Adversaries may leverage the compute resources of co-opted systems to complete resource-intensive tasks, which may impact system and/or hosted service availability.
One common purpose for Compute Hijacking is to validate transactions of cryptocurrency networks and earn virtual currency. Adversaries may consume enough system resources to negatively impact and/or cause affected machines to become unresponsive.(Citation: Kaspersky Lazarus Under The Hood Blog 2017) Servers and cloud-based systems are common targets because of the high potential for available resources, but user endpoint systems may also be compromised and used for Compute Hijacking and cryptocurrency mining.(Citation: CloudSploit - Unused AWS Regions) Containerized environments may also be targeted due to the ease of deployment via exposed APIs and the potential for scaling mining activities by deploying or compromising multiple containers within an environment or cluster.(Citation: Unit 42 Hildegard Malware)(Citation: Trend Micro Exposed Docker APIs)
Additionally, some cryptocurrency mining malware identify then kill off processes for competing malware to ensure it’s not competing for resources.(Citation: Trend Micro War of Crypto Miners)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| microsoft_sentinel | Microsoft Sentinel | technique_scores | T1496.001 | Compute Hijacking |
Comments
The following Microsoft Sentinel Hunting queries can identify potential compute hijacking based on anomolies in access and usage patterns: "Anomalous Resource Creation and related Network Activity", "Creation of an anomalous number of resources".
The following Microsoft Sentinel Analytis queries can identify potential resource hijacking: "Creation of Expensive Computes in Azure" and "Suspicious number of resource creation or deployed" [sic] can identify suspicious outliers in resource quantities requested. "Suspicious Resource deployment" can identify deployments from new, potentially malicious, users. "Process execution frequency anomaly" can identify execution that may indicate hijacking. "DNS events related to mining pools", can identify potential cryptocurrency mining activity.
References
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| defender_for_app_service | Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Defender for App Service | technique_scores | T1496.001 | Compute Hijacking |
Comments
This control detects file downloads associated with digital currency mining as well as host data related to process and command execution associated with mining. It also includes fileless attack detection, which specifically targets crypto mining activity. Temporal factor is unknown.
References
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| security_command_center | Security Command Center | technique_scores | T1496.001 | Compute Hijacking |
Comments
SCC detect compromised hosts that attempt to connect to known malicious crypto-mining domains and IP addresses. Because of the near-real time temporal factor to detect against this cyber-attack the control was graded as significant.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EID-CA-E3 | Conditional Access | Technique Scores | T1496.001 | Compute Hijacking |
Comments
In the event that a session is hijacked, continuous access evaluation can be used to terminate the session, potentially before any malicious actions can occur.
References
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| DEF-CAPP-E5 | Defender for Cloud Apps | Technique Scores | T1496.001 | Compute Hijacking |
Comments
This control can identify some behaviors that are potential instances of compute hijacking. Relevant alerts include "Multiple VM Creation activities" and "Suspicious creation activity for cloud region".
References
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