MITRE ATT&CK Technique
Command and Control
T1132.002
Description
Adversaries may encode data with a non-standard data encoding system to make the content of command and control traffic more difficult to detect. Command and control (C2) information can be encoded using a non-standard data encoding system that diverges from existing protocol specifications. Non-standard data encoding schemes may be based on or related to standard data encoding schemes, such as a modified Base64 encoding for the message body of an HTTP request.(Citation: Wikipedia Binary-to-text Encoding) (Citation: Wikipedia Character Encoding)
Supported Platforms
ESXi
Linux
macOS
Windows
Created
April 29, 2026
Last Updated
April 29, 2026
STIX Data
{'created': '2020-03-14T23:39:50.117Z',
'created_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'description': 'Adversaries may encode data with a non-standard data encoding '
'system to make the content of command and control traffic '
'more difficult to detect. Command and control (C2) '
'information can be encoded using a non-standard data encoding '
'system that diverges from existing protocol specifications. '
'Non-standard data encoding schemes may be based on or related '
'to standard data encoding schemes, such as a modified Base64 '
'encoding for the message body of an HTTP request.(Citation: '
'Wikipedia Binary-to-text Encoding) (Citation: Wikipedia '
'Character Encoding) ',
'external_references': [{'external_id': 'T1132.002',
'source_name': 'mitre-attack',
'url': 'https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1132/002'},
{'description': 'Gardiner, J., Cova, M., Nagaraja, '
'S. (2014, February). Command & '
'Control Understanding, Denying and '
'Detecting. Retrieved April 20, 2016.',
'source_name': 'University of Birmingham C2',
'url': 'https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1408/1408.1136.pdf'},
{'description': 'Wikipedia. (2016, December 26). '
'Binary-to-text encoding. Retrieved '
'March 1, 2017.',
'source_name': 'Wikipedia Binary-to-text Encoding',
'url': 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-to-text_encoding'},
{'description': 'Wikipedia. (2017, February 19). '
'Character Encoding. Retrieved March '
'1, 2017.',
'source_name': 'Wikipedia Character Encoding',
'url': 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encoding'}],
'id': 'attack-pattern--d467bc38-284b-4a00-96ac-125f447799fc',
'kill_chain_phases': [{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
'phase_name': 'command-and-control'}],
'modified': '2025-10-24T17:49:27.237Z',
'name': 'Non-Standard Encoding',
'object_marking_refs': ['marking-definition--fa42a846-8d90-4e51-bc29-71d5b4802168'],
'revoked': False,
'spec_version': '2.1',
'type': 'attack-pattern',
'x_mitre_attack_spec_version': '3.2.0',
'x_mitre_deprecated': False,
'x_mitre_detection': '',
'x_mitre_domains': ['enterprise-attack'],
'x_mitre_is_subtechnique': True,
'x_mitre_modified_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'x_mitre_platforms': ['ESXi', 'Linux', 'macOS', 'Windows'],
'x_mitre_version': '1.1'}