Thanos

MITRE ATT&CK does not currently catalogue Thanos, so this is our assessment of the techniques it uses, drawn from public reporting. The techniques themselves, and every "what that means" definition below, come from MITRE ATT&CK v19.2. Confidence: low. Treat it as orientation, not attribution.

1. T1059.001 PowerShell Execution

   What they do: thanos executes PowerShell scripts to run malicious commands and propagate across compromised systems.

   What that means: Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution.

2. T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder PersistencePrivilege Escalation

   What they do: thanos modifies registry run keys to ensure malware execution upon system reboot or user login.

   What that means: Adversaries may achieve persistence by adding a program to a startup folder or referencing it with a Registry run key.

3. T1548.002 Bypass User Account Control Privilege Escalation

   What they do: thanos bypasses User Account Control checks to execute privileged payloads with elevated system access.

   What that means: Adversaries may bypass UAC mechanisms to elevate process privileges on system.

4. T1685 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Impairment

   What they do: thanos disables security tools such as antivirus and monitoring agents to hinder incident response.

   What that means: Adversaries may disable, degrade, or tamper with security tools or applications (e.g., endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools, intrusion detection systems (IDS), antivirus, logging agents, sensors, etc.) to impair or reduce visibility of defensive capabilities.

5. T1070.004 File Deletion Stealth

   What they do: thanos deletes Volume Shadow Copies and backup files via vssadmin to prevent data recovery.

   What that means: Adversaries may delete files left behind by the actions of their intrusion activity.

6. T1018 Remote System Discovery Discovery

   What they do: thanos discovers remote systems via network scanning to identify further victims for encryption.

   What that means: Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of other systems by IP address, hostname, or other logical identifier on a network that may be used for Lateral Movement from the current system.

7. T1083 File and Directory Discovery Discovery

   What they do: thanos scans file and directory structures to identify critical data and encryption targets.

   What that means: Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system.

8. T1021.002 SMB/Windows Admin Shares Lateral Movement

   What they do: thanos moves laterally through SMB/Windows Admin Shares to compromise additional networked hosts.

   What that means: Adversaries may use Valid Accounts to interact with a remote network share using Server Message Block (SMB).

9. T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact Impact

   What they do: thanos encrypts victim files using strong symmetric cryptography to maximize disruption and ransom demand.

   What that means: Adversaries may encrypt data on target systems or on large numbers of systems in a network to interrupt availability to system and network resources.

10. T1491.001 Internal Defacement Impact

    What they do: thanos performs internal defacement by altering or corrupting web content and user files as impact.

    What that means: An adversary may deface systems internal to an organization in an attempt to intimidate or mislead users, thus discrediting the integrity of the systems.