Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained. Without knowledge of the password for an account or set of accounts, an adversary may systematically guess the password using a repetitive or iterative mechanism. Brute forcing passwords can take place via interaction with a service that will check the validity of those credentials or offline against previously acquired credential data, such as password hashes.
Brute forcing credentials may take place at various points during a breach. For example, adversaries may attempt to brute force access to Valid Accounts within a victim environment leveraging knowledge gathered from other post-compromise behaviors such as OS Credential Dumping, Account Discovery, or Password Policy Discovery. Adversaries may also combine brute forcing activity with behaviors such as External Remote Services as part of Initial Access.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name |
---|---|---|---|---|
AC-2 | Account Management | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
AC-20 | Use of External Systems | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
AC-3 | Access Enforcement | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
AC-5 | Separation of Duties | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
AC-6 | Least Privilege | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
AC-7 | Unsuccessful Logon Attempts | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
CA-7 | Continuous Monitoring | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
CM-2 | Baseline Configuration | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
CM-6 | Configuration Settings | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
IA-11 | Re-authentication | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
IA-2 | Identification and Authentication (organizational Users) | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
IA-4 | Identifier Management | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
IA-5 | Authenticator Management | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
SI-4 | System Monitoring | Protects | T1110 | Brute Force |
Technique ID | Technique Name | Number of Mappings |
---|---|---|
T1110.004 | Credential Stuffing | 14 |
T1110.002 | Password Cracking | 14 |
T1110.001 | Password Guessing | 14 |
T1110.003 | Password Spraying | 14 |