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TECHNIQUES
PRE-ATT&CK
Priority Definition Planning
Priority Definition Direction
Target Selection
Technical Information Gathering
People Information Gathering
Organizational Information Gathering
Technical Weakness Identification
People Weakness Identification
Organizational Weakness Identification
Adversary OPSEC
Establish & Maintain Infrastructure
Persona Development
Build Capabilities
Test Capabilities
Stage Capabilities
Enterprise
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Privilege Escalation
Defense Evasion
Credential Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
Command and Control
Exfiltration
Impact
Mobile
Initial Access
Persistence
Privilege Escalation
Defense Evasion
Credential Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Impact
Collection
Exfiltration
Command and Control
Network Effects
Remote Service Effects
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  4. OS-vendor provided communication channels

OS-vendor provided communication channels

Google and Apple provide Google Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification Service, respectively, services designed to enable efficient communication between third-party mobile app backend servers and the mobile apps running on individual devices. These services maintain an encrypted connection between every mobile device and Google or Apple that cannot easily be inspected and must be allowed to traverse networks as part of normal device operation. These services could be used by adversaries for communication to compromised mobile devices. [1] [2]

ID: T1390
Tactic: Adversary Opsec
Version: 1.0
Created: 14 December 2017
Last Modified: 17 October 2018

Detection

Detectable by Common Defenses (Yes/No/Partial): No

Explanation: These services are heavily utilized by mainstream mobile app developers. High volume of communications makes it extremely hard for a defender to distinguish between legitimate and adversary communications.

Difficulty for the Adversary

Easy for the Adversary (Yes/No): Yes

Explanation: These are free services provided by Google and Apple to app developers, and information on how to use them is readily available.

References

  1. Roman Unuchek, Victor Chebyshev. (2014, February 24). Mobile Malware Evolution: 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  1. Alberto Coletta, Victor van der Veen, and Federico Maggi. (2016). DroydSeuss: A Mobile Banking Trojan Tracker - Short Paper. Retrieved April 12, 2017.