Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network. The weakness in the system can be a software bug, a temporary glitch, or a misconfiguration.
Exploited applications are often websites/web servers, but can also include databases (like SQL), standard services (like SMB or SSH), network device administration and management protocols (like SNMP and Smart Install), and any other system with Internet-accessible open sockets.(Citation: NVD CVE-2016-6662)(Citation: CIS Multiple SMB Vulnerabilities)(Citation: US-CERT TA18-106A Network Infrastructure Devices 2018)(Citation: Cisco Blog Legacy Device Attacks)(Citation: NVD CVE-2014-7169) Depending on the flaw being exploited this may also involve Exploitation for Defense Evasion or Exploitation for Client Execution.
If an application is hosted on cloud-based infrastructure and/or is containerized, then exploiting it may lead to compromise of the underlying instance or container. This can allow an adversary a path to access the cloud or container APIs (e.g., via the Cloud Instance Metadata API), exploit container host access via Escape to Host, or take advantage of weak identity and access management policies.
Adversaries may also exploit edge network infrastructure and related appliances, specifically targeting devices that do not support robust host-based defenses.(Citation: Mandiant Fortinet Zero Day)(Citation: Wired Russia Cyberwar)
For websites and databases, the OWASP top 10 and CWE top 25 highlight the most common web-based vulnerabilities.(Citation: OWASP Top 10)(Citation: CWE top 25)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| action.hacking.variety.Exploit misconfig | Exploit a misconfiguration (vs vuln or weakness) | related-to | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application | |
| action.hacking.variety.SQLi | SQL injection. Child of 'Exploit vuln'. | related-to | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application | |
| amazon_guardduty | Amazon GuardDuty | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
There is a GuardDuty finding type that captures when vulnerable publicly facing resources are leveraged to capture data not intended to be viewable (e.g., IAM credentials associated with the resource).
UnauthorizedAccess:EC2/MetadataDNSRebind - This finding type only detects MetadataDNSRebind and is more focused on the EC2 instance and not the application running on the instance itself resulting in Minimal coverage.
References
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| amazon_inspector | Amazon Inspector | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
Amazon Inspector can detect known vulnerabilities on various Windows and Linux endpoints. Furthermore, the Amazon Inspector Best Practices assessment package can assess security controls for "Enable Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)" and "Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP)" that makes it more difficult for an attacker to exploit vulnerabilities in software. This information can be used to patch, isolate, and remove vulnerable software and endpoints. Amazon Inspector does not directly protect against exploitation and it is not effective against zero-day attacks, vulnerabilities with no available patch, and software that may not be analyzed by the scanner. As a result, the score is capped at Partial.
References
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| aws_cloudendure_disaster_recovery | AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery enables the replication and recovery of servers into AWS Cloud. In the event that a public-facing application or server is compromised, AWS CloudEndure can be used to provision an instance of the server from a previous point in time within minutes. As a result, this mapping is given a score of Significant.
References
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| aws_config | AWS Config | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
The following AWS Config managed rules can identify configuration problems that should be fixed in order to ensure that applications intended for internal use cannot be accessed externally for exploitation: "api-gw-endpoint-type-check" can ensure that Amazon API Gateway APIs are private and can only be accessed from within VPCs, "elasticsearch-in-vpc-only" can ensure that Amazon ElasticSearch Service (Amazon ES) domains are in the same VPC and the domain endpoint is not public, "lambda-function-public-access-prohibited" can verify that AWS Lambda functions are not publicly available, and "ec2-instance-no-public-ip" can verify whether EC2 instances have public IP addresses.
The following AWS Config managed rules can identify configuration problems that should be fixed in order to ensure that insecure applications are not installed and installed packages are kept updated, reducing the likelihood of adversary exploitation: the "ec2-managedinstance-applications-blacklisted" managed rule verifies that a pre-defined list of applications are not installed on specified managed instances. It can be used to identify the presence of vulnerable applications (prompting removal before they can be exploited) and/or to identify the presence of allowed packages below a minimum version (prompting updates before they can be exploited). The "ec2-managedinstance-platform-check" managed rule verifies that managed instances are running desired platform types, including using a desired version (as opposed to an out-of-date one). Both can reduce instances' attack surface for adversary exploitation. "rds-automatic-minor-version-upgrade-enabled" can verify that Amazon RDS is being patched, and "elastic-beanstalk-managed-updates-enabled" can verify that Elastic Beanstalk is being patched.
Coverage factor is partial for these rules, since they are specific to a subset of the available AWS services that can be used to host public-facing applications and will only protect against certain forms of identifiable exploitation, resulting in an overall score of Partial.
References
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| aws_rds | AWS RDS | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
AWS RDS supports the automatic patching of minor versions of database instances. This can result in security flaws in the database instances being fixed before they can be exploited. This mapping is given a score of Partial because it does not protect against misconfigured database instances which may be susceptible to exploitation.
References
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| aws_rds | AWS RDS | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
AWS RDS supports the replication and recovery of database instances. In the event that a database instance is compromised, AWS RDS can be used to restore the database instance to a previous point in time. As a result, this mapping is given a score of Significant.
References
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| aws_security_hub | AWS Security Hub | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
AWS Security Hub reports on EC2 instances that are missing security patches for vulnerabilities which could enable an adversary to exploit vulnerabilities through the attack lifecycle. AWS Security Hub provides this detection with the following managed insight.
EC2 instances that have missing security patches for important vulnerabilities
This is scored as Partial because the checks associated with Security Hub would only report on missing patches for known vulnerabilities. It doesn't not cover zero-day vulnerabilities.
References
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| aws_web_application_firewall | AWS Web Application Firewall | technique_scores | T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application |
Comments
The AWS WAF protects public-facing applications against a range of vulnerabilities including those listed in the OWASP Top 10. AWS WAF provides this protection via the following rule sets that block malicious traffic across a variety of operating systems and applications.
AWSManagedRulesCommonRuleSet AWSManagedRulesKnownBadInputRuleSet AWSManagedRulesSQLiRuleSet AWSManagedRulesLinuxRuleSet AWSManagedRulesUnixRuleSet AWSManagedRulesWindowsRuleSet AWSManagedRulesPHPRuleSet AWSManagedRulesWordPressRuleSet
This is given a score of Significant because it protects against vulnerabilities across multiple operating systems (Windows, Linux, POSIX) and technologies (JavaScript, SQL, PHP, WordPress). Furthermore, it blocks the malicious content in near real-time.
References
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