TONESHELL — Malware Profile
TONESHELL is a custom backdoor that has been used since at least Q1 2021. TONESHELL malware has previously been leveraged by Chinese affiliated actors identified as Mustang Panda.
MITRE ATT&CK techniques (43)
- T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation
- T1010 Application Window Discovery
- T1027.001 Binary Padding
- T1027.007 Dynamic API Resolution
- T1027.012 LNK Icon Smuggling
- T1033 System Owner/User Discovery
- T1036.004 Masquerade Task or Service
- T1036.005 Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location
- T1047 Windows Management Instrumentation
- T1053.005 Scheduled Task
- T1055.001 Dynamic-link Library Injection
- T1056.001 Keylogging
- T1057 Process Discovery
- T1059.003 Windows Command Shell
- T1070.004 File Deletion
- T1071.001 Web Protocols
- T1082 System Information Discovery
- T1087 Account Discovery
- T1095 Non-Application Layer Protocol
- T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer
- T1106 Native API
- T1113 Screen Capture
- T1132.002 Non-Standard Encoding
- T1134.002 Create Process with Token
- T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information
- T1205 Traffic Signaling
- T1218.010 Regsvr32
- T1218.013 Mavinject
- T1480 Execution Guardrails
- T1480.001 Environmental Keying
- T1480.002 Mutual Exclusion
- T1497.002 User Activity Based Checks
- T1518.001 Security Software Discovery
- T1543.003 Windows Service
- T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder
- T1553.002 Code Signing
- T1559 Inter-Process Communication
- T1560.001 Archive via Utility
- T1573.001 Symmetric Cryptography
- T1574.001 DLL
- T1622 Debugger Evasion
- T1678 Delay Execution
- T1680 Local Storage Discovery
IntelFusions coverage
- Stately Taurus (Mustang Panda) Conducts Two-Year Southeast Asian Government Espionage Operation: Three-DLL ToneShell Variant, ShadowPad, and Continuous File Exfiltration via Dropbox 2026-02-16
- Hive0154 (Mustang Panda) Deploys Toneshell9 with Proxy-Blended C2 and SnakeDisk USB Worm Targeting Thailand Amid Cambodia Border Crisis 2026-02-16