Credentials

T1589.001

Sub-technique of T1589 Gather Victim Identity Information.View on attack.mitre.org

About this technique

Adversaries may gather credentials that can be used during targeting. Account credentials gathered by adversaries may be those directly associated with the target victim organization or attempt to take advantage of the tendency for users to use the same passwords across personal and business accounts.

Adversaries may gather credentials from potential victims in various ways, such as direct elicitation via Phishing for Information. Adversaries may also compromise sites then add malicious content designed to collect website authentication cookies from visitors. Where multi-factor authentication (MFA) based on out-of-band communications is in use, adversaries may compromise a service provider to gain access to MFA codes and one-time passwords (OTP).

Credential information may also be exposed to adversaries via leaks to online or other accessible data sets (ex: Search Engines, breach dumps, code repositories, etc.). Adversaries may purchase credentials from dark web markets, such as Russian Market and 2easy, or through access to Telegram channels that distribute logs from infostealer malware.

Gathering this information may reveal opportunities for other forms of reconnaissance (ex: Search Open Websites/Domains or Phishing for Information), establishing operational resources (ex: Compromise Accounts), and/or initial access (ex: External Remote Services or Valid Accounts).

Detection rules2

Rules on DetectionCode tagged with T1589.001.

Sigma0

No Sigma rules are mapped to this technique yet.

Splunk2

RuleTypeRiskData source
Linux Medusa RootkitTTPNULLSysmon for Linux EventID 11
Windows Gather Victim Identity SAM InfoHuntingNULLSysmon EventID 7

Groups6

Software0

None recorded.

Campaigns2

Procedure examples8

Groups6

Used byProcedure example
GroupAPT28

APT28 has harvested user's login credentials.

GroupChimera

Chimera has collected credentials for the target organization from previous breaches for use in brute force attacks.

GroupLAPSUS$

LAPSUS$ has gathered user identities and credentials to gain initial access to a victim's organization; the group has also called an organization's help desk to reset a target's credentials.

GroupLeviathan

Leviathan has collected compromised credentials to use for targeting efforts.

GroupMagic Hound

Magic Hound gathered credentials from two victims that they then attempted to validate across 75 different websites. Magic Hound has also collected credentials from over 900 Fortinet VPN servers in the US, Europe, and Israel.

GroupShinyHunters

ShinyHunters has collected credentials containing PII, ultimately selling the information on their DLS.

Campaigns2

Used byProcedure example
CampaignC0027

During C0027, Scattered Spider sent phishing messages via SMS to steal credentials.

CampaignSolarWinds Compromise

For the SolarWinds Compromise, APT29 conducted credential theft operations to obtain credentials to be used for access to victim environments.

References12

  1. ATT ScanBox Open source
    Blasco, J. (2014, August 28). Scanbox: A Reconnaissance Framework Used with Watering Hole Attacks. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  2. Bleeping Computer 2easy 2021 Open source
    Bill Toulas. (2021, December 21). 2easy now a significant dark web marketplace for stolen data. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  3. Bleeping Computer Stealer Logs 2023 Open source
    Flare. (2023, June 6). Dissecting the Dark Web Supply Chain: Stealer Logs in Context. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  4. CNET Leaks Open source
    Ng, A. (2019, January 17). Massive breach leaks 773 million email addresses, 21 million passwords. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  5. Detectify Slack Tokens Open source
    Detectify. (2016, April 28). Slack bot token leakage exposing business critical information. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  6. Forbes GitHub Creds Open source
    Sandvik, R. (2014, January 14). Attackers Scrape GitHub For Cloud Service Credentials, Hijack Account To Mine Virtual Currency. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  7. GitHub Gitrob Open source
    Michael Henriksen. (2018, June 9). Gitrob: Putting the Open Source in OSINT. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  8. GitHub truffleHog Open source
    Dylan Ayrey. (2016, December 31). truffleHog. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  9. Okta Scatter Swine 2022 Open source
    Okta. (2022, August 25). Detecting Scatter Swine: Insights into a Relentless Phishing Campaign. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  10. Register Deloitte Open source
    Thomson, I. (2017, September 26). Deloitte is a sitting duck: Key systems with RDP open, VPN and proxy 'login details leaked'. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  11. Register Uber Open source
    McCarthy, K. (2015, February 28). FORK ME! Uber hauls GitHub into court to find who hacked database of 50,000 drivers. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  12. SecureWorks Infostealers 2023 Open source
    SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit Research Team. (2023, May 16). The Growing Threat from Infostealers. Retrieved October 10, 2024.

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