CTI · corroborated · 2026-08-28

SLEEPWALKER Backdoor Uses SMB, ICMP, DNS and VMware VMCI for Covert Communications

Full story & timeline

MITRE ATT&CK

• T1095 Non-Application Layer Protocol Command and Control
• T1071 Application Layer Protocol Command and Control
• T1572 Protocol Tunneling Command and Control
• T1036 Masquerading Stealth
• T1055 Process Injection Stealth

Indicators

No curated indicators tied to this case.

Detections

No detection content yet — case analysis did not yield signal-specific telemetry. Check back after the next daily CTI pass.

References

• https://cyberpress.org/sleepwalker-backdoor-smb-icmp-dns-vmware-vmci
• https://gbhackers.com/sleepwalker-backdoor-covert-channels