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T1664 Exploitation for Initial Access

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities to gain initial access to a mobile device.

This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Vulnerabilities may be present in the applications, the services, the underlying operating system, or the kernel itself. Several well-known mobile device exploits exist, including FORCEDENTRY, StageFright, and BlueBorne. Furthermore, some exploits may be possible to exploit without any user interaction (i.e. zero-click exploits, see Exploitation for Client Execution), making them particularly dangerous. Mobile operating system vendors are typically very quick to patch such critical bugs, ensuring only a small window where they can be exploited.

Item Value
ID T1664
Sub-techniques
Tactics TA0027
Platforms Android, iOS
Version 1.1
Created 05 December 2023
Last Modified 27 February 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S1094 BRATA BRATA has abused WhatsApp vulnerability CVE-2019-3568 to achieve initial access.2
S0289 Pegasus for iOS Pegasus for iOS has used zero-day iMessage exploits for initial access.1

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1058 Antivirus/Antimalware Mobile security products can potentially detect if a device is vulnerable to a known exploit and can alert the user to update their device.
M1001 Security Updates Security updates frequently contain patches for known software vulnerabilities.

References