T1210: Exploitation of Remote Services
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network. Exploitation of a software vulnerability occurs when an adversary takes advantage of a programming error in a program, service, or within the operating system software or kernel itself to execute adversary-controlled code. A common goal for post-compromise exploitation of remote services is for lateral movement to enable access to a remote system.
An adversary may need to determine if the remote system is in a vulnerable state, which may be done through Network Service Discovery or other Discovery methods looking for common, vulnerable software that may be deployed in the network, the lack of certain patches that may indicate vulnerabilities, or security software that may be used to detect or contain remote exploitation. Servers are likely a high value target for lateral movement exploitation, but endpoint systems may also be at risk if they provide an advantage or access to additional resources.
There are several well-known vulnerabilities that exist in common services such as SMB and RDP as well as applications that may be used within internal networks such as MySQL and web server services.
Depending on the permissions level of the vulnerable remote service an adversary may achieve Exploitation for Privilege Escalation as a result of lateral movement exploitation as well.
Positive Technologies products that cover the technique
MaxPatrol SIEM knowledge base
mitre_attck_execution: PT-CR-2497: Subrule_Suspicious_RPC_Server: Successful connection to the RPC server
mitre_attck_lateral_movement: PT-CR-1981: SVCCTL_Connection: Remote connection to the Service Control Manager via svcctl that allows remote management of Windows services
mitre_attck_lateral_movement: PT-CR-211: Remote_Code_Execution_Via_AtSvc: Remote creation of a Windows scheduled task with AtSvc
mitre_attck_lateral_movement: PT-CR-784: Auth_Coerce_with_WebClient_Abuse: Use of WebClient to force HTTP authorization (port 80) on an attacking host via PetitPotam or PrinterBug is detected
sap_suspicious_user_activity: PT-CR-243: SAPASABAP_GW_Gateway_signature_pentest_tools: Pentest tools usage
mitre_attck_execution: PT-CR-2119: Suspicious_RPC_Server: Possible connection to the Mimikatz RPC server. Attackers can connect to the Mimikatz RPC server on victim's computer to remotely execute commands using the mimikatz.py tool from the Impacket toolkit.
vulnerabilities: PT-CR-4: Exploit_On_Vulnerable_Host: Possible vulnerability exploitation
remote_work: PT-CR-450: VPN_client_to_client_connection: Direct connections between VPN hosts
unix_mitre_attck_lateral_movement: PT-CR-1015: Unix_Exploiting_SambaCry: Possible exploitation of the SambaCry vulnerability (CVE-2017-7494) for remote code execution
unix_mitre_attck_lateral_movement: PT-CR-1017: Subrule_Unix_Suspicious_SO_Created_and_Opened: Lateral movement is detected. SambaCry vulnerability exploitation (CVE-2017-7494).
active_directory_attacks: PT-CR-2225: ADCS_CRL_Abusing: Suspicious activity with a certificate revocation list (CRL). Access to a CRL allows attackers to force the CA server to authenticate on a remote server or remotely execute code on the CA server. For this rule to work, you must complete the "CRL_Publication_Time" tabular list.
active_directory_attacks: PT-CR-2298: Zerologon_Attack: Exploitation of vulnerability CVE-2020-1472 (Zerologon) that allows you to change passwords to domain controller accounts
sap_attack_detection: PT-CR-156: SAPASABAP_Signature_pentest_tools: Pentest tools usage
Detection
ID | DS0029 | Data source and component | Network Traffic: Network Traffic Content | Description | Use deep packet inspection to look for artifacts of common exploit traffic, such as known payloads. |
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ID | DS0015 | Data source and component | Application Log: Application Log Content | Description | Detecting software exploitation may be difficult depending on the tools available. Software exploits may not always succeed or may cause the exploited process to become unstable or crash. Web Application Firewalls may detect improper inputs attempting exploitation. |
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Mitigation
ID | M1042 | Name | Disable or Remove Feature or Program | Description | Minimize available services to only those that are necessary. |
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ID | M1016 | Name | Vulnerability Scanning | Description | Regularly scan the internal network for available services to identify new and potentially vulnerable services. |
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ID | M1050 | Name | Exploit Protection | Description | Security applications that look for behavior used during exploitation such as Windows Defender Exploit Guard (WDEG) and the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can be used to mitigate some exploitation behavior. Control flow integrity checking is another way to potentially identify and stop a software exploit from occurring. Many of these protections depend on the architecture and target application binary for compatibility and may not work for all software or services targeted. |
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ID | M1030 | Name | Network Segmentation | Description | Segment networks and systems appropriately to reduce access to critical systems and services to controlled methods. |
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ID | M1019 | Name | Threat Intelligence Program | Description | Develop a robust cyber threat intelligence capability to determine what types and levels of threat may use software exploits and 0-days against a particular organization. |
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ID | M1048 | Name | Application Isolation and Sandboxing | Description | Make it difficult for adversaries to advance their operation through exploitation of undiscovered or unpatched vulnerabilities by using sandboxing. Other types of virtualization and application microsegmentation may also mitigate the impact of some types of exploitation. Risks of additional exploits and weaknesses in these systems may still exist. |
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ID | M1026 | Name | Privileged Account Management | Description | Minimize permissions and access for service accounts to limit impact of exploitation. |
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ID | M1051 | Name | Update Software | Description | Update software regularly by employing patch management for internal enterprise endpoints and servers. |
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