A law firm experienced a breach in which access was gained to a secure server. During an investigation to determine how the breach occurred, an employee admitted to clicking on a spear-phishing link. A security analyst reviewed the event logs and found the following:
• PAM had not been bypassed.
• DLP did not trigger any alerts.
• The antivirus was updated to the most current signatures.
Which of the following MOST likely occurred?
The most likely scenario is that the attacker engaged in lateral movement. In this context, lateral movement refers to the attacker moving within the network to access additional resources after the initial compromise. The fact that PAM (Privileged Access Management) was not bypassed suggests that the attacker did not gain immediate elevated privileges. Additionally, the absence of DLP (Data Loss Prevention) alerts indicates that data exfiltration had not occurred. Since the antivirus was current and no alerts were triggered, it suggests that known malware was not involved. Therefore, after the employee clicked on the spear-phishing link, the attacker would have likely attempted to move laterally within the network to gain access to the secure server.
Lateral Movement for sure. Lateral movement starts with an initial entry point into the network. This entry point could be a malware-infected machine that connects to the network, a stolen set of user credentials (username and password), a vulnerability exploit via a server's open port, or a number of other attack methods. If they entered a network through a vulnerability or malware infection, attackers may use a keylogger (which tracks the keys users type) to steal user credentials. Or they may have entered a network initially through stealing credentials in a phishing attack. However they get it, attackers start with one set of credentials and the privileges associated with that user account.
Attackers aim to move laterally undetected. But even if an infection is discovered on the initial device, or if their activities are detected, the attacker can maintain their presence within the network if they have infected a wide range of devices.
The event most likely involved Exploitation (Option A). In this context, exploitation refers to the act of taking advantage of a vulnerability. In this case, the employee clicked on a spear-phishing link, which likely led to the exploitation of a vulnerability, such as executing malicious code or installing malware on the system. This allowed the attacker to gain access to the secure server. Privilege Escalation (Option C) and Lateral Movement (Option D) typically occur after initial access has been gained, and there’s no indication in the logs that these have occurred. Exfiltration (Option B) refers to the act of transmitting data from the compromised system to the attacker, and again, there’s no indication in the logs that this has occurred.
D. Lateral movement. In a spear-phishing attack, the initial compromise often occurs when an employee clicks on a malicious link or opens a malicious attachment in an email. Once the attacker gains access to the victim's system, they may attempt to move laterally within the network to gain access to additional resources and systems. The absence of alerts from DLP (Data Loss Prevention) and updated antivirus signatures suggests that the attacker may have focused on moving laterally within the network after the initial compromise, rather than attempting to exfiltrate data or escalate privileges immediately.
Based on the information provided, it appears that an employee clicked on a spear-phishing link, but the breach did not involve bypassing PAM (Privileged Access Management), did not trigger DLP (Data Loss Prevention) alerts, and the antivirus was up to date. Given these details, the MOST likely scenario is: D. Lateral movement Lateral movement typically occurs after an initial compromise, like clicking on a spear-phishing link. In lateral movement, attackers attempt to move laterally within a network to gain access to additional systems and resources. The fact that PAM was not bypassed suggests that the initial compromise didn't involve privilege escalation, and since DLP did not trigger any alerts, data exfiltration (B) may not have happened immediately. Exploitation (A) may have been the initial step, but the focus here is on what likely occurred after the initial compromise, which is typically lateral movement in such cases.
Based on the information provided, it's more likely that A. Exploitation occurred. Here's why: PAM had not been bypassed: This indicates that the attacker did not gain direct privileged access to the system. DLP did not trigger any alerts: This suggests that sensitive data was not exfiltrated during the breach. The antivirus was updated: Since the antivirus was up-to-date, it should have been capable of detecting known malware. The fact that it didn't trigger an alert indicates that the breach did not involve a known malware. Given these factors, it is most likely that the breach occurred through the exploitation of a vulnerability, possibly through a spear-phishing link. This may have allowed the attacker to gain unauthorized access to the server. This aligns with the scenario described in the question.
-Attack started on a user's computer and moved to a secure server. (Lateral Movement = D). -PAM (privilege access management) was not bypasses (so not priv esc, so not C). -DLP (data loss prevention) not triggered (so not exfiltration, so not B) -Exploitation is a red herring, anything you do is an exploitation, I think this question is looking for the "so what"
Clicking on the link likely provided initial access >> After gaining initial access through the compromised employee’s account >> the Attacker moved laterally within the network to reach the secure server without needed to breach the higher privileged account via PAM. Initial spear-phishing might involve some exploitation, but the key issue here is what happened after the initial breach.
I am still having a problem with this one...hard for me to not choose A: Exploitation. Per the Cyber Kill Chain step 4 (Exploitation): This is where abstract theory is translated into direct action. Malicious code is triggered, malware attempts to run, and the threat actors’ plans for the cyberattack are put to the test. Successful execution rewards them with the compromise of the targeted account, system, or other section of the network Unless I am misunderstanding the scenario, this definition/explanation sounds pretty spot-on.