CAPEC-691 Metadata
Likelihood of Attack
Medium
Typical Severity
High
Overview
Summary
An adversary spoofs open-source software metadata in an attempt to masquerade malicious software as popular, maintained, and trusted.
Prerequisites
Identification of a popular open-source component whose metadata is to be spoofed.
Potential Solutions / Mitigations
Before downloading open-source software, perform precursory metadata checks to determine the author(s), frequency of updates, when the software was last updated, and if the software is widely leveraged. Within package managers, look for conflicting or non-unique repository references to determine if multiple packages share the same repository reference. Reference vulnerability databases to determine if the software contains known vulnerabilities. Only download open-source software from reputable hosting sites or package managers. Only download open-source software that has been adequately signed by the developer(s). For repository commits/tags, look for the "Verified" status and for developers leveraging "Vigilant Mode" (GitHub) or similar modes. After downloading open-source software, ensure integrity values have not changed. Before executing or incorporating the software, leverage automated testing techniques (e.g., static and dynamic analysis) to determine if the software behaves maliciously.
Related Weaknesses (CWE)
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-494 | Download of Code Without Integrity Check |
Related CAPECs
| CAPEC ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CAPEC-184 | An attacker initiates a series of events designed to cause a user, program, server, or device to perform actions which undermine the integrity of software code, device data structures, or device firmware, achieving the modification of the target's integrity to achieve an insecure state. |
| CAPEC-444 | An adversary modifies a technology, product, or component during its development to acheive a negative impact once the system is deployed. The goal of the adversary is to modify the system in such a way that the negative impact can be leveraged when the system is later deployed. Development alteration attacks may include attacks that insert malicious logic into the system's software, modify or replace hardware components, and other attacks which negatively impact the system during development. These attacks generally require insider access to modify source code or to tamper with hardware components. The product is then delivered to the user where the negative impact can be leveraged at a later time. |
| CAPEC-630 | An adversary registers a domain name with at least one character different than a trusted domain. A TypoSquatting attack takes advantage of instances where a user mistypes a URL (e.g. www.goggle.com) or not does visually verify a URL before clicking on it (e.g. phishing attack). As a result, the user is directed to an adversary-controlled destination. TypoSquatting does not require an attack against the trusted domain or complicated reverse engineering. |
| CAPEC-690 | An adversary alters the metadata of a resource (e.g., file, directory, repository, etc.) to present a malicious resource as legitimate/credible. |
Taxonomy Mappings
Taxonomy: ATTACK
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