T1110.004 Credential Stuffing Mappings

Adversaries may use credentials obtained from breach dumps of unrelated accounts to gain access to target accounts through credential overlap. Occasionally, large numbers of username and password pairs are dumped online when a website or service is compromised and the user account credentials accessed. The information may be useful to an adversary attempting to compromise accounts by taking advantage of the tendency for users to use the same passwords across personal and business accounts.

Credential stuffing is a risky option because it could cause numerous authentication failures and account lockouts, depending on the organization's login failure policies.

Typically, management services over commonly used ports are used when stuffing credentials. Commonly targeted services include the following:

  • SSH (22/TCP)
  • Telnet (23/TCP)
  • FTP (21/TCP)
  • NetBIOS / SMB / Samba (139/TCP & 445/TCP)
  • LDAP (389/TCP)
  • Kerberos (88/TCP)
  • RDP / Terminal Services (3389/TCP)
  • HTTP/HTTP Management Services (80/TCP & 443/TCP)
  • MSSQL (1433/TCP)
  • Oracle (1521/TCP)
  • MySQL (3306/TCP)
  • VNC (5900/TCP)

In addition to management services, adversaries may "target single sign-on (SSO) and cloud-based applications utilizing federated authentication protocols," as well as externally facing email applications, such as Office 365.(Citation: US-CERT TA18-068A 2018)

View in MITRE ATT&CK®

Azure Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
alerts_for_windows_machines Alerts for Windows Machines technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
Comments
This control may detect successful and failed brute force attempts with logic that factors the IP, time between attempts, and other suspicious activity. The following alerts may be generated: "A logon from a malicious IP has been detected", "A logon from a malicious IP has been detected. [seen multiple times]", "Successful brute force attack", "Suspicious authentication activity".
References
    azure_security_center_recommendations Azure Security Center Recommendations technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
    Comments
    This control's "Authentication to Linux machines should require SSH keys" can obviate SSH Brute Force password attacks. Because this is specific to Linux, the coverage score is Minimal leading to an overall Minimal score.
    References
      linux_auditd_alerts_and_log_analytics_agent_integration Linux auditd alerts and Log Analytics agent integration technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
      Comments
      This control may alert on multiple successful and failed brute force attempts against SSH. There are no alerts for other methods of logging into Linux machines.
      References
        azure_sentinel Azure Sentinel technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
        Comments
        The "Summary of user logons by logon type" Azure Sentinel Hunting query compares successful and unsuccessful logon attempts to identify potential lateral movement. The following Azure Sentinel Hunting queries can identify potential attempts at credential brute force based on unsuccessful attempts: "VIP account more than 6 failed logons in 10", "Multiple Failed Logon on SQL Server in Short time Span", "Permutations on logon attempts by UserPrincipalNames indicating potential brute force", "Potential IIS brute force", "Failed attempt to access Azure Portal", "Failed Login Attempt by Expired account", "Failed Logon Attempts on SQL Server", "Failed Logon on SQL Server from Same IPAddress in Short time Span", "Failed service logon attempt by user account with available AuditData", "Login attempt by Blocked MFA user", "Login spike with increase failure rate", "Attempts to sign-in to disabled accounts by IP address", "Attempts to sign-in to disabled accounts by account name", "Brute Force attack against Azure Portal", and "Anomalous Failed Logon" The following Azure Sentinel Analytics queries can identify potential attempts at credential brute force based on unsuccessful attempts: "Brute force attack against Azure Portal", "Password spray attack against Azure AD application", "Successful logon from IP and failure from a different IP", "Failed logon attempts in authpriv", "Failed AzureAD logons but success logon to host", "Excessive Windows logon failures", "Failed login attempts to Azure Portal", "Failed logon attempts by valid accounts within 10 mins", "Brute Force Attack against GitHub Account", "Distributed Password cracking attempts in AzureAD", "Potential Password Spray Attack" based on periodic assessment of Azure Active Directory sign-in events and Okta console logins, "Attempts to sign in to disabled accounts", "Sign-ins from IPs that attempt sign-ins to disabled accounts", "High count of failed logins by a user", "Hi count of failed attempts same client IP", "SSH - Potential Brute Force", and "SecurityEvent - Multiple authentication failures followed by success".
        References
          azure_ad_password_policy Azure AD Password Policy technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
          Comments
          The password restrictions provided by the default Password policy can provide partial protection against password cracking but a determined adversary with sufficient resources can still be successful with this attack vector. In regards to Credential Stuffing, the password policy's lockout threshold can be partially effective in mitigating this sub-technique as it may lock the account before the correct credential is attempted. Although with credential stuffing, the number of passwords attempted for an account is often (much) fewer than with Password Guessing reducing the effectiveness of a lockout threshold. This led to its score being assessed as Partial rather than Significant (as was assessed for Password Guessing).
          References
            azure_ad_multi-factor_authentication Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
            Comments
            MFA can significantly reduce the impact of a password compromise, requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication method before their access is permitted.
            References
              azure_policy Azure Policy technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
              Comments
              This control may provide recommendations to implement multi-factor authentication, implement password security policies, and replacing password authentication with more secure authentication methods. This control can affect Azure, Azure cloud application, and endpoint credentials.
              References
                azure_alerts_for_network_layer Azure Alerts for Network Layer technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                Comments
                This control can identify multiple connection attempts by external IPs, which may be indicative of Brute Force attempts, though not T1110.002, which is performed offline.
                References
                  advanced_threat_protection_for_azure_sql_database Advanced Threat Protection for Azure SQL Database technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                  Comments
                  This control may alert on repeated sign in attempts to the resource and successful logins from a suspicious location, IP address, or a user that does not commonly log in to the resource. Because this control is specific to Azure database offerings, the detection coverage is Minimal.
                  References
                    conditional_access Conditional Access technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                    Comments
                    Conditional Access can be used to enforce MFA for users which can significantly reduce the impact of a password compromise, requiring an adversary to complete an additional authentication method before their access is permitted.
                    References
                      cloud_app_security_policies Cloud App Security Policies technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                      Comments
                      This control can detect some activity indicative of brute force attempts to login. Relevant alert is "Multiple failed login attempts".
                      References
                        azure_ad_identity_secure_score Azure AD Identity Secure Score technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                        Comments
                        This control's "Require MFA for administrative roles" and "Ensure all users can complete multi-factor authentication for secure access" recommendations for enabling MFA can significantly lead to reducing the impact of a password compromise of accounts, requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication method before their access is permitted. This control's "Do not expire passwords" recommendation also can lead to mitigating the Password Guessing or Cracking sub-techniques by disabling password reset which tends to lead to users selecting weaker passwords. This control's "Enable policy to block legacy authentication" and "Stop legacy protocols communication" recommendations can lead to protecting against these brute force attacks as Microsoft research has shown organizations that have disabled legacy authentication experience 67 percent fewer compromises than those where legacy authentication is enabled. Additionally, the same research shows that more than 99 percent of password spray and more than 97 percent of credential stuffing attacks use legacy authentication. This control's "Resolve unsecure account attributes" recommendation can lead to detecting accounts with disabled (Kerberos) Preauthentication which can enable offline Password Cracking. Because these are recommendations and do not actually enforce MFA, the assessed score is capped at Partial.
                        References
                          azure_active_directory_password_protection Azure Active Directory Password Protection technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                          just-in-time_vm_access Just-in-Time VM Access technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                          Comments
                          This control can be configured to completely block inbound access to selected ports until access is requested. This prevents any attempt at brute forcing a protocol, such as RDP or SSH, unless the attacker has the credentials and permissions to request such access. Even if permission has been granted to an authorized user to access the virtual machine, a list of authorized IP addresses for that access can be configured.
                          References
                            passwordless_authentication Passwordless Authentication technique_scores T1110.004 Credential Stuffing
                            Comments
                            This control provides significant protection against password based attacks by completing obviating the need for passwords by replacing it with passwordless credentials.
                            References