CAPEC-195 Principal Spoof

CAPEC ID: 195

CAPEC-195 Metadata

Likelihood of Attack

High

Typical Severity

Medium

Overview

Summary

A Principal Spoof is a form of Identity Spoofing where an adversary pretends to be some other person in an interaction. This is often accomplished by crafting a message (either written, verbal, or visual) that appears to come from a person other than the adversary. Phishing and Pharming attacks often attempt to do this so that their attempts to gather sensitive information appear to come from a legitimate source. A Principal Spoof does not use stolen or spoofed authentication credentials, instead relying on the appearance and content of the message to reflect identity.

Prerequisites

The target must associate data or activities with a person's identity and the adversary must be able to modify this identity without detection.

Potential Solutions / Mitigations

No specific solutions listed.

Related CAPECs

CAPEC ID Description
CAPEC-151 Identity Spoofing refers to the action of assuming (i.e., taking on) the identity of some other entity (human or non-human) and then using that identity to accomplish a goal. An adversary may craft messages that appear to come from a different principle or use stolen / spoofed authentication credentials.

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