CAPEC-600 Credential Stuffing

CAPEC ID: 600

CAPEC-600 Metadata

Likelihood of Attack

High

Typical Severity

High

Overview

Summary

An adversary tries known username/password combinations against different systems, applications, or services to gain additional authenticated access. Credential Stuffing attacks rely upon the fact that many users leverage the same username/password combination for multiple systems, applications, and services.

Prerequisites

The system/application uses one factor password based authentication, SSO, and/or cloud-based authentication. The system/application does not have a sound password policy that is being enforced. The system/application does not implement an effective password throttling mechanism. The adversary possesses a list of known user accounts and corresponding passwords that may exist on the target.

Execution Flow

Step Phase Description Techniques
1 Explore [Acquire known credentials] The adversary must obtain known credentials in order to access the target system, application, or service.
  • An adversary purchases breached username/password combinations or leaked hashed passwords from the dark web.
  • An adversary leverages a key logger or phishing attack to steal user credentials as they are provided.
  • An adversary conducts a sniffing attack to steal credentials as they are transmitted.
  • An adversary gains access to a database and exfiltrates password hashes.
  • An adversary examines outward-facing configuration and properties files to discover hardcoded credentials.
2 Explore [Determine target's password policy] Determine the password policies of the target system/application to determine if the known credentials fit within the specified criteria.
  • Determine minimum and maximum allowed password lengths.
  • Determine format of allowed passwords (whether they are required or allowed to contain numbers, special characters, etc., or whether they are allowed to contain words from the dictionary).
  • Determine account lockout policy (a strict account lockout policy will prevent brute force attacks if multiple passwords are known for a single user account).
3 Exploit [Impersonate] An adversary can use successful experiments or authentications to impersonate an authorized user or system or to laterally move within a system or application
4 Exploit [Spoofing] Malicious data can be injected into the target system or into a victim user's system by an adversary. The adversary can also pose as a legitimate user to perform social engineering attacks.
5 Exploit [Data Exfiltration] The adversary can obtain sensitive data contained within the system or application.

Potential Solutions / Mitigations

Leverage multi-factor authentication for all authentication services and prior to granting an entity access to the domain network. Create a strong password policy and ensure that your system enforces this policy. Ensure users are not reusing username/password combinations for multiple systems, applications, or services. Do not reuse local administrator account credentials across systems. Deny remote use of local admin credentials to log into domain systems. Do not allow accounts to be a local administrator on more than one system. Implement an intelligent password throttling mechanism. Care must be taken to assure that these mechanisms do not excessively enable account lockout attacks such as CAPEC-2. Monitor system and domain logs for abnormal credential access.

Related Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE ID Description
CWE-262 Not Using Password Aging
CWE-263 Password Aging with Long Expiration
CWE-307 Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
CWE-308 Use of Single-factor Authentication
CWE-309 Use of Password System for Primary Authentication
CWE-522 Insufficiently Protected Credentials
CWE-654 Reliance on a Single Factor in a Security Decision

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.
CAPEC-560 An adversary guesses or obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate credentials (e.g. userID/password) to achieve authentication and to perform authorized actions under the guise of an authenticated user or service.
CAPEC-653 An adversary guesses or obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate operating system credentials (e.g. userID/password) to achieve authentication and to perform authorized actions on the system, under the guise of an authenticated user or service. This applies to any Operating System.

Taxonomy Mappings

Taxonomy: ATTACK

Entry ID Entry Name
1110.004 Brute Force:Credential Stuffing

Taxonomy: OWASP Attacks

Entry ID Entry Name
Link Credential stuffing

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