An adversary may deface systems external to an organization in an attempt to deliver messaging, intimidate, or otherwise mislead an organization or users. External Defacement may ultimately cause users to distrust the systems and to question/discredit the system’s integrity. Externally-facing websites are a common victim of defacement; often targeted by adversary and hacktivist groups in order to push a political message or spread propaganda.(Citation: FireEye Cyber Threats to Media Industries)(Citation: Kevin Mandia Statement to US Senate Committee on Intelligence)(Citation: Anonymous Hackers Deface Russian Govt Site) External Defacement may be used as a catalyst to trigger events, or as a response to actions taken by an organization or government. Similarly, website defacement may also be used as setup, or a precursor, for future attacks such as Drive-by Compromise.(Citation: Trend Micro Deep Dive Into Defacement)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR.IR-03.01 | Alternative resilience mechanisms | Mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against External Defacement through the use of failsafes, backup facilities, disaster recovery, and resilience strategies including resumption of critical services.
References
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| ID.IM-02.06 | Accurate data recovery | Mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
Comments
This diagnostic statement emphasizes the importance of facilitating data recovery through the implementation of robust data backup strategies, comprehensive disaster recovery plans, and effective business continuity frameworks, aimed at mitigating the risks posed by potential adversarial attempts to compromise or manipulate organization's content and systems externally by targeting users through messages or propaganda.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CP-07 | Alternate Processing Site | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| CP-10 | System Recovery and Reconstitution | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| CP-02 | Contingency Plan | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| CP-09 | System Backup | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| SI-03 | Malicious Code Protection | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| SI-07 | Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| CM-02 | Baseline Configuration | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| SI-04 | System Monitoring | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| AC-03 | Access Enforcement | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| AC-06 | Least Privilege | mitigates | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| attribute.availability.variety.Obscuration | Conversion or obscuration (ransomware) | related-to | T1491.002 | External Defacement | |
| attribute.integrity.variety.Defacement | Deface content | related-to | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| azure_backup | Azure Backup | technique_scores | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
Comments
Data backups provide a significant response to external or internal data defacement attacks by enabling the restoration of data from backup.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amazon_guardduty | Amazon GuardDuty | technique_scores | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
Comments
The following finding types can be used to detect behavior that can lead to the defacement of
cloud resources:
Impact:S3/MaliciousIPCaller
Exfiltration:S3/MaliciousIPCaller
Exfiltration:S3/ObjectRead.Unusual
PenTest:S3/KaliLinux
PenTest:S3/ParrotLinux
PenTest:S3/PentooLinux
UnauthorizedAccess:S3/MaliciousIPCaller.Custom
UnauthorizedAccess:S3/TorIPCaller
References
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| aws_cloudendure_disaster_recovery | AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery | technique_scores | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
Comments
AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery enables the replication and recovery of servers into AWS Cloud. In the event that servers are defaced, 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 | T1491.002 | External Defacement |
Comments
The following AWS Config managed rules can identify configuration problems that should be fixed in order to prevent malicious write access to data within Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) storage, which may include internal and/or external defacement: "s3-bucket-blacklisted-actions-prohibited" checks whether bucket policies prohibit disallowed actions (including encryption configuration changes) for principals from other AWS accounts, "s3-bucket-default-lock-enabled" checks whether a bucket that should be locked in write-once-read-many (WORM) mode is configured to prevent modification, and "s3-bucket-public-write-prohibited" checks whether a bucket is configured to allow public access and modification. All of these controls are run on configuration changes.
The following AWS Config managed rules can identify configuration problems that should be fixed in order to ensure backups and redundancy are in place which can mitigate the effects of malicious defacement: "aurora-mysql-backtracking-enabled" for data in Aurora MySQL; "db-instance-backup-enabled" and "rds-in-backup-plan" for Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) data; "dynamodb-in-backup-plan" and "dynamodb-pitr-enabled" for Amazon DynamoDB table contents; "ebs-in-backup-plan" for Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes; "efs-in-backup-plan" for Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) file systems; "elasticache-redis-cluster-automatic-backup-check" for Amazon ElastiCache Redis cluster data; "redshift-backup-enabled" and "redshift-cluster-maintenancesettings-check" for Redshift; "s3-bucket-replication-enabled" and "s3-bucket-versioning-enabled" for S3 storage; and "cloudfront-origin-failover-enabled" for CloudFront.
Coverage factor is significant for these rules, since they cover a wide range of services used to host content for websites within AWS, resulting in an overall score of Significant.
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