Adversaries may attempt to position themselves between two or more networked devices using an adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) technique to support follow-on behaviors such as Network Sniffing, Transmitted Data Manipulation, or replay attacks (Exploitation for Credential Access). By abusing features of common networking protocols that can determine the flow of network traffic (e.g. ARP, DNS, LLMNR, etc.), adversaries may force a device to communicate through an adversary controlled system so they can collect information or perform additional actions.(Citation: Rapid7 MiTM Basics)
For example, adversaries may manipulate victim DNS settings to enable other malicious activities such as preventing/redirecting users from accessing legitimate sites and/or pushing additional malware.(Citation: ttint_rat)(Citation: dns_changer_trojans)(Citation: ad_blocker_with_miner) Adversaries may also manipulate DNS and leverage their position in order to intercept user credentials, including access tokens (Steal Application Access Token) and session cookies (Steal Web Session Cookie).(Citation: volexity_0day_sophos_FW)(Citation: Token tactics) Downgrade Attacks can also be used to establish an AiTM position, such as by negotiating a less secure, deprecated, or weaker version of communication protocol (SSL/TLS) or encryption algorithm.(Citation: mitm_tls_downgrade_att)(Citation: taxonomy_downgrade_att_tls)(Citation: tlseminar_downgrade_att)
Adversaries may also leverage the AiTM position to attempt to monitor and/or modify traffic, such as in Transmitted Data Manipulation. Adversaries can setup a position similar to AiTM to prevent traffic from flowing to the appropriate destination, potentially to Impair Defenses and/or in support of a Network Denial of Service.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| action.hacking.variety.AiTM | Adversary-in-the-middle attack. Child of 'Exploit vuln' | related-to | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle | |
| action.hacking.variety.Routing detour | Routing detour. Child of 'Exploit vuln'. | related-to | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle | |
| action.malware.variety.AiTM | Man-in-the-middle attack. Child of 'Exploit vuln'. | related-to | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle | |
| attribute.confidentiality.data_disclosure | None | related-to | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle | |
| amazon_virtual_private_cloud | Amazon Virtual Private Cloud | technique_scores | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle |
Comments
The VPC service's support for the AWS Virtual Private Network (VPN) can be used to encrypt traffic traversing over untrusted networks which can mitigate Man-in-the-Middle attacks that manipulate network protocol data in transit. VPC Peering can also be utilized to route traffic privately between two VPCs which can reduce the Man-in-the-Middle attack surface. VPC Endpoints can also similarly reduce the attack surface of Man-in-the-Middle attacks by ensuring network traffic between a VPC and supported AWS services are not exposed to the Internet.
References
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| aws_config | AWS Config | technique_scores | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle |
Comments
The following AWS Config managed rules can identify configuration problems that should be fixed in order to ensure SSL/TLS encryption is enabled to protect network traffic: "acm-certificate-expiration-check" for nearly expired certificates in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM); "alb-http-to-https-redirection-check" for Application Load Balancer (ALB) HTTP listeners; "api-gw-ssl-enabled" for API Gateway REST API stages; "cloudfront-custom-ssl-certificate", "cloudfront-sni-enabled", and "cloudfront-viewer-policy-https", for Amazon CloudFront distributions; "elb-acm-certificate-required", "elb-custom-security-policy-ssl-check", "elb-predefined-security-policy-ssl-check", and "elb-tls-https-listeners-only" for Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) Classic Load Balancer listeners; "redshift-require-tls-ssl" for Amazon Redshift cluster connections to SQL clients; "s3-bucket-ssl-requests-only" for requests for S3 bucket contents; and "elasticsearch-node-to-node-encryption-check" for Amazon ElasticSearch Service node-to-node communications.
All of these are run on configuration changes except "alb-http-to-https-redirection-check", which is run periodically. Coverage factor is partial for these rules, since they are specific to a subset of the available AWS services and can only mitigate behavior for adversaries who are unable to decrypt the relevant traffic. This control does not provide specific coverage for this technique's sub-techniques, resulting in an overall score of Minimal.
References
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| aws_iot_device_defender | AWS IoT Device Defender | technique_scores | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle |
Comments
The following AWS IoT Device Defender audit checks and corresponding mitigation actions can identify and resolve configuration problems that should be fixed in order to ensure SSL/TLS encryption is enabled and secure to protect network traffic to/from IoT devices: "CA certificate expiring" ("CA_CERTIFICATE_EXPIRING_CHECK" in the CLI and API), "CA certificate key quality" ("CA_CERTIFICATE_KEY_QUALITY_CHECK" in the CLI and API), and "CA certificate revoked but device certificates still active" ("REVOKED_CA_CERTIFICATE_STILL_ACTIVE_CHECK" in the CLI and API) can identify problems with certificate authority (CA) certificates being used for signing and support the "UPDATE_CA_CERTIFICATE" mitigation action which can resolve them. "Device certificate expiring" ("DEVICE_CERTIFICATE_EXPIRING_CHECK" in the CLI and API), "Device certificate key quality" ("DEVICE_CERTIFICATE_KEY_QUALITY_CHECK" in the CLI and API), "Device certificate shared" ("DEVICE_CERTIFICATE_SHARED_CHECK" in the CLI and API), and "Revoked device certificate still active" ("REVOKED_DEVICE_CERTIFICATE_STILL_ACTIVE_CHECK" in the CLI and API) can identify problems with IoT devices' certificates and support the "UPDATE_DEVICE_CERTIFICATE" and "ADD_THINGS_TO_THING_GROUP" mitigation actions which can resolve them.
Coverage factor is partial for these checks and mitigations, since they are specific to IoT device communication and can only mitigate behavior for adversaries who are unable to decrypt the relevant traffic, resulting in an overall score of Partial. This control does not provide specific coverage for this technique's sub-techniques, resulting in an overall score of Minimal.
References
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| aws_rds | AWS RDS | technique_scores | T1557 | Man-in-the-Middle |
Comments
AWS RDS and AWS RDS Proxy support TLS/SSL connections to database instances which protects against man-in-the-middle attacks. However, given that it does not support any sub-techniques, the mapping is given a score of Partial.
References
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| Technique ID | Technique Name | Number of Mappings |
|---|---|---|
| T1557.003 | DHCP Spoofing | 2 |
| T1557.001 | LLMNR/NBT-NS Poisoning and SMB Relay | 3 |
| T1557.002 | ARP Cache Poisoning | 4 |