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T1584.006 Web Services

Adversaries may compromise access to third-party web services that can be used during targeting. A variety of popular websites exist for legitimate users to register for web-based services, such as GitHub, Twitter, Dropbox, Google, SendGrid, etc. Adversaries may try to take ownership of a legitimate user’s access to a web service and use that web service as infrastructure in support of cyber operations. Such web services can be abused during later stages of the adversary lifecycle, such as during Command and Control (Web Service), Exfiltration Over Web Service, or Phishing.1 Using common services, such as those offered by Google or Twitter, makes it easier for adversaries to hide in expected noise. By utilizing a web service, particularly when access is stolen from legitimate users, adversaries can make it difficult to physically tie back operations to them. Additionally, leveraging compromised web-based email services may allow adversaries to leverage the trust associated with legitimate domains.

Item Value
ID T1584.006
Sub-techniques T1584.001, T1584.002, T1584.003, T1584.004, T1584.005, T1584.006, T1584.007, T1584.008
Tactics TA0042
Platforms PRE
Version 1.2
Created 01 October 2020
Last Modified 24 October 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G1012 CURIUM CURIUM has compromised legitimate websites to enable strategic website compromise attacks.5
G1006 Earth Lusca Earth Lusca has compromised Google Drive repositories.4
S1138 Gootloader Gootloader can insert malicious scripts to compromise vulnerable content management systems (CMS).3
C0048 Operation MidnightEclipse During Operation MidnightEclipse, threat actors abused compromised AWS buckets to store files.7
G0010 Turla Turla has frequently used compromised WordPress sites for C2 infrastructure.1
G1035 Winter Vivern Winter Vivern has used compromised WordPress sites to host malicious payloads for download.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.

References

  1. Insikt Group. (2020, March 12). Swallowing the Snake’s Tail: Tracking Turla Infrastructure. Retrieved September 16, 2024. ↩↩

  2. ThreatConnect. (2020, December 15). Infrastructure Research and Hunting: Boiling the Domain Ocean. Retrieved October 12, 2021. ↩

  3. Pirozzi, A. (2021, June 16). Gootloader: ‘Initial Access as a Service’ Platform Expands Its Search for High Value Targets. Retrieved May 28, 2024. ↩

  4. Chen, J., et al. (2022). Delving Deep: An Analysis of Earth Lusca’s Operations. Retrieved July 1, 2022. ↩

  5. PwC Threat Intelligence. (2023, October 25). Yellow Liderc ships its scripts and delivers IMAPLoader malware. Retrieved August 14, 2024. ↩

  6. Tom Hegel. (2023, March 16). Winter Vivern | Uncovering a Wave of Global Espionage. Retrieved July 29, 2024. ↩

  7. Volexity Threat Research. (2024, April 12). Zero-Day Exploitation of Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in GlobalProtect (CVE-2024-3400). Retrieved November 20, 2024. ↩