Valid accounts in cloud environments may allow adversaries to perform actions to achieve Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Cloud accounts are those created and configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration of resources within a cloud service provider or SaaS application. Cloud Accounts can exist solely in the cloud; alternatively, they may be hybrid-joined between on-premises systems and the cloud through syncing or federation with other identity sources such as Windows Active Directory.(Citation: AWS Identity Federation)(Citation: Google Federating GC)(Citation: Microsoft Deploying AD Federation)
Service or user accounts may be targeted by adversaries through Brute Force, Phishing, or various other means to gain access to the environment. Federated or synced accounts may be a pathway for the adversary to affect both on-premises systems and cloud environments - for example, by leveraging shared credentials to log onto Remote Services. High privileged cloud accounts, whether federated, synced, or cloud-only, may also allow pivoting to on-premises environments by leveraging SaaS-based Software Deployment Tools to run commands on hybrid-joined devices.
An adversary may create long lasting Additional Cloud Credentials on a compromised cloud account to maintain persistence in the environment. Such credentials may also be used to bypass security controls such as multi-factor authentication.
Cloud accounts may also be able to assume Temporary Elevated Cloud Access or other privileges through various means within the environment. Misconfigurations in role assignments or role assumption policies may allow an adversary to use these mechanisms to leverage permissions outside the intended scope of the account. Such over privileged accounts may be used to harvest sensitive data from online storage accounts and databases through Cloud API or other methods. For example, in Azure environments, adversaries may target Azure Managed Identities, which allow associated Azure resources to request access tokens. By compromising a resource with an attached Managed Identity, such as an Azure VM, adversaries may be able to Steal Application Access Tokens to move laterally across the cloud environment.(Citation: SpecterOps Managed Identity 2022)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| advanced_protection_program | Advanced Protection Program | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
Advanced Protection Program enables the use of a security key for multi-factor authentication. Integrating multi-factor authentication (MFA) as part of organizational policy can greatly reduce the risk of an adversary gaining control of valid credentials that may be used for additional tactics such as initial access, lateral movement, and collecting information.
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| cloud_asset_inventory | Cloud Asset Inventory | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
This control may be able to detect when adversaries use valid cloud accounts to elevate privileges through manipulation of IAM or access policies. This monitoring can be fine tuned to specific assets, policies, and organizations.
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| cloud_identity | Cloud Identity | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
This control can be used to mitigate malicious attacks of cloud accounts by implementing multi-factor authentication techniques or password policies.
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| gke_enterprise | GKE Enterprise | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
GKE Enterprise incorporates the Anthos Config Management feature to create and manage Kubernetes objects across multiple clusters at once. PodSecurityPolicies can be enforced to prevent Pods from using the root Linux user. Based on the medium detection coverage, this sub-technique was scored as partial.
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| identity_and_access_management | Identity and Access Management | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
This control protects against malicious use of cloud accounts and gaining access to them. This control may mitigate the impact of compromised valid accounts by enabling fine-grained access policies and implementing least-privilege policies. MFA can provide protection against an adversary that obtains valid credentials by requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication process before access is permitted.
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| identity_aware_proxy | Identity Aware Proxy | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
Protects access to applications hosted within cloud and other premises.
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| identity_platform | Identity Platform | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
Identity Platform lets you add Google-grade authentication to your apps and services, making it easier to secure user accounts and securely managing credentials. MFA can provide protection against an adversary that obtains valid credentials by requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication process before access is permitted.
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| policy_intelligence | Policy Intelligence | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a cloud account by gaining access through means of Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Policy Intelligence role recommendations generated by IAM Recommender help enforce least privilege principals to ensure that permission levels are properly managed.
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| recaptcha_enterprise | ReCAPTCHA Enterprise | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
ReCAPTCHA Enterprise allows users to configure Multifactor Authentication (MFA) to verify user's identity by sending a verification code by email or SMS (known as an MFA challenge). When ReCAPTCHA Enterprise assesses that user activity to exceeds a predetermined threshold (by the developer), it can trigger an MFA challenge to verify the user. This increases the likelihood that a compromised account will be prevented from impacting the system.
Since ReCAPTCHA Enterprise does not require a MFA challenge for all user activity, it has been given a rating of Partial.
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| resource_manager | Resource Manager | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
Adversaries may attempt to obtain credentials of existing account through privilege escalation or defense evasion. IAM audit logging in GCP can be used to determine roles and permissions, along with routinely checking user permissions to ensure only the expected users have the ability to list IAM identities or otherwise discover cloud accounts.
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| security_command_center | Security Command Center | technique_scores | T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts |
Comments
SCC ingests Cloud Audit logs to detect when an external member is added to a privileged group with sensitive permissions or roles. This security solution protects against compromised cloud accounts used to maintain persistence and harvest sensitive data. Because of the near-real time temporal factor to detect against this cyber-attack the control was graded as significant.
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