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T1114.002 Remote Email Collection

Adversaries may target an Exchange server, Office 365, or Google Workspace to collect sensitive information. Adversaries may leverage a user’s credentials and interact directly with the Exchange server to acquire information from within a network. Adversaries may also access externally facing Exchange services, Office 365, or Google Workspace to access email using credentials or access tokens. Tools such as MailSniper can be used to automate searches for specific keywords.

Item Value
ID T1114.002
Sub-techniques T1114.001, T1114.002, T1114.003
Tactics TA0009
Platforms Google Workspace, Office 365, Windows
Version 1.1
Created 19 February 2020
Last Modified 25 March 2021

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G0006 APT1 APT1 uses two utilities, GETMAIL and MAPIGET, to steal email. MAPIGET steals email still on Exchange servers that has not yet been archived.10
G0007 APT28 APT28 has collected emails from victim Microsoft Exchange servers.89
G0016 APT29 APT29 has collected emails from targeted mailboxes within a compromised Azure AD tenant.16
G0114 Chimera Chimera has harvested data from remote mailboxes including through execution of \\c$\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook*.ost.14
G0035 Dragonfly Dragonfly has accessed email accounts using Outlook Web Access.7
G0085 FIN4 FIN4 has accessed and hijacked online email communications using stolen credentials.65
G0125 HAFNIUM HAFNIUM has used web shells to export mailbox data.1213
G0004 Ke3chang Ke3chang has used compromised credentials and a .NET tool to dump data from Microsoft Exchange mailboxes.1920
G0094 Kimsuky Kimsuky has used tools such as the MailFetch mail crawler to collect victim emails (excluding spam) from online services via IMAP.15
G0077 Leafminer Leafminer used a tool called MailSniper to search through the Exchange server mailboxes for keywords.11
S0395 LightNeuron LightNeuron collects Exchange emails matching rules specified in its configuration.4
G0059 Magic Hound Magic Hound has exported emails from compromised Exchange servers including through use of the cmdlet New-MailboxExportRequest.1817
S0413 MailSniper MailSniper can be used for searching through email in Exchange and Office 365 environments.1
S0053 SeaDuke Some SeaDuke samples have a module to extract email from Microsoft Exchange servers using compromised credentials.2
C0024 SolarWinds Compromise During the SolarWinds Compromise, APT29 collected emails from specific individuals, such as executives and IT staff, using New-MailboxExportRequest followed by Get-MailboxExportRequest.2122
S0476 Valak Valak can collect sensitive mailing information from Exchange servers, including credentials and the domain certificate of an enterprise.3

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1041 Encrypt Sensitive Information Use of encryption provides an added layer of security to sensitive information sent over email. Encryption using public key cryptography requires the adversary to obtain the private certificate along with an encryption key to decrypt messages.
M1032 Multi-factor Authentication Use of multi-factor authentication for public-facing webmail servers is a recommended best practice to minimize the usefulness of usernames and passwords to adversaries.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0017 Command Command Execution
DS0028 Logon Session Logon Session Creation
DS0029 Network Traffic Network Connection Creation

References

  1. Bullock, B., . (2018, November 20). MailSniper. Retrieved October 4, 2019. ↩

  2. Symantec Security Response. (2015, July 13). “Forkmeiamfamous”: Seaduke, latest weapon in the Duke armory. Retrieved July 22, 2015. ↩

  3. Salem, E. et al. (2020, May 28). VALAK: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE . Retrieved June 19, 2020. ↩

  4. Faou, M. (2019, May). Turla LightNeuron: One email away from remote code execution. Retrieved June 24, 2019. ↩

  5. Vengerik, B. & Dennesen, K.. (2014, December 5). Hacking the Street? FIN4 Likely Playing the Market. Retrieved January 15, 2019. ↩

  6. Vengerik, B. et al.. (2014, December 5). Hacking the Street? FIN4 Likely Playing the Market. Retrieved December 17, 2018. ↩

  7. US-CERT. (2018, March 16). Alert (TA18-074A): Russian Government Cyber Activity Targeting Energy and Other Critical Infrastructure Sectors. Retrieved June 6, 2018. ↩

  8. Mueller, R. (2018, July 13). Indictment - United States of America vs. VIKTOR BORISOVICH NETYKSHO, et al. Retrieved September 13, 2018. ↩

  9. NSA, CISA, FBI, NCSC. (2021, July). Russian GRU Conducting Global Brute Force Campaign to Compromise Enterprise and Cloud Environments. Retrieved July 26, 2021. ↩

  10. Mandiant. (n.d.). APT1 Exposing One of China’s Cyber Espionage Units. Retrieved July 18, 2016. ↩

  11. Symantec Security Response. (2018, July 25). Leafminer: New Espionage Campaigns Targeting Middle Eastern Regions. Retrieved August 28, 2018. ↩

  12. MSTIC. (2021, March 2). HAFNIUM targeting Exchange Servers with 0-day exploits. Retrieved March 3, 2021. ↩

  13. Gruzweig, J. et al. (2021, March 2). Operation Exchange Marauder: Active Exploitation of Multiple Zero-Day Microsoft Exchange Vulnerabilities. Retrieved March 3, 2021. ↩

  14. Jansen, W . (2021, January 12). Abusing cloud services to fly under the radar. Retrieved January 19, 2021. ↩

  15. KISA. (n.d.). Phishing Target Reconnaissance and Attack Resource Analysis Operation Muzabi. Retrieved March 7, 2022. ↩

  16. Douglas Bienstock. (2022, August 18). You Can’t Audit Me: APT29 Continues Targeting Microsoft 365. Retrieved February 23, 2023. ↩

  17. DFIR Report. (2021, November 15). Exchange Exploit Leads to Domain Wide Ransomware. Retrieved January 5, 2023. ↩

  18. DFIR Report. (2022, March 21). APT35 Automates Initial Access Using ProxyShell. Retrieved May 25, 2022. ↩

  19. Smallridge, R. (2018, March 10). APT15 is alive and strong: An analysis of RoyalCli and RoyalDNS. Retrieved April 4, 2018. ↩

  20. MSTIC. (2021, December 6). NICKEL targeting government organizations across Latin America and Europe. Retrieved March 18, 2022. ↩

  21. Cash, D. et al. (2020, December 14). Dark Halo Leverages SolarWinds Compromise to Breach Organizations. Retrieved December 29, 2020. ↩

  22. NCSC, CISA, FBI, NSA. (2021, May 7). Further TTPs associated with SVR cyber actors. Retrieved July 29, 2021. ↩