clydeiii/cybersecurity · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Incursion phase
The actual break-in occurs during this phase. The attacker usually compromises the network by delivering targeted
malware to vulnerable systems or employees. There are two main avenues of attack. One is to send spear phishing
emails, where a link to a malicious website or a malicious attachment is delivered using social engineering
techniques. The second method, which is gaining traction, is watering hole attacks, where the attacker infects a
website that has a high likelihood of being visited by the intended victim. By using IP address filters before infecting
any visitor of such sites, the attacker can reduce the number of infected systems and bring it to a manageable
quantity which can be assessed manually at another time.
Some groups carefully plan watering hole attacks. For example the Hidden Lynx group stopped using a zero-day
vulnerability in a large watering hole attack after Microsoft released details on the vulnerability. This helped to cover
their activities and avoid unwanted attention. A few days later the group resumed the watering hole attack again,
this time using a different exploit.
For more difficult targets, man-in-the-middle attacks can be used. These can be performed either at the same
physical location, posing as a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot or through supply chain attacks. This can enable the attacker to
swap an update of legitimate software for a maliciously crafted version. Once the victim installs the genuine looking
update, the attacker effectively gains control over the computer. Due to the complexity of such an attack, they are
rarely used. Depending on the skills of the attacker and the time available, the attacker might also attack systems at
the perimeter, such as Web servers, and try to break in from there.
The malware used is not always sophisticated. Sometimes a regular off-the-shelf back door Trojan is used. In
these cases the person behind the malware orchestrating the commands is what makes the difference between a
targeted attack and a broad generic infection. Having said this, on very unique targets, we will often see the use
of a specifically designed piece malware, such as in the case of Stuxnet. Depending on the protection measures
implemented by the target, the attackers may also digitally sign their malware creation. In the past there have been
quite a few cases where code signing certificates were stolen and later misused to sign malware in order to pass it
unnoticed to high value targets.
Discovery phase
Once the attacker has a foothold on one system, the next step is to create a plan for lateral movement through the
network until the interesting data is found. With more specialized teams of attackers, we can often observe that the
infected system is first analyzed to ensure that it is of interest to them. With watering hole attacks especially, it can
happen that computers that were not targeted get infected. Infected computers need to be assessed by the attacker
and, if necessary, removed to keep the profile, and with that the chances of exposure, low.
One of the obvious tasks performed by attackers is to install key loggers, dump local credentials, search local
storage for saved accounts and sniff the network for passwords. Any account detail can be useful to them. Domain
administrator passwords are of especially high value, as they can help greatly in moving further through the Intranet.
Often small scripts or even manual commands are used to comb through local files and create network mappings.
Simple system commands can help the attacker to learn about installed security tools, saved links to internal
Page 26
Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector
platforms and local address books.
Once new systems are identified the
attacker will attempt to hop onto
them as well. In some instances
they might even use zero-day
vulnerabilities to spread further into
the network.
One method which is gaining more
relevance is the hijacking of local
software distribution systems for
further distribution. This can either
be proprietary systems, such as the
case of Trojan.Jokra in South Korea,
or OS-specific, such as hijacking
Windows Update, in the case of
Flamer. Once the attackers have
successfully managed to create
and distribute their own package, Figure 9: Typical commands used during discovery phase
they can easily infect all connected
systems at once. Especially in cases
of wiping attacks, such Trojan.Jokra, this is a very efficient way to disrupt as many computers as possible.
If the target is assumed to be in a separated network not connected to the Internet, the malware used might try and
autonomously infect removable drives, like USB sticks, or project files for PLCs. This could allow the malware to be
manually introduced to the destination network, without the knowledge of the carrier, essentially jumping air gaps
into isolated networks.
At the end of the discovery phase the attackers should know the internals of the infected networks and have
identified systems with interesting data or with connected industrial control systems.
Capture/exfiltration phase
The capture and exfiltration phases are not always present. If the sole goal of the attackers is to cause a disruption
they may directly jump to a destructive payload. However, in most cases information is extracted first, which in turn
allows the sabotage to be constructed more efficiently at a later phase.
In this phase the interesting data is gathered and sent back to the attackers. This can be done with different levels of
sophistication. The simple attacks compress the files and upload them through FTP or through a HTTP POST request
to a remote drop server. More sophisticated attackers obfuscate the data by XOR-ing it, encrypting it with proper
asymmetric encryption or embedding it into media files using steganography to hide the data from traffic inspection.
In addition to this, the amount of data sent and the timing can be chosen in a smart way. For example, some malware
samples will send the data in smaller bursts so as not to swamp the network or generate network spikes that might
attract attention. Since most employees use laptops, the malware can use location awareness to detect if the
compromised computer is outside of the corporate network and send the data once it
s directly connected to the
Internet, such as from a Wi-Fi hotspot at an airport. This might allow the traffic to bypass perimeter security and
receive less scrutiny. In some instances the infected computer might not have a direct connection to the Internet. In
such cases, a previously compromised computer in the DMZ can act as a proxy, forwarding all the collected data.
Disruption phase
This is when any destructive payload is launched. If the attackers are only after information this phase might not
happen at all. The targets and the goals for disruption attacks can be very different, there is no such thing as one-
size-fits-all for disruption attacks. For example, Stuxnet was tailored to attack a specific uranium enrichment facility
and would not work against a different target.
In recent times, wiper Trojans have been popular in attacks against the energy sector. The malware deletes all files
Page 27
Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector
on a computer and then deletes the master boot record, rendering the computer unusable. This can happen on
any operating systems and we have seen scripts for different UNIX flavors being used as well. Depending on
the disaster recovery plan in place, these computers can be remotely recovered. However, there may still be an
outage while the computers are being restored.
Resources
[1] Marco Cova, Corrado Leita, Olivier Thonnard, Angelos D. Keromytis, and Marc Dacier. An analysis of rogue
AV campaigns. In Proc. of the 13th International Conference on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection
(RAID), 2010.
[2] O.Thonnard, M.Dacier. A Strategic Analysis of Spam Botnets Operations. CEAS
11, Perth, WA, Australia,
Sep 2011.

Incursion phase

The actual break-in occurs during this phase. The attacker usually compromises the network by delivering targeted

malware to vulnerable systems or employees. There are two main avenues of attack. One is to send spear phishing

emails, where a link to a malicious website or a malicious attachment is delivered using social engineering

techniques. The second method, which is gaining traction, is watering hole attacks, where the attacker infects a

website that has a high likelihood of being visited by the intended victim. By using IP address filters before infecting

any visitor of such sites, the attacker can reduce the number of infected systems and bring it to a manageable

quantity which can be assessed manually at another time.

Some groups carefully plan watering hole attacks. For example the Hidden Lynx group stopped using a zero-day

vulnerability in a large watering hole attack after Microsoft released details on the vulnerability. This helped to cover

their activities and avoid unwanted attention. A few days later the group resumed the watering hole attack again,

this time using a different exploit.

For more difficult targets, man-in-the-middle attacks can be used. These can be performed either at the same

physical location, posing as a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot or through supply chain attacks. This can enable the attacker to

swap an update of legitimate software for a maliciously crafted version. Once the victim installs the genuine looking

update, the attacker effectively gains control over the computer. Due to the complexity of such an attack, they are

rarely used. Depending on the skills of the attacker and the time available, the attacker might also attack systems at

the perimeter, such as Web servers, and try to break in from there.

The malware used is not always sophisticated. Sometimes a regular off-the-shelf back door Trojan is used. In

these cases the person behind the malware orchestrating the commands is what makes the difference between a

targeted attack and a broad generic infection. Having said this, on very unique targets, we will often see the use

of a specifically designed piece malware, such as in the case of Stuxnet. Depending on the protection measures

implemented by the target, the attackers may also digitally sign their malware creation. In the past there have been

quite a few cases where code signing certificates were stolen and later misused to sign malware in order to pass it

unnoticed to high value targets.

Discovery phase

Once the attacker has a foothold on one system, the next step is to create a plan for lateral movement through the

network until the interesting data is found. With more specialized teams of attackers, we can often observe that the

infected system is first analyzed to ensure that it is of interest to them. With watering hole attacks especially, it can

happen that computers that were not targeted get infected. Infected computers need to be assessed by the attacker

and, if necessary, removed to keep the profile, and with that the chances of exposure, low.

One of the obvious tasks performed by attackers is to install key loggers, dump local credentials, search local

storage for saved accounts and sniff the network for passwords. Any account detail can be useful to them. Domain

administrator passwords are of especially high value, as they can help greatly in moving further through the Intranet.

Often small scripts or even manual commands are used to comb through local files and create network mappings.

Simple system commands can help the attacker to learn about installed security tools, saved links to internal

Page 26

Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector

platforms and local address books.

Once new systems are identified the

attacker will attempt to hop onto

them as well. In some instances

they might even use zero-day

vulnerabilities to spread further into

the network.

One method which is gaining more

relevance is the hijacking of local

software distribution systems for

further distribution. This can either

be proprietary systems, such as the

case of Trojan.Jokra in South Korea,

or OS-specific, such as hijacking

Windows Update, in the case of

Flamer. Once the attackers have

successfully managed to create

and distribute their own package, Figure 9: Typical commands used during discovery phase

they can easily infect all connected

systems at once. Especially in cases

of wiping attacks, such Trojan.Jokra, this is a very efficient way to disrupt as many computers as possible.

If the target is assumed to be in a separated network not connected to the Internet, the malware used might try and

autonomously infect removable drives, like USB sticks, or project files for PLCs. This could allow the malware to be

manually introduced to the destination network, without the knowledge of the carrier, essentially jumping air gaps

into isolated networks.

At the end of the discovery phase the attackers should know the internals of the infected networks and have

identified systems with interesting data or with connected industrial control systems.

Capture/exfiltration phase

The capture and exfiltration phases are not always present. If the sole goal of the attackers is to cause a disruption

they may directly jump to a destructive payload. However, in most cases information is extracted first, which in turn

allows the sabotage to be constructed more efficiently at a later phase.

In this phase the interesting data is gathered and sent back to the attackers. This can be done with different levels of

sophistication. The simple attacks compress the files and upload them through FTP or through a HTTP POST request

to a remote drop server. More sophisticated attackers obfuscate the data by XOR-ing it, encrypting it with proper

asymmetric encryption or embedding it into media files using steganography to hide the data from traffic inspection.

In addition to this, the amount of data sent and the timing can be chosen in a smart way. For example, some malware

samples will send the data in smaller bursts so as not to swamp the network or generate network spikes that might

attract attention. Since most employees use laptops, the malware can use location awareness to detect if the

compromised computer is outside of the corporate network and send the data once it

s directly connected to the

Internet, such as from a Wi-Fi hotspot at an airport. This might allow the traffic to bypass perimeter security and

receive less scrutiny. In some instances the infected computer might not have a direct connection to the Internet. In

such cases, a previously compromised computer in the DMZ can act as a proxy, forwarding all the collected data.

Disruption phase

This is when any destructive payload is launched. If the attackers are only after information this phase might not

happen at all. The targets and the goals for disruption attacks can be very different, there is no such thing as one-

size-fits-all for disruption attacks. For example, Stuxnet was tailored to attack a specific uranium enrichment facility

and would not work against a different target.

In recent times, wiper Trojans have been popular in attacks against the energy sector. The malware deletes all files

Page 27

Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector

on a computer and then deletes the master boot record, rendering the computer unusable. This can happen on

any operating systems and we have seen scripts for different UNIX flavors being used as well. Depending on

the disaster recovery plan in place, these computers can be remotely recovered. However, there may still be an

outage while the computers are being restored.

Resources

[1] Marco Cova, Corrado Leita, Olivier Thonnard, Angelos D. Keromytis, and Marc Dacier. An analysis of rogue

AV campaigns. In Proc. of the 13th International Conference on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection

(RAID), 2010.

[2] O.Thonnard, M.Dacier. A Strategic Analysis of Spam Botnets Operations. CEAS

11, Perth, WA, Australia,

Sep 2011.