Telemetry Packet Drops Due to CPU or Memory Overload

Detection of a high rate of dropped telemetry packets coinciding with CPU or memory exhaustion, indicating that a malicious process is consuming system resources and preventing critical flight software operations.

STIX Pattern

[x-opencti-telemetry:packet_drop_rate > 'threshold' AND x-opencti-system:cpu_usage > 'threshold']

SPARTA TTPs

ID Name Description
EX-0010 Inject Malicious Code Threat actors may rely on other tactics and techniques in order to inject malicious code into the victim spacecraft. This can be done via compromising the supply chain or development environment in some capacity or taking advantage of known commands. However, once malicious code has been uploaded to the victim spacecraft, the threat actor can then trigger the code to run via a specific command or wait for a legitimate user to trigger it accidently. The code itself can do a number of different things to the hosted payload, subsystems, or underlying OS.
DE-0002 Prevent Downlink Threat actors may target the downlink connections to prevent the victim spacecraft from sending telemetry to the ground controllers. Telemetry is the only method in which ground controllers can monitor the health and stability of the spacecraft while in orbit. By disabling this downlink, threat actors may be able to stop mitigations from taking place.