T1584.001 Domains
Adversaries may hijack domains and/or subdomains that can be used during targeting. Domain registration hijacking is the act of changing the registration of a domain name without the permission of the original registrant.2 Adversaries may gain access to an email account for the person listed as the owner of the domain. The adversary can then claim that they forgot their password in order to make changes to the domain registration. Other possibilities include social engineering a domain registration help desk to gain access to an account or taking advantage of renewal process gaps.1
Subdomain hijacking can occur when organizations have DNS entries that point to non-existent or deprovisioned resources. In such cases, an adversary may take control of a subdomain to conduct operations with the benefit of the trust associated with that domain.4
Adversaries who compromise a domain may also engage in domain shadowing by creating malicious subdomains under their control while keeping any existing DNS records. As service will not be disrupted, the malicious subdomains may go unnoticed for long periods of time.3
Item | Value |
---|---|
ID | T1584.001 |
Sub-techniques | T1584.001, T1584.002, T1584.003, T1584.004, T1584.005, T1584.006, T1584.007 |
Tactics | TA0042 |
Platforms | PRE |
Version | 1.3 |
Created | 01 October 2020 |
Last Modified | 07 March 2023 |
Procedure Examples
ID | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
G0006 | APT1 | APT1 hijacked FQDNs associated with legitimate websites hosted by hop points.7 |
C0010 | C0010 | During C0010, UNC3890 actors likely compromised the domain of a legitimate Israeli shipping company.17 |
C0021 | C0021 | For C0021, the threat actors used legitimate but compromised domains to host malicious payloads.16 |
G0094 | Kimsuky | Kimsuky has compromised legitimate sites and used them to distribute malware.5 |
G0059 | Magic Hound | Magic Hound has used compromised domains to host links targeted to specific phishing victims.1112109 |
C0022 | Operation Dream Job | For Operation Dream Job, Lazarus Group compromised domains in Italy and other countries for their C2 infrastructure.1514 |
G1008 | SideCopy | SideCopy has compromised domains for some of their infrastructure, including for C2 and staging malware.8 |
C0024 | SolarWinds Compromise | For the SolarWinds Compromise, APT29 compromised domains to use for C2.13 |
G0134 | Transparent Tribe | Transparent Tribe has compromised domains for use in targeted malicious campaigns.6 |
Mitigations
ID | Mitigation | Description |
---|---|---|
M1056 | Pre-compromise | 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
-
Brian Krebs. (2019, February 18). A Deep Dive on the Recent Widespread DNS Hijacking Attacks. Retrieved February 14, 2022. ↩
-
ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee. (2005, July 12). Domain Name Hijacking: Incidents, Threats, Risks and Remediation. Retrieved March 6, 2017. ↩
-
Janos Szurdi, Rebekah Houser and Daiping Liu. (2022, September 21). Domain Shadowing: A Stealthy Use of DNS Compromise for Cybercrime. Retrieved March 7, 2023. ↩
-
Microsoft. (2020, September 29). Prevent dangling DNS entries and avoid subdomain takeover. Retrieved October 12, 2020. ↩
-
KISA. (n.d.). Phishing Target Reconnaissance and Attack Resource Analysis Operation Muzabi. Retrieved March 7, 2022. ↩
-
Huss, D. (2016, March 1). Operation Transparent Tribe. Retrieved June 8, 2016. ↩
-
Mandiant. (n.d.). APT1 Exposing One of China’s Cyber Espionage Units. Retrieved July 18, 2016. ↩
-
Threat Intelligence Team. (2021, December 2). SideCopy APT: Connecting lures victims, payloads to infrastructure. Retrieved June 13, 2022. ↩
-
Bash, A. (2021, October 14). Countering threats from Iran. Retrieved January 4, 2023. ↩
-
Certfa Labs. (2021, January 8). Charming Kitten’s Christmas Gift. Retrieved May 3, 2021. ↩
-
ClearSky Research Team. (2020, August 1). The Kittens Are Back in Town 3 - Charming Kitten Campaign Evolved and Deploying Spear-Phishing link by WhatsApp. Retrieved April 21, 2021. ↩
-
Miller, J. et al. (2021, July 13). Operation SpoofedScholars: A Conversation with TA453. Retrieved August 18, 2021. ↩
-
Nafisi, R., Lelli, A. (2021, March 4). GoldMax, GoldFinder, and Sibot: Analyzing NOBELIUM’s layered persistence. Retrieved March 8, 2021. ↩
-
Beek, C. (2020, November 5). Operation North Star: Behind The Scenes. Retrieved December 20, 2021. ↩
-
Cashman, M. (2020, July 29). Operation North Star Campaign. Retrieved December 20, 2021. ↩
-
Microsoft Defender Research Team. (2018, December 3). Analysis of cyberattack on U.S. think tanks, non-profits, public sector by unidentified attackers. Retrieved April 15, 2019. ↩
-
Mandiant Israel Research Team. (2022, August 17). Suspected Iranian Actor Targeting Israeli Shipping, Healthcare, Government and Energy Sectors. Retrieved September 21, 2022. ↩