Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
Adversaries may exploit a system or application vulnerability to avoid detection while maintaining access within an environment. Exploitation occurs when an adversary leverages a programming flaw to execute code in a manner that minimizes visibility or blends in with legitimate activity.
Rather than directly disabling defenses, adversaries may use exploitation to circumvent monitoring and logging mechanisms. This can include abusing vulnerabilities in logging pipelines, security tools, or cloud infrastructure to evade audit trails, suppress alerts, or operate without generating telemetry.
Adversaries may identify these opportunities through prior reconnaissance or by performing discovery of security controls after initial access. In some cases, vulnerabilities in SaaS or public cloud environments may be exploited to evade logging, obscure activity, or deploy infrastructure that remains hidden from standard monitoring tools.(Citation: Bypassing CloudTrail in AWS Service Catalog)(Citation: GhostToken GCP flaw)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIS-10.5 | Enable Anti-Exploitation Features | mitigates | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
Comments
Security anti-exploitation tools and applications that look for behavior used during exploitation such as Windows Defender Exploit Guard (WDEG) and the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can be used to help mitigate some exploitation behavior to evade detection.
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| CIS-7.7 | Remediate Detected Vulnerabilities | mitigates | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
Comments
Remediation can remove vulnerabilities in operating systems, applications, security tools, and logging components that adversaries could exploit to conceal activity or impair visibility. This relationship applies only when the stealth behavior depends on an identified vulnerability.
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| CIS-7.4 | Perform Automated Application Patch Management | mitigates | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
Comments
Updating applications and security products can remove known vulnerabilities that adversaries could exploit to conceal activity or impair application-level visibility. Operating-system and kernel implementations are outside this safeguard's application scope.
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| CIS-7.3 | Perform Automated Operating System Patch Management | mitigates | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
Comments
OS updates can correct vulnerabilities in kernels, logging components, security tools, and system services that could be exploited to conceal activity. Application-specific exploitation remains outside 7.3.
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| CIS-9.1 | Ensure Use of Only Fully Supported Browsers and Email Clients | mitigates | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| action.hacking.variety.Evade Defenses | Modification of the action (rather than the system, as in 'Disable controls') to avoid detection. | related-to | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth | |
| action.malware.variety.Evade Defenses | Modification of the action (rather than the system, as in 'Disable controls') to avoid detection. | related-to | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth | |
| action.social.variety.Evade Defenses | Modification of the action (rather than the system, as in 'Disable controls') to avoid detection. | related-to | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| artifact_analysis | Artifact Analysis | technique_scores | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
Comments
Artifact Analysis performs vulnerability scans on artifacts in Artifact Registry or Container Registry (deprecated). When Artifact Analysis is deployed, it can detect variations to store system packages and images stored in the repository, which adversaries may target to establish persistence while evading cyber defenses.
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| vm_manager | VM Manager | technique_scores | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aws_security_hub | AWS Security Hub | technique_scores | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
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 | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
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 | T1211 | Exploitation for Stealth |
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 defense evasion.
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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