T1114.002 Remote Email Collection

Adversaries may target an Exchange server, Office 365, or Google Workspace to collect sensitive information. Adversaries may leverage a user's credentials and interact directly with the Exchange server to acquire information from within a network. Adversaries may also access externally facing Exchange services, Office 365, or Google Workspace to access email using credentials or access tokens. Tools such as MailSniper can be used to automate searches for specific keywords.

View in MITRE ATT&CK®

CRI Profile Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
PR.AA-05.02 Privileged system access Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Remote Email Collection through the use of privileged account management and the use of multi-factor authentication.
References
    PR.AA-03.03 Email verification mechanisms Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
    Comments
    This diagnostic statement provides protection from adversaries that try to gain sensitive information and data from users via email. Utilizing methods such as encryption and MFA are recommended to minimize the risk of adversaries collecting user's credentials via exchange servers from within a network.
    References
      PR.PS-01.06 Encryption management practices Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
      Comments
      This diagnostic statement is associated with employing encryption methods to mitigate unauthorized access or theft of data that protect the confidentiality and integrity of data-at-rest, data-in-use, and data-in-transit. To address threats to email collection, the use of encryption provides an added layer of security to sensitive information sent over email. Encryption using public key cryptography requires the adversary to obtain the private certificate along with an encryption key to decrypt messages. File encryption should be enforced across email communications containing sensitive information that may be obtained through access to email services.
      References
        PR.PS-01.07 Cryptographic keys and certificates Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
        Comments
        This diagnostic statement protects against Email Collection through the use of revocation of keys and key management. Employing key protection strategies such as ensuring proper encryption methods and key management for those used in email along with policies for sending cryptographic material over email, limitations to specific accounts along with access control mechanisms provides protection against adversaries attempting to glean credentials from emails.
        References
          ID.AM-08.03 Data governance and lifecycle management Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
          Comments
          This diagnostic statement protects credential data and sensitive PII from being stolen from adversaries found in emails. It also prevents adversaries from manipulating data via exchange server, Office 365, or Google Workspace from trying to collect sensitive information. There may be some similarities to NIST 800-53 SI-12 Information Management and Retention. This may provide mitigation of data access/exfiltration techniques.
          References
            ID.AM-08.05 Data destruction procedures Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
            Comments
            This diagnostic statement protects credential data and sensitive PII from being stolen from adversaries found in emails. It also prevents adversaries from manipulating data via exchange server, Office 365, or Google Workspace from trying to collect sensitive information. There may be some similarities to NIST 800-53 SI-12 Information Management and Retention. This may provide mitigation of data access/exfiltration techniques.
            References
              PR.AA-01.01 Identity and credential management Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
              Comments
              This diagnostic statement protects against Remote Email Collection through the use of hardened access control policies, secure defaults, password complexity requirements, multifactor authentication requirements, and removal of terminated accounts.
              References
                PR.PS-01.05 Encryption standards Mitigates T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                Comments
                This diagnostic statement is associated with employing strong encryption methods to mitigate unauthorized access or theft of data that protect the confidentiality and integrity of data-at-rest, data-in-use, and data-in-transit. To address threats to email collection, the use of encryption provides an added layer of security to sensitive information sent over email. Encryption using public key cryptography requires the adversary to obtain the private certificate along with an encryption key to decrypt messages. File encryption should be enforced across email communications containing sensitive information that may be obtained through access to email services.
                References

                  NIST 800-53 Mappings

                  Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Mappings

                  Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                  CVE-2012-0767 Adobe Flash Player Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability secondary_impact T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  This cross-site scripting vulnerability has been exploited in the wild by enticing a user to click on a link to a malicious website. The attacker can then impersonate the user and perform actions such as changing the user's settings on the website or accessing the user's webmail.
                  References

                  VERIS Mappings

                  Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                  attribute.confidentiality.data_disclosure None related-to T1114.002 Remote Email Collection

                  Azure Mappings

                  Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                  microsoft_sentinel Microsoft Sentinel technique_scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  The Microsoft Sentinel Hunting "Suspect Mailbox Export on IIS/OWA" query can identify potential malicious exfiltration hosting via IIS. The Microsoft Sentinel Hunting "Host Exporting Mailbox and Removing Export" query can identify potential exfiltration of data from Exchange servers. The coverage for these queries is minimal resulting in an overall Minimal score.
                  References

                  M365 Mappings

                  Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                  EID-CAE-E3 Continuous Access Evaluation Technique Scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  Entra ID's continuous access evaluation is a security control implemented by enabling services to subscribe to critical Microsoft Entra events. Those events can then be evaluated and enforced near real time. This process enables tenant users lose access to organizational SharePoint Online files, email, calendar, or tasks, and Teams from Microsoft 365 client apps within minutes after a critical event is detected. The following events are currently evaluated: User Account is deleted or disabled Password for a user is changed or reset Multifactor authentication is enabled for the user Administrator explicitly revokes all refresh tokens for a user High user risk detected by Microsoft Entra ID Protection License Requirements: Continuous access evaluation will be included in all versions of Microsoft 365.
                  References
                  PUR-AUS-E5 Audit Solutions Technique Scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  Microsoft Purview auditing solutions provide an integrated solution to help organizations effectively respond to security events, forensic investigations, internal investigations, and compliance obligations. Thousands of user and admin operations performed in dozens of Microsoft 365 services and solutions are captured, recorded, and retained in your organization's unified audit log. Audit records for these events are searchable by security ops, IT admins, insider risk teams, and compliance and legal investigators in your organization. This capability provides visibility into the activities performed across your Microsoft 365 organization. Microsoft's Audit Solutions detects Remote Email Collection attacks due to in O365 environments, admins can consider using PurviewAudit to collect MailItemsAccessed events and monitoring for unusual email access behavior. License Requirements: Microsoft 365 E3 and E5
                  References
                  DEF-SSCO-E3 Secure Score Technique Scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  Microsoft Secure Score is a measurement of an organization's security posture, with a higher number indicating more recommended actions taken. It can be found at Microsoft Secure Score in the Microsoft Defender portal. Following the Secure Score recommendations can protect your organization from threats. From a centralized dashboard in the Microsoft Defender portal, organizations can monitor and work on the security of their Microsoft 365 identities, apps, and devices. Your score is updated in real time to reflect the information presented in the visualizations and recommended action pages. Secure Score also syncs daily to receive system data about your achieved points for each action. To help you find the information you need more quickly, Microsoft recommended actions are organized into groups: Identity (Microsoft Entra accounts & roles) Device (Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, known as Microsoft Secure Score for Devices) Apps (email and cloud apps, including Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps) Data (through Microsoft Information Protection)
                  References
                  DEF-SSCO-E3 Secure Score Technique Scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  Microsoft Secure Score is a measurement of an organization's security posture, with a higher number indicating more recommended actions taken. It can be found at Microsoft Secure Score in the Microsoft Defender portal. Following the Secure Score recommendations can protect your organization from threats. From a centralized dashboard in the Microsoft Defender portal, organizations can monitor and work on the security of their Microsoft 365 identities, apps, and devices. Your score is updated in real time to reflect the information presented in the visualizations and recommended action pages. Secure Score also syncs daily to receive system data about your achieved points for each action. To help you find the information you need more quickly, Microsoft recommended actions are organized into groups: Identity (Microsoft Entra accounts & roles) Device (Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, known as Microsoft Secure Score for Devices) Apps (email and cloud apps, including Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps) Data (through Microsoft Information Protection)
                  References
                  DEF-ATH-E5 Advanced Threat Hunting Technique Scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  Advanced hunting is a query-based threat hunting tool that lets you explore up to 30 days of raw data. Advanced hunting in Microsoft Defender XDR allows you to proactively hunt for threats across: Devices managed by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Emails processed by Microsoft 365, Cloud app activities, authentication events, and domain controller activities. With this level of visibility, you can quickly hunt for threats that traverse sections of your network, including sophisticated intrusions that arrive on email or the web, elevate local privileges, acquire privileged domain credentials, and move laterally to across your devices. Advanced hunting supports two modes, guided and advanced. Users use advanced mode if they are comfortable using Kusto Query Language (KQL) to create queries from scratch. Advanced Threat Hunting Detects Remote Email Collection attacks due to the IdentityLogonEvents table in the advanced hunting schema which contains information about all authentication activities related to Microsoft online services captured by Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps which monitors for unusual login activity from unknown or abnormal locations, especially for privileged accounts. License Requirements: Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 plan 2
                  References
                  EOP-MFR-E3 Mail Flow Rules Technique Scores T1114.002 Remote Email Collection
                  Comments
                  In Exchange Online Protection (EOP) organizations without Exchange Online mailboxes can use Exchange Mail Flow Rules (also known as transport rules) to look for specific conditions on messages that pass through your organization and take action on them. Mail Flow Rules take action on messages while they are in transit, not after the message is delivered to the mailbox. Mail flow rules contain a richer set of conditions, exceptions, and actions, which provides you with the flexibility to implement many types of messaging policies. Mail Flow Rules protects from Remote Email Collection attacks due to the custom rules feature which allows you to define rules to encrypt email messages which provides an added layer of security to sensitive information sent over email. License Requirements: Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, Defender for Office 365 plan 1 and plan 2, Microsoft XDR
                  References