Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges. Exploitation of a software vulnerability occurs when an adversary takes advantage of a programming error in a program, service, or within the operating system software or kernel itself to execute adversary-controlled code. Security constructs such as permission levels will often hinder access to information and use of certain techniques, so adversaries will likely need to perform privilege escalation to include use of software exploitation to circumvent those restrictions.
When initially gaining access to a system, an adversary may be operating within a lower privileged process which will prevent them from accessing certain resources on the system. Vulnerabilities may exist, usually in operating system components and software commonly running at higher permissions, that can be exploited to gain higher levels of access on the system. This could enable someone to move from unprivileged or user level permissions to SYSTEM or root permissions depending on the component that is vulnerable. This could also enable an adversary to move from a virtualized environment, such as within a virtual machine or container, onto the underlying host. This may be a necessary step for an adversary compromising an endpoint system that has been properly configured and limits other privilege escalation methods.
Adversaries may bring a signed vulnerable driver onto a compromised machine so that they can exploit the vulnerability to execute code in kernel mode. This process is sometimes referred to as Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD).(Citation: ESET InvisiMole June 2020)(Citation: Unit42 AcidBox June 2020) Adversaries may include the vulnerable driver with files delivered during Initial Access or download it to a compromised system via Ingress Tool Transfer or Lateral Tool Transfer.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIS-7.7 | Remediate Detected Vulnerabilities | mitigates | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Remediating known vulnerabilities in kernels, drivers, services, and privileged applications directly removes exploit paths that adversaries could use to obtain elevated privileges. This does not prevent exploitation of unknown vulnerabilities or weaknesses that remain outside the remediation scope.
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| CIS-7.4 | Perform Automated Application Patch Management | mitigates | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Application patching removes known vulnerabilities in privileged applications, agents, services, and third-party drivers that could allow escalation of privileges. Operating-system and kernel vulnerabilities are addressed separately through operating-system patch management.
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| CIS-7.3 | Perform Automated Operating System Patch Management | mitigates | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
OS and kernel vulnerabilities are a primary means of escalating from user privileges to SYSTEM or root. Automated OS patching directly removes known vulnerable code paths. ATT&CK specifically recommends patch management for internal endpoints and servers.
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| CIS-10.5 | Enable Anti-Exploitation Features | mitigates | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Kernel, memory, driver, and control-flow protections can prevent exploitation of vulnerable components used to obtain elevated privileges. This is a direct technical restriction on privilege-escalation exploits.
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| CIS-9.1 | Ensure Use of Only Fully Supported Browsers and Email Clients | mitigates | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Browsers and email clients are common targets for vulnerabilities. Requiring the latest vendor-supported versions directly reduces exposure to known client-software vulnerabilities.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
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| artifact_analysis | Artifact Analysis | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Artifact Analysis performs vulnerability scans on artifacts in Artifact Registry or Container Registry (deprecated). When Artifact Analysis is deployed, it can detect known Linux OS package vulnerabilities in various containers (e.g., Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine, RHEL, CentOS).
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| artifact_analysis | Artifact Analysis | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Artifact Analysis scans container images uploaded to Artifact Registry or Container Registry (deprecated) for known software vulnerabilities and various system artifacts that could potentially be used to execute adversary-controlled code. Due to the medium threat protection coverage and temporal factor, this control was scored as partial.
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| google_secops | Google Security Operations | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Google Security Ops is able to trigger alert based on suspicious command line behavior that could indicate remote code exploitation attempts (e.g., detect exploits using child processes spawned by Windows DNS processes).
This technique was scored as minimal based on low or uncertain detection coverage factor.
https://github.com/chronicle/detection-rules/blob/783e0e5947774785db1c55041b70176deeca6f46/soc_prime_rules/proactive_exploit_detection/process_creation/cve_2020_1350_dns_remote_code_exploit__sigred___via_cmdline.yaral
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| policy_intelligence | Policy Intelligence | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Policy Intelligence role recommendations generated by IAM Recommender help admins remove unwanted access to GCP resources by using machine learning to make smart access control recommendations. With Recommender, security teams can automatically detect overly permissive access and rightsize them based on similar users in the organization and their access patterns. This control may mitigate adversaries that try to perform privilege escalation via permission levels and software exploitation.
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| vm_manager | VM Manager | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
VM Manager can apply on-demand and scheduled patches via automated patch deployment. This can remediate OS and software vulnerabilities that could otherwise be exploited. Since VM Manager doesn't directly prevent exploitation of active vulnerabilities (including zero day vulnerabilities) this control has resulted in a score of Partial.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
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| aws_security_hub | AWS Security Hub | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
AWS Security Hub reports on EC2 instances that are missing security patches for vulnerabilities which could enable an adversary to exploit vulnerabilities through the attack lifecycle. AWS Security Hub provides this detection with the following managed insight.
EC2 instances that have missing security patches for important vulnerabilities
This is scored as Partial because the checks associated with Security Hub would only report on missing patches for known vulnerabilities. It doesn't not cover zero-day vulnerabilities.
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| amazon_inspector | Amazon Inspector | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
Amazon Inspector can detect known vulnerabilities on various Windows and Linux endpoints. Furthermore, the Amazon Inspector Best Practices assessment package can assess security controls for "Enable Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)" and "Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP)" that makes it more difficult for an attacker to exploit vulnerabilities in software. This information can be used to patch, isolate, and remove vulnerable software and endpoints. Amazon Inspector does not directly protect against exploitation and it is not effective against zero-day attacks, vulnerabilities with no available patch, and software that may not be analyzed by the scanner. As a result, the score is capped at Partial.
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| aws_config | AWS Config | technique_scores | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation |
Comments
The "ec2-managedinstance-applications-blacklisted" managed rule verifies that a pre-defined list of applications are not installed on specified managed instances. It can be used to identify the presence of vulnerable applications (prompting removal before they can be exploited) and/or to identify the presence of allowed packages below a minimum version (prompting updates before they can be exploited). The "ec2-managedinstance-platform-check" managed rule verifies that managed instances are running desired platform types, including using a desired version (as opposed to an out-of-date one). Both can reduce instances' attack surface for adversary exploitation, including for privilege escalation.
The "ecs-task-definition-user-for-host-mode-check" managed rule can identify Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) task definitions for containers with host networking mode and 'privileged' or 'user' container definitions, which may enable adversaries to break out of containers and gain access to the underlying host, increasing their access and privileges.
All of these are run on configuration changes. Coverage factor is partial for these rules, since they are specific to a subset of the available AWS services and will only protect against certain forms of identifiable exploitation, resulting in an overall score of Partial.
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