Deploy Container

T1610

Technique.View on attack.mitre.org

About this technique

Adversaries may deploy a container into an environment to facilitate execution or evade defenses. In some cases, adversaries may deploy a new container to execute processes associated with a particular image or deployment, such as processes that execute or download malware. In others, an adversary may deploy a new container configured without network rules, user limitations, etc. to bypass existing defenses within the environment. In Kubernetes environments, an adversary may attempt to deploy a privileged or vulnerable container into a specific node in order to Escape to Host and access other containers running on the node.

Containers can be deployed by various means, such as via Docker's create and start APIs or via a web application such as the Kubernetes dashboard or Kubeflow. In Kubernetes environments, containers may be deployed through workloads such as ReplicaSets or DaemonSets, which can allow containers to be deployed across multiple nodes. Adversaries may deploy containers based on retrieved or built malicious images or from benign images that download and execute malicious payloads at runtime.

Detection rules2

Rules on DetectionCode tagged with T1610.

Sigma0

No Sigma rules are mapped to this technique yet.

Splunk2

RuleTypeRiskData source
Linux Suspicious Docker Build Command ExecutionAnomalyNULLSysmon for Linux EventID 1
Linux Suspicious Privileged Container ExecutionAnomalyNULLSysmon for Linux EventID 1

Groups1

Software3

Campaigns0

None recorded.

Procedure examples4

Groups1

Used byProcedure example
GroupTeamTNT

TeamTNT has deployed different types of containers into victim environments to facilitate execution. TeamTNT has also transferred cryptocurrency mining software to Kubernetes clusters discovered within local IP address ranges.

Software3

Used byProcedure example
MalwareDoki

Doki was run through a deployed container.

MalwareKinsing

Kinsing was run through a deployed Ubuntu container.

ToolPeirates

Peirates can deploy a pod that mounts its node’s root file system, then execute a command to create a reverse shell on the node.

References6

  1. AppSecco Kubernetes Namespace Breakout 2020 Open source
    Abhisek Datta. (2020, March 18). Kubernetes Namespace Breakout using Insecure Host Path Volume — Part 1. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  2. Aqua Build Images on Hosts Open source
    Assaf Morag. (2020, July 15). Threat Alert: Attackers Building Malicious Images on Your Hosts. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  3. Docker Container Open source
    DockerDocs. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  4. Kubeflow Pipelines Open source
    The Kubeflow Authors. (n.d.). Overview of Kubeflow Pipelines. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  5. Kubernetes Dashboard Open source
    The Kubernetes Authors. (n.d.). Kubernetes Web UI (Dashboard). Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  6. Kubernetes Workload Management Open source
    Kubernetes. (n.d.). Workload Management. Retrieved March 28, 2024.

Data from MITRE ATT&CK® (Enterprise). ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.