Exploitation of Remote Services

Adversaries may exploit a software vulnerability to take advantage of a programming error in a program, service, or within the operating system software or kernel itself to enable remote service abuse. A common goal for post-compromise exploitation of remote services is for initial access into and lateral movement throughout the ICS environment to enable access to targeted systems. [1]

ICS asset owners and operators have been affected by ransomware (or disruptive malware masquerading as ransomware) migrating from enterprise IT to ICS environments: WannaCry, NotPetya, and BadRabbit. In each of these cases, self-propagating (wormable) malware initially infected IT networks, but through exploit (particularly the SMBv1-targeting MS17-010 vulnerability) spread to industrial networks, producing significant impacts. [2]

ID: T0866
Sub-techniques:  No sub-techniques
Platforms: None
Version: 1.0
Created: 21 May 2020
Last Modified: 13 October 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0606 Bad Rabbit

Bad Rabbit initially infected IT networks, but by means of an exploit (particularly the SMBv1-targeting MS17-010 vulnerability) spread to industrial networks. [2]

S0368 NotPetya

NotPetya initially infected IT networks, but by means of an exploit (particularly the SMBv1-targeting MS17-010 vulnerability) spread to industrial networks. [2]

S0603 Stuxnet

Stuxnet executes malicious SQL commands in the WinCC database server to propagate to remote systems. The malicious SQL commands include xp_cmdshell, sp_dumpdbilog, and sp_addextendedproc. [3]

S0366 WannaCry

WannaCry initially infected IT networks, but by means of an exploit (particularly the SMBv1-targeting MS17-010 vulnerability) spread to industrial networks. [2]

Targeted Assets

ID Asset
A0008 Application Server
A0007 Control Server
A0009 Data Gateway
A0006 Data Historian
A0002 Human-Machine Interface (HMI)
A0005 Intelligent Electronic Device (IED)
A0012 Jump Host
A0003 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
A0004 Remote Terminal Unit (RTU)
A0014 Routers
A0010 Safety Controller
A0011 Virtual Private Network (VPN) Server
A0001 Workstation

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M0948 Application Isolation and Sandboxing

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. [4]

M0942 Disable or Remove Feature or Program

Ensure that unnecessary ports and services are closed to prevent risk of discovery and potential exploitation.

M0950 Exploit Protection

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. [5] Control flow integrity checking is another way to potentially identify and stop a software exploit from occurring. [6] Many of these protections depend on the architecture and target application binary for compatibility and may not work for all software or services targeted.

M0930 Network Segmentation

Segment networks and systems appropriately to reduce access to critical system and services communications.

M0926 Privileged Account Management

Minimize permissions and access for service accounts to limit impact of exploitation. [7]

M0919 Threat Intelligence Program

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.

M0951 Update Software

Update software regularly by employing patch management for internal enterprise endpoints and servers.

M0916 Vulnerability Scanning

Regularly scan the internal network for available services to identify new and potentially vulnerable services.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component Detects
DS0015 Application Log Application Log Content

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, which may be recorded in the application log.

DS0029 Network Traffic Network Traffic Content

Use deep packet inspection to look for artifacts of common exploit traffic, such as known payloads.

References