T1496.002 Bandwidth Hijacking

Adversaries may leverage the network bandwidth resources of co-opted systems to complete resource-intensive tasks, which may impact system and/or hosted service availability.

Adversaries may also use malware that leverages a system's network bandwidth as part of a botnet in order to facilitate Network Denial of Service campaigns and/or to seed malicious torrents.(Citation: GoBotKR) Alternatively, they may engage in proxyjacking by selling use of the victims' network bandwidth and IP address to proxyware services.(Citation: Sysdig Proxyjacking) Finally, they may engage in internet-wide scanning in order to identify additional targets for compromise.(Citation: Unit 42 Leaked Environment Variables 2024)

In addition to incurring potential financial costs or availability disruptions, this technique may cause reputational damage if a victim’s bandwidth is used for illegal activities.(Citation: Sysdig Proxyjacking)

View in MITRE ATT&CK®

CSA CCM Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
IAM-16 Authorization Mechanisms mitigates T1496.002 Bandwidth Hijacking
Comments
This control requires both CSP and CSC to independently enforce formal approval processes for user access, implement dynamic and explicit authorization mechanisms. The guidance focuses on implementing technical measures to verify authorization and prevent unauthorized access and execution.
References
    DCS-18 Datacenter Operations Resilience mitigates T1496.002 Bandwidth Hijacking
    Comments
    Adversaries may leverage the network bandwidth resources of co-opted systems to complete resource-intensive tasks, which may impact system and/or hosted service availability. This control establishes and regularly evaluates processes, procedures, and technical measures to ensure continuous operations of the datacenter, mitigating attacker techniques such as denial‑of‑service and other availability‑impacting attacks that seek to disrupt business and operational continuity.
    References
      DCS-15 Secure Utilities mitigates T1496.002 Bandwidth Hijacking
      Comments
      Adversaries may leverage the network bandwidth resources of co-opted systems to complete resource-intensive tasks, which may impact system and/or hosted service availability. This control requires securing, monitoring, maintaining, and regularly testing utility services (e.g., power, HVAC, communications) to ensure ongoing effectiveness, mitigating attacker techniques such as disruption of infrastructure, exploitation of unmonitored service failures, and availability attacks that can compromise system resilience.
      References