Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network. Remote services such as VPNs, Citrix, and other access mechanisms allow users to connect to internal enterprise network resources from external locations. There are often remote service gateways that manage connections and credential authentication for these services. Services such as Windows Remote Management and VNC can also be used externally.(Citation: MacOS VNC software for Remote Desktop)
Access to Valid Accounts to use the service is often a requirement, which could be obtained through credential pharming or by obtaining the credentials from users after compromising the enterprise network.(Citation: Volexity Virtual Private Keylogging) Access to remote services may be used as a redundant or persistent access mechanism during an operation.
Access may also be gained through an exposed service that doesn’t require authentication. In containerized environments, this may include an exposed Docker API, Kubernetes API server, kubelet, or web application such as the Kubernetes dashboard.(Citation: Trend Micro Exposed Docker Server)(Citation: Unit 42 Hildegard Malware)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AC-17 | Remote Access | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
AC-20 | Use of External Systems | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
AC-23 | Data Mining Protection | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
AC-3 | Access Enforcement | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
AC-4 | Information Flow Enforcement | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
AC-6 | Least Privilege | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
AC-7 | Unsuccessful Logon Attempts | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
CM-2 | Baseline Configuration | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
CM-6 | Configuration Settings | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services | |
CM-7 | Least Functionality | Protects | T1133 | External Remote Services |