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T0817: Drive-by Compromise

View on MITRE ATT&CK The MITRE Corporation · Published 21/05/2020 19:43 · Modified 27/03/2026 01:44

Essential information

MITRE technique ID
T0817
Confidence
100/100
Revoked
No
Published
21/05/2020 19:43
Modified
27/03/2026 01:44
Author / Source
The MITRE Corporation

Description

Adversaries may gain access to a system during a drive-by compromise, when a user visits a website as part of a regular browsing session. With this technique, the user's web browser is targeted and exploited simply by visiting the compromised website. The adversary may target a specific community, such as trusted third party suppliers or other industry specific groups, which often visit the target website. This kind of targeted attack relies on a common interest, and is known as a strategic web compromise or watering hole attack. The National Cyber Awareness System (NCAS) has issued a Technical Alert (TA) regarding Russian government cyber activity targeting critical infrastructure sectors. (Citation: Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency March 2018) Analysis by DHS and FBI has noted two distinct categories of victims in the Dragonfly campaign on the Western energy sector: staging and intended targets. The adversary targeted the less secure networks of staging targets, including trusted third-party suppliers and related peripheral organizations. Initial access to the intended targets used watering hole attacks to target process control, ICS, and critical infrastructure related trade publications and informational websites.

Kill chain phases

Kill chainPhase
mitre-ics-attack initial-access

Marking (TLP)

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External references