Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges. 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. Security constructs such as permission levels will often hinder access to information and use of certain techniques, so adversaries will likely need to perform privilege escalation to include use of software exploitation to circumvent those restrictions. [1]
When initially gaining access to a system, an adversary may be operating within a lower privileged process which will prevent them from accessing certain resources on the system. Vulnerabilities may exist, usually in operating system components and software commonly running at higher permissions, that can be exploited to gain higher levels of access on the system. This could enable someone to move from unprivileged or user level permissions to SYSTEM or root permissions depending on the component that is vulnerable. This may be a necessary step for an adversary compromising an endpoint system that has been properly configured and limits other privilege escalation methods. [1]
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S1045 | INCONTROLLER |
INCONTROLLER has the ability to exploit a vulnerable Asrock driver (AsrDrv103.sys) using CVE-2020-15368 to load its own unsigned driver on the system.[2] |
| S1009 | Triton |
Triton leverages a previously-unknown vulnerability affecting Tricon MP3008 firmware versions 10.010.4 allows an insecurely-written system call to be exploited to achieve an arbitrary 2-byte write primitive, which is then used to gain supervisor privileges. [3] |
| 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] |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| ID | Name | Analytic ID | Analytic Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| DET0738 | Detection of Exploitation for Privilege Escalation | AN1871 |
Real-time monitoring identifies Industrial Control System (ICS) protocol commands succeeding against protected device functions from a source or session context that the device's documented access control model should reject, indicating exploitation of a vulnerability to bypass the device's privilege model. Documented as the core mechanism of the Triton attack, which exploited a zero-day in Triconex firmware while in PROGRAM mode. OT operational-fidelity gate: Alert only when execution violates an approved signer/hash/path/parent/process or tool allowlist, or originates from an unauthorized user/tool, and is tied to an OT asset or follow-on OT-relevant action. Suppress vendor-signed software, approved engineering utilities, diagnostics, patching, backup, and documented maintenance. |
| AN2131 |
Real-time monitoring identifies a process owned by an Industrial Control System (ICS) service User Identifier (UID) executing a Set User Identifier (SUID) binary or exploiting a kernel vulnerability to obtain root privileges, detected via unexpected setuid/setgid syscalls from a process not invoked via sudo. OT operational-fidelity gate: Alert only when execution violates an approved signer/hash/path/parent/process or tool allowlist, or originates from an unauthorized user/tool, and is tied to an OT asset or follow-on OT-relevant action. Suppress vendor-signed software, approved engineering utilities, diagnostics, patching, backup, and documented maintenance. |
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| AN2191 |
Real-time monitoring identifies network device management commands succeeding from a source not in the approved Network Management System (NMS) Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) subnet, following exploit-pattern traffic to the device's management interface, suggesting exploitation of a management-plane vulnerability to gain elevated access without valid credentials. OT operational-fidelity gate: Alert only when execution violates an approved signer/hash/path/parent/process or tool allowlist, or originates from an unauthorized user/tool, and is tied to an OT asset or follow-on OT-relevant action. Suppress vendor-signed software, approved engineering utilities, diagnostics, patching, backup, and documented maintenance. |
||
| AN2261 |
Real-time monitoring identifies an Industrial Control System (ICS) operator/service account being granted elevated Windows privileges without a corresponding administrative logon event, or a process crash in an Industrial Control System (ICS) vendor application immediately followed by a new process inheriting elevated token privileges. Documented in PIPEDREAM's LAZYCARGO component, which drops and exploits a known vulnerable ASRock driver to elevate credentials. OT operational-fidelity gate: Alert only when execution violates an approved signer/hash/path/parent/process or tool allowlist, or originates from an unauthorized user/tool, and is tied to an OT asset or follow-on OT-relevant action. Suppress vendor-signed software, approved engineering utilities, diagnostics, patching, backup, and documented maintenance. |