Adversaries may employ an encryption algorithm to conceal command and control traffic rather than relying on any inherent protections provided by a communication protocol. Despite the use of a secure algorithm, these implementations may be vulnerable to reverse engineering if secret keys are encoded and/or generated within malware samples/configuration files.
Encrypted Channel
source_name: mitre-attack  url: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1573  external_id: T1573     source_name: SANS Decrypting SSL  description: Butler, M. (2013, November). Finding Hidden Threats by Decrypting SSL. Retrieved April 5, 2016.  url: http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/analyst/finding-hidden-threats-decrypting-ssl-34840     source_name: SEI SSL Inspection Risks  description: Dormann, W. (2015, March 13). The Risks of SSL Inspection. Retrieved April 5, 2016.  url: https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/cert/2015/03/the-risks-of-ssl-inspection.html     source_name: University of Birmingham C2  description: Gardiner, J.,  Cova, M., Nagaraja, S. (2014, February). Command & Control Understanding, Denying and Detecting. Retrieved April 20, 2016.  url: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1408/1408.1136.pdf     