CAPEC-653 Use of Known Operating System Credentials

CAPEC-653 Metadata

Likelihood of Attack

High

Typical Severity

High

Overview

Summary

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.

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 operating system credentials] The adversary must obtain known operating system credentials in order to access the target system, application, or service within the domain.	An adversary purchases breached operating system 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 operating system credentials as they are transmitted. An adversary gains access to a system/files and exfiltrates password hashes. An adversary examines outward-facing configuration and properties files to discover hardcoded credentials.
2	Experiment	[Attempt authentication] Try each operating system credential against various systems, applications, and services within the domain until the target grants access.	Manually or automatically enter each credential through the target's interface.
3	Exploit	[Impersonate] An adversary can use successful experiments or authentications to impersonate an authorized user or system, or to laterally move within the network
4	Exploit	[Spoofing] Malicious data can be injected into the target system or into other systems on the network. 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 system files or application configuration.

Potential Solutions / Mitigations

Leverage multi-factor authentication for all authentication services and prior to granting an entity access to the 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.

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