Adversary Behavioral Identification

Adversary behavioral identification involves the identification of the common methods or techniques followed by an adversary to launch attacks to penetrate an organization's network. It gives security professionals insight into upcoming threats and exploits. It helps them plan network security infrastructure and adapt a range of security procedures as prevention against various cyberattacks.

Given below are some of the behaviors of an adversary that can be used to enhance the detection capabilities of security devices:

Once the adversary is inside the target network, they follow various techniques and methods to carry out internal reconnaissance. This includes the enumeration of systems, hosts, processes, the execution of various commands to find out information such as the local user context and system configuration, hostname, IP addresses, active remote systems, and programs running on the target systems. Security professionals can monitor the activities of an adversary by checking for unusual commands executed in the Batch scripts and PowerShell and by using packet capturing tools.

PowerShell can be used by an adversary as a tool for automating data exfiltration and launching further attacks. To identify the misuse of PowerShell in the network, security professionals can check PowerShell's transcript logs or Windows Event logs. The user agent string and IP addresses can also be used to identify malicious hosts who try to exfiltrate data.

An adversary can create and configure multiple domains pointing to the same host, thus, allowing an adversary to switch quickly between the domains to avoid detection. Security professionals can find unspecified domains by checking the data feeds that are generated by those domains. Using this data feed, the security professionals can also find any malicious files downloaded and the unsolicited communication with the outside network based on the domains.

On gaining access to the target system, an adversary can make use of the command-line interface to interact with the target system, browse the files, read file content, modify file content, create new accounts, connect to the remote system, and download and install malicious code. Security professionals can identify this behavior of an adversary by checking the logs for process ID, processes having arbitrary letters and numbers, and malicious files downloaded from the Internet.

In HTTP-based communication, the server identifies the connected HTTP client using the user agent field. An adversary modifies the content of the HTTP user agent field to communicate with the compromised system and to carry further attacks. Therefore,

security professionals can identify this attack at an initial stage by checking the content

of the user agent field.

Adversaries use command and control servers to communicate remotely with

compromised systems through an encrypted session. Using this encrypted channel, the

adversary can steal data, delete data, and launch further attacks. Security professionals

can detect compromised hosts or networks by identifying the presence of a command

and control server by tracking network traffic for outbound connection attempts,

unwanted open ports, and other anomalies.

Adversaries use DNS tunneling to obfuscate malicious traffic in the legitimate traffic

carried by common protocols used in the network. Using DNS tunneling, an adversary

can also communicate with the command and control server, bypass security controls,

and perform data exfiltration. Security professionals can identify DNS tunneling by

analyzing malicious DNS requests, DNS payload, unspecified domains, and the

destination of DNS requests.

An adversary uses a web shell to manipulate the web server by creating a shell within a website; it allows an adversary to gain remote access to the functionalities of a server. Using a web shell, an adversary performs various tasks such as data exfiltration, file transfers, and file uploads. Security professionals can identify the web shell running in the network by analyzing server access, error logs, suspicious strings that indicate encoding, user agent strings, and through other methods..

After successful penetration into a target's network, the adversary uses data staging techniques to collect and combine as much data as possible. The types of data collected by an adversary include sensitive data about the employees and customers, the business tactics of an organization, financial information, and network infrastructure Information. Once collected, the adversary can either exfiltrate or destroy the data. Security professionals can detect data staging by monitoring network traffic for malicious file transfers, file integrity monitoring, and event logs.

In conclusion, adversary behavioral identification is crucial for understanding and countering cyber threats. By recognizing common techniques employed by adversaries, security professionals can proactively fortify network defenses, detect potential attacks early, and implement preventive measures. Monitoring behaviors such as internal reconnaissance, PowerShell usage, unspecified proxy activities, command-line interface actions, HTTP user agent modifications, command and control server presence, DNS tunneling, and web shell usage enhances the ability to safeguard against a variety of cyber threats effectively. This proactive approach empowers security teams to stay ahead of potential breaches, securing the organization’s network infrastructure.

I will see guys in next blog.. Stay safe stay online

Here I’m agape signing off… … … …

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