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T1001 Data Obfuscation

Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.(Citation: Bitdefender FunnyDream Campaign November 2020) Command and control (C2) communications are hidden (but not necessarily encrypted) in an attempt to make the content more difficult to discover or decipher and to make the communication less conspicuous and hide commands from being seen. This encompasses many methods, such as adding junk data to protocol traffic, using steganography, or impersonating legitimate protocols.

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CRI Profile Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
DE.AE-02.01 Event analysis and detection Mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
Comments
This diagnostic statement provides for implementation of methods to block similar future attacks via security tools such as antivirus and IDS/IPS to provide protection against threats and exploitation attempts.
References
    DE.CM-01.01 Intrusion detection and prevention Mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
    Comments
    Network intrusion detection and prevention systems that use network signatures to identify traffic for specific adversary malware can be used to mitigate some obfuscation command and control activity at the network level.
    References
      PR.IR-01.03 Network communications integrity and availability Mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
      Comments
      This diagnostic statement protects against Data Obfuscation through the use of secure network configurations, architecture, implementations of zero trust architecture, and segmentation.
      References

        NIST 800-53 Mappings

        Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
        AC-04 Information Flow Enforcement mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
        CA-07 Continuous Monitoring mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
        CM-06 Configuration Settings mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
        SC-07 Boundary Protection mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
        SI-03 Malicious Code Protection mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
        SI-04 System Monitoring mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation
        CM-02 Baseline Configuration mitigates T1001 Data Obfuscation

        VERIS Mappings

        Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
        action.hacking.variety.Other Other related-to T1001 Data Obfuscation
        action.hacking.variety.Evade Defenses Modification of the action (rather than the system, as in 'Disable controls') to avoid detection. related-to T1001 Data Obfuscation

        ATT&CK Subtechniques

        Technique ID Technique Name Number of Mappings
        T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation 11
        T1001.002 Steganography 16
        T1001.001 Junk Data 11