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Process Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Rundll32 (attack-pattern)
  • File and Directory Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder (attack-pattern)
  • Encrypted/Encoded File (attack-pattern)
  • Peripheral Device Discovery (attack-pattern)
  • Masquerade Task or Service (attack-pattern)
  • Malicious File (attack-pattern)

Used by threat actors

Reports & references

  • sentinelone.com — Aoqin Dragon Newly Discovered Chinese Linked Apt Has Been Quietly Spying On Organizations For 10 Years (report)
  • MITRE ATT&CK — S1027 (report)
  • heyoka.sourceforge.net (report)

External references