MITRE Shield will be retired on October 18th in favor of MITRE Engage. To learn more, click here.

Mapping To Sowbug

Sowbug is a threat group that has conducted targeted attacks against organizations in South America and Southeast Asia, particularly government entities, since at least 2015.


Disclaimer: We present this mapping to stimulate thinking about active defense options to combat this adversary, not to present all possibilities. We invite you to use this as a guide and add your own use cases for applying Shield techniques to counter each adversary action.

Note: All ATT&CK Group sub-technique mappings have been remapped to their parent technique and were derived from Group Technique mappings in ATT&CK v8.

Details
ATT&CK ID: G0054
Associated Groups:  Sowbug
Note:  This page uses Adversary Group data from MITRE ATT&CK.
ATT&CK Technique Opportunity Space AD Technique Use Case
T1003 - OS Credential Dumping There is an opportunity to deploy a tripwire that triggers an alert when an adversary touches a network resource or uses a specific technique. DTE0012 - Decoy Credentials A defender can seed systems with decoy credentials in a variety of locations and establish alerting that will trigger if an adversary harvests the credentials and attempts to use them.
T1036 - Masquerading There is an opportunity to detect the presence of an adversary by identifying and alerting on anomalous behaviors. DTE0007 - Behavioral Analytics A defender can look for known files in non-standard locations or files that are creating anomalous processes or connections.
T1039 - Data from Network Shared Drive In an adversary engagement scenario, there is an opportunity to seed content to influence an adversary's behaviors, test their interest in specific topics, or add legitimacy to a system or environment. DTE0030 - Pocket Litter A defender can stage a variety of pocket litter files on an attached storage space. This data may include topics that align to a persona, topics an adversary is interested in, etc.
T1039 - Data from Network Shared Drive In an adversary engagement scenario, there is an opportunity provide content on a variety of topics to see what types of information seems to interest the adversary. DTE0030 - Pocket Litter A defender can stage a variety of pocket litter files in order to determine if an adversary is interested in specific file types, subjects, etc.
T1056 - Input Capture There is an opportunity to feed content to an adversary to influence their behaviors, test their interest in specific topics, or add legitimacy to a system or environment. DTE0011 - Decoy Content A defender can feed decoy data to an adversary that is using a key-logger or other tool, so as to shape the encounter.
T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter There is an opportunity for the defender to observe the adversary and control what they can see, what effects they can have, and/or what data they can access. DTE0036 - Software Manipulation A defender can manipulate the output of system commands issued to alter information the adversary might use during their activity.
T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter There is an opportunity for the defender to observe the adversary and control what they can see, what effects they can have, and/or what data they can access. DTE0036 - Software Manipulation A defender can modify the functionality of commands used to delete files so that the files are copied to a safe location before they are deleted.
T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter There is an opportunity for the defender to observe the adversary and control what they can see, what effects they can have, and/or what data they can access. DTE0034 - System Activity Monitoring A defender can detect the presence of an adversary by monitoring for processes that are created by commands and/or scripts they execute on a system.
T1082 - System Information Discovery There is an opportunity to feed content to an adversary to influence their behaviors, test their interest in specific topics, or add legitimacy to a system or environment. DTE0011 - Decoy Content A defender can use decoy content to give the false impression about the system when an adversary performs system information discovery.
T1083 - File and Directory Discovery There is an opportunity to feed content to an adversary to influence their behaviors, test their interest in specific topics, or add legitimacy to a system or environment. DTE0011 - Decoy Content A defender can utilize decoy files and directories to provide content that could be used by the adversary.
T1135 - Network Share Discovery In an adversary engagement scenario, there is an opportunity to introduce decoy content to entice additional engagement activity. DTE0011 - Decoy Content A defender can utilize decoy network shares to provide content that could be used by the adversary.
T1135 - Network Share Discovery There is an opportunity to supply a variety of different decoy network shares to an adversary to see what they are drawn to look at and use. DTE0013 - Decoy Diversity A defender can make a variety of decoy network shares available to an adversary and see if the adversary seems to be drawn to shares with specific names, permissions, etc.
T1560 - Archive Collected Data There is an opportunity for the defender to observe the adversary and control what they can see, what effects they can have, and/or what data they can access. DTE0036 - Software Manipulation A defender might alter APIs to expose data that is being archived, encoded, and/or encrypted. This can also be used to corrupt the action so the data isn't usable.