Email Collection: Local Email Collection

APT1 uses two utilities, GETMAIL and MAPIGET, to steal email. GETMAIL extracts emails from archived Outlook .pst files.^[3]

Carbanak searches recursively for Outlook personal storage tables (PST) files within user directories and sends them back to the C2 server.^[4]

Chimera has harvested data from victim's e-mail including through execution of wmic /node: process call create "cmd /c copy c:\Users\\\backup.pst c:\windows\temp\backup.pst" copy "i:\\\My Documents\.pst"
copy.^[5]

CosmicDuke searches for Microsoft Outlook data files with extensions .pst and .ost for collection and exfiltration.^[6]

Crimson contains a command to collect and exfiltrate emails from Outlook.^[7]

Emotet has been observed leveraging a module that scrapes email data from Outlook.^[8]

Empire has the ability to collect emails on a target system.^[9]

KGH_SPY can harvest data from mail clients.^[10]

LunarMail can capture the recipients of sent email messages from compromised accounts.^[11]

Magic Hound has collected .PST archives.^[12]

MirrorFace has exfiltrated stored emails from compromised hosts.^[13]

During Night Dragon, threat actors used RAT malware to exfiltrate email archives.^[14]

Out1 can parse e-mails on a target machine.^[15]

Pupy can interact with a victim’s Outlook session and look through folders and emails.^[16]

QakBot can target and steal locally stored emails to support thread hijacking phishing campaigns.^[17][18][19]

RedCurl has collected emails to use in future phishing campaigns.^[20]

Sea Turtle collected email archives from victim environments.^[21]

Smoke Loader searches through Outlook files and directories (e.g., inbox, sent, templates, drafts, archives, etc.).^[22]

Winter Vivern delivered malicious JavaScript payloads capable of exfiltrating email messages from exploited email servers.^[23]

WIRTE has collected documents from victims' email accounts.^[24]

Use of encryption provides an added layer of security to sensitive information sent over email. Encryption using public key cryptography requires the adversary to obtain the private certificate along with an encryption key to decrypt messages.

Implement secure out-of-band alerts to notify security teams of unusual local email activities, such as mass forwarding or large attachments being sent, indicating potential data exfiltration attempts.^[25]