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T1583.001 Domains

Adversaries may acquire domains that can be used during targeting. Domain names are the human readable names used to represent one or more IP addresses. They can be purchased or, in some cases, acquired for free.

Adversaries may use acquired domains for a variety of purposes, including for Phishing, Drive-by Compromise, and Command and Control.3 Adversaries may choose domains that are similar to legitimate domains, including through use of homoglyphs or use of a different top-level domain (TLD).51 Typosquatting may be used to aid in delivery of payloads via Drive-by Compromise. Adversaries may also use internationalized domain names (IDNs) and different character sets (e.g. Cyrillic, Greek, etc.) to execute “IDN homograph attacks,” creating visually similar lookalike domains used to deliver malware to victim machines.2871312

Adversaries may also acquire and repurpose expired domains, which may be potentially already allowlisted/trusted by defenders based on an existing reputation/history.106114

Domain registrars each maintain a publicly viewable database that displays contact information for every registered domain. Private WHOIS services display alternative information, such as their own company data, rather than the owner of the domain. Adversaries may use such private WHOIS services to obscure information about who owns a purchased domain. Adversaries may further interrupt efforts to track their infrastructure by using varied registration information and purchasing domains with different domain registrars.9

Item Value
ID T1583.001
Sub-techniques T1583.001, T1583.002, T1583.003, T1583.004, T1583.005, T1583.006, T1583.007, T1583.008
Tactics TA0042
Platforms PRE
Version 1.2
Created 30 September 2020
Last Modified 30 March 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G0006 APT1 APT1 has registered hundreds of domains for use in operations.9
G0007 APT28 APT28 registered domains imitating NATO, OSCE security websites, Caucasus information resources, and other organizations.54445
G0050 APT32 APT32 has set up and operated websites to gather information and deliver malware.26
G1002 BITTER BITTER has registered a variety of domains to host malicious payloads and for C2.15
C0010 C0010 For C0010, UNC3890 actors established domains that appeared to be legitimate services and entities, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Office 365, and Pfizer.64
C0011 C0011 For C0011, Transparent Tribe registered domains likely designed to appear relevant to student targets in India.68
C0021 C0021 For C0021, the threat actors registered domains for use in C2.72
C0004 CostaRicto For CostaRicto, the threat actors established domains, some of which appeared to spoof legitimate domains.63
G0035 Dragonfly Dragonfly has registered domains for targeting intended victims.46
G1006 Earth Lusca Earth Lusca has registered domains, intended to look like legitimate target domains, that have been used in watering hole attacks.16
G1011 EXOTIC LILY EXOTIC LILY has registered domains to spoof targeted organizations by changing the top-level domain (TLD) to “.us”, “.co” or “.biz”.51
G0137 Ferocious Kitten Ferocious Kitten has acquired domains imitating legitimate sites.37
G0046 FIN7 FIN7 has registered look-alike domains for use in phishing campaigns.36
C0007 FunnyDream For FunnyDream, the threat actors registered a variety of domains.70
G0047 Gamaredon Group Gamaredon Group has registered multiple domains to facilitate payload staging and C2.1920
G1001 HEXANE HEXANE has registered and operated domains for campaigns, often using a security or web technology theme or impersonating the targeted organization.605958
G0136 IndigoZebra IndigoZebra has established domains, some of which were designed to look like official government domains, for their operations.52
G0094 Kimsuky Kimsuky has registered domains to spoof targeted organizations and trusted third parties.433839404142
G0032 Lazarus Group Lazarus Group has acquired domains related to their campaigns to act as distribution points and C2 channels.2122
G0140 LazyScripter LazyScripter has used dynamic DNS providers to create legitimate-looking subdomains for C2.49
G0065 Leviathan Leviathan has established domains that impersonate legitimate entities to use for targeting efforts. 5354
G0059 Magic Hound Magic Hound has registered fraudulent domains such as “mail-newyorker.com” and “news12.com.recover-session-service.site” to target specific victims with phishing attacks.27
G0045 menuPass menuPass has registered malicious domains for use in intrusion campaigns.5657
G0129 Mustang Panda Mustang Panda have acquired C2 domains prior to operations.232425
C0022 Operation Dream Job During Operation Dream Job, Lazarus Group registered a domain name identical to that of a compromised company as part of their BEC effort.69
C0016 Operation Dust Storm For Operation Dust Storm, the threat actors established domains as part of their operational infrastructure.66
C0023 Operation Ghost For Operation Ghost, APT29 registered domains for use in C2 including some crafted to appear as existing legitimate domains.67
C0006 Operation Honeybee During Operation Honeybee, threat actors registered domains for C2.71
C0005 Operation Spalax For Operation Spalax, the threat actors registered hundreds of domains using Duck DNS and DNS Exit.65
G0034 Sandworm Team Sandworm Team has registered domain names and created URLs that are often designed to mimic or spoof legitimate websites, such as email login pages, online file sharing and storage websites, and password reset pages.47
G0122 Silent Librarian Silent Librarian has acquired domains to establish credential harvesting pages, often spoofing the target organization and using free top level domains .TK, .ML, .GA, .CF, and .GQ.282930313233
C0024 SolarWinds Compromise For the SolarWinds Compromise, APT29 acquired C2 domains, sometimes through resellers.6162
G0092 TA505 TA505 has registered domains to impersonate services such as Dropbox to distribute malware.48
G0139 TeamTNT TeamTNT has obtained domains to host their payloads.55
G0027 Threat Group-3390 Threat Group-3390 has registered domains for C2.50
G0134 Transparent Tribe Transparent Tribe has registered domains to mimic file sharing, government, defense, and research websites for use in targeted campaigns.1718
G0044 Winnti Group Winnti Group has registered domains for C2 that mimicked sites of their intended targets.35
G0128 ZIRCONIUM ZIRCONIUM has purchased domains for use in targeted campaigns.34

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1056 Pre-compromise Organizations may intentionally register similar domains to their own to deter adversaries from creating typosquatting domains. Other facets of this technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on behaviors performed outside of the scope of enterprise defenses and controls.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0038 Domain Name Active DNS

References

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