Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained.(Citation: TrendMicro Pawn Storm Dec 2020) 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.(Citation: Dragos Crashoverride 2018) 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 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR.IR-01.05 | Remote access protection | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement implements security controls and restrictions for remote user access to systems. Remote user access control involves managing and securing how users remotely access systems, such as through encrypted connections and account use policies, which help prevent adversary access.
References
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| PR.AA-05.02 | Privileged system access | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Brute Force through the use of privileged account management and the use of multi-factor authentication.
References
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| PR.AA-02.01 | Authentication of identity | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement provides protection from Brute Force through the implementation of authentication controls and privileged account management controls to limit credential access. Employing limitations to specific accounts, access control mechanisms, and auditing the attribution logs provides protection against adversaries attempting to brute force credentials.
References
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| PR.PS-01.07 | Cryptographic keys and certificates | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Brute Force through the use of revocation of keys and key management. Employing limitations to specific accounts along with access control mechanisms provides protection against adversaries attempting to brute force credentials.
References
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| PR.AA-01.02 | Physical and logical access | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement describes how the organization ensures users are identified and authenticated before accessing systems, applications, and hardware, with logical access controls permitting access only to authorized individuals with legitimate business needs. Logical access controls in relation to systems can refer to the use of MFA, user account management, and other role-based access control mechanisms to enforce policies for authentication and authorization of user accounts.
References
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| PR.AA-03.01 | Authentication requirements | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement describes how the organization implement appropriate authentication requirements, including selecting mechanisms based on risk, utilizing multi-factor authentication where necessary, and safeguarding the storage of authenticators like pins and passwords to protect sensitive access credentials.
References
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| PR.AA-05.04 | Third-party access management | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement includes implementation of controls for third-party access to an organization’s systems. Enforcing third-party account use policies to include account lockout policies after a certain number of failed login attempts mitigates the risk of brute-force attacks.
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| PR.AA-01.01 | Identity and credential management | Mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Brute Force through the use of hardened access control policies, secure defaults, password complexity requirements, multifactor authentication requirements, and removal of terminated accounts.
References
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC-06 | Least Privilege | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| CA-07 | Continuous Monitoring | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| CM-06 | Configuration Settings | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| IA-05 | Authenticator Management | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| IA-11 | Re-authentication | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| IA-04 | Identifier Management | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| AC-20 | Use of External Systems | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| CM-02 | Baseline Configuration | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| IA-02 | Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| SI-04 | System Monitoring | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| AC-02 | Account Management | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| AC-03 | Access Enforcement | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| AC-05 | Separation of Duties | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| AC-07 | Unsuccessful Logon Attempts | mitigates | T1110 | Brute Force |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| action.hacking.variety.Brute force | Brute force or password guessing attacks. | related-to | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| action.hacking.variety.OS commanding | OS commanding. Child of 'Exploit vuln'. | related-to | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| action.hacking.vector.Command shell | Remote shell | related-to | T1110 | Brute Force | |
| action.malware.variety.Brute force | Brute force attack | related-to | T1110 | Brute Force |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| advanced_threat_protection_for_azure_sql_database | Advanced Threat Protection for Azure SQL Database | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control covers the majority of sub-techniques for this parent technique and may cover both successful and unsuccessful brute force attacks. This control only provides alerts for a set of Azure database offerings. Databases that have been deployed to endpoints within Azure or third-party databases deployed to Azure do not generate alerts for this control.
References
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| ai_security_recommendations | Microsoft Defender for Cloud: AI Security Recommendations | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control's "Authentication to Linux machines should require SSH keys" recommendation can lead to obviating SSH Brute Force password attacks. Because this is specific to Linux, the coverage score is Minimal leading to an overall Minimal score.
References
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| alerts_for_azure_network_layer | Alerts for Azure Network Layer | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control can identify multiple connection attempts by external IPs, which may be indicative of Brute Force attempts, though not T1110.002, which is performed offline. It provides significant detection from most of this technique's sub-techniques and procedure examples resulting in an overall score of Significant.
References
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| alerts_for_linux_machines | Alerts for Linux Machines | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control provides partial coverage for most of this technique's sub-techniques and procedures.
References
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| alerts_for_windows_machines | Alerts for Windows Machines | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control provides detection for some of this technique's sub-techniques and procedure examples resulting in a Partial Coverage score and consequently an overall score of Partial.
References
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| azure_policy | Azure Policy | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control can protect against brute force attacks.
References
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| defender_for_open_source_databases | Microsoft Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control can detect attempted or successful brute force attacks.
References
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| just-in-time_vm_access | Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Just-in-Time VM Access | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control can be configured to completely block inbound access to selected ports until access is requested. This prevents any attempt at brute forcing a protocol, such as RDP or SSH, unless the attacker has the credentials and permissions to request such access. Even if permission has been granted to an authorized user to access the virtual machine, a list of authorized IP addresses for that access can be configured.
References
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| advanced_protection_program | Advanced Protection Program | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
Advanced Protection Program enables the use of a security key for multi-factor authentication. This provides significant protection against Brute Force techniques attempting to gain access to accounts.
References
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| cloud_endpoints | Cloud Endpoints | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
Cloud Endpoints allows administrators to set up login challenges, where a user attempting to access an API might be prompted to complete an additional verification step (like entering a code sent to their phone or answering a security question) before being granted access.
References
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| cloud_identity | Cloud Identity | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control may mitigate brute force attacks by enforcing multi-factor authentication, enforcing strong password policies, and rotating credentials periodically. These recommendations are IAM best practices but must be explicitly implemented by a cloud administrator.
References
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| cloud_ids | Cloud IDS | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
Often used by adversaries to gain access to a system, Palo Alto Network's vulnerability signature is able to detect multiple repetitive occurrences of a condition in a particular time that could indicate a brute force attack (e.g., failed logins).
Although there are ways an attacker could brute force a system while avoiding detection, this technique was scored as significant based on Palo Alto Network's advanced threat detection technology which constantly updates to detect against the latest known variations of these attacks.
References
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| identity_platform | Identity Platform | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods, such as SMS, can also be used to help protect user accounts from phishing attacks. MFA provides significant protection against password compromises, requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication method before their access is permitted.
References
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| security_command_center | Security Command Center | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
SCC uses syslog to detect successful brute force attacks [via SSH] on a host. Because of the near-real time temporal factor when detecting cyber-attacks this control was graded as significant.
References
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amazon_cognito | Amazon Cognito | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
Amazon Cognito's MFA capability provides significant protection against password compromises, requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication method before their access is permitted.
References
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| amazon_guardduty | Amazon GuardDuty | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
Finding types such as UnauthorizedAccess:EC2/RDPBruteForce, UnauthorizedAccess:EC2/SSHBruteForce, Impact:EC2/WinRMBruteForce, and Stealth:IAMUser/PasswordPolicyChange can detect when an EC2 instance may be involved in a brute force attack aimed at obtaining passwords. Due to the detection being limited to a specific set of application protocols, its coverage is Minimal resulting in a Minimal score.
References
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| amazon_inspector | Amazon Inspector | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
The Amazon Inspector Best Practices assessment package can detect security control settings related to authentication and password policies on Linux endpoints. Specific security controls it can assess include "Disable password authentication over SSH", "Configure password maximum age", "Configure password minimum length", and "Configure password complexity" all of which impact the ability to brute force a password. This information can be used identify insecure configurations and harden the endpoints. Amazon Inspector does not directly protect against brute force attacks. Given Amazon Inspector can only assess these security controls on Linux platforms (although it also supports Windows), the coverage score is Minimal leading to an overall Minimal score.
References
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| aws_config | AWS Config | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control provides significant coverage for all of this technique's sub-techniques, resulting in an overall score of Significant.
References
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| aws_identity_and_access_management | AWS Identity and Access Management | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
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| aws_security_hub | AWS Security Hub | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
AWS Security Hub performs a check from the AWS Foundations CIS Benchmark that, if implemented, would help towards detecting the brute forcing of accounts. AWS Security Hub provides this detection with the following checks.
3.6 Ensure a log metric filter and alarm exist for AWS Management Console authentication failures
This is scored as Minimal because it only applies to the AWS Management Console and not other access mechanisms (e.g., CLI, SDK, etc.) and it only supports a subset of the sub-techniques. Furthermore, it does not detect brute-forcing methods for other components such as EC2 instances.
References
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| aws_single_sign-on | AWS Single Sign-On | technique_scores | T1110 | Brute Force |
Comments
This control may not provide any mitigation against password cracking.
References
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| Technique ID | Technique Name | Number of Mappings |
|---|---|---|
| T1110.001 | Password Guessing | 38 |
| T1110.002 | Password Cracking | 25 |
| T1110.003 | Password Spraying | 39 |
| T1110.004 | Credential Stuffing | 38 |