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.
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. |