Gorgon Group is a threat group consisting of members who are suspected to be Pakistan-based or have other connections to Pakistan. The group has performed a mix of criminal and targeted attacks, including campaigns against government organizations in the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, and the United States.
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 |
---|---|---|---|
T1055 - Process Injection | In an adversary engagement scenario, there is an opportunity to implement security controls to support your defensive objectives over a prolonged engagement. | DTE0032 - Security Controls | A defender could implement security controls to have an effect on process injection techniques such as AppLocker or an Antivirus/EDR tool designed to watch for CreateRemoteThread events. |
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. |
T1105 - Ingress Tool Transfer | There is an opportunity to collect network data and analyze the adversary activity it contains. | DTE0028 - PCAP Collection | Collecting full packet capture of all network traffic allows you to review what happened over the connection and identify command and control traffic and/or exfiltration activity. |
T1106 - Native API | 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 system calls to break communications, route things to decoy systems, prevent full execution, etc. |
T1106 - Native API | 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. | DTE0003 - API Monitoring | A defender can monitor operating system functions calls to look for adversary use and/or abuse. |
T1112 - Modify Registry | There is an opportunity to utilize known good copies of registry information and restore it if an adversary makes any changes. | DTE0006 - Baseline | A defender can enable Registry Auditing on specific keys to produce an alerts whenever a value is changed and revert those keys to baseline. |
T1112 - Modify Registry | There is an opportunity to study the adversary and collect first-hand observations about them and their tools. | DTE0034 - System Activity Monitoring | A defender can monitor processes and command-line arguments which could be used by an adversary to change or delete information in the Windows registry. |
T1140 - Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information | 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. | DTE0003 - API Monitoring | A defender can monitor and analyze operating system functions calls for detection and alerting. |
T1204 - User Execution | There is an opportunity to study the adversary and collect first-hand observations about them and their tools. | DTE0018 - Detonate Malware | A defender can execute adversary malware on a decoy system and examine its behaviors or potentially engage with the adversary to obtain further intelligence. |
T1547 - Boot or Logon Autostart Execution | There is an opportunity to use tools and controls to stop an adversary's activity. | DTE0006 - Baseline | A defender can store good copies of registry startup keys and restore them on a frequent basis. This can prevent an adversary from using them to launch malware on system startup. |
T1562 - Impair Defenses | There is an opportunity to study the adversary and collect first-hand observations about them and their tools. | DTE0004 - Application Diversity | A defender can plant AV or monitoring tools which are easy for an adversary to remove. If an adversary removes these, they may be enticed to act more openly believing they have removed monitoring from the system. |
T1562 - Impair Defenses | There is an opportunity to create a detection with a moderately high probability of success. | DTE0034 - System Activity Monitoring | A defender can monitor for signs that security tools and other controls are being tampered with by an adversary. |
T1562 - Impair Defenses | There is an opportunity to create a detection with a moderately high probability of success. | DTE0033 - Standard Operating Procedure | A defender can define operating procedures for modifying GPOs and alert when they are not followed. |
T1564 - Hide Artifacts | There is an opportunity to block an adversary's intended action and force them to reveal additional TTPs. | DTE0036 - Software Manipulation | A defender can manipulate commands on system so that an adversary is unable to hide artifacts in ways they normally would. |
T1564 - Hide Artifacts | There is an opportunity to deploy a tripwire that triggers an alert when an adversary touches a network resource or uses a specific technique. | DTE0034 - System Activity Monitoring | A defender could monitor for known commands used to hide artifacts on a system and for activity associated with those hidden artifacts. |
T1566 - Phishing | A phishing email can be detected and blocked from arriving at the intended recipient. | DTE0019 - Email Manipulation | A defender can intercept emails that are detected as suspicious or malicious by email detection tools and prevent deliver to the intended target. |
T1566 - Phishing | A phishing email can be detected and moved from the intended recipient to a decoy account for reading and execution. | DTE0023 - Migrate Attack Vector | A defender can move suspicious emails to a decoy system prior to opening and examining the email. |
T1566 - Phishing | Users trained and encouraged to report phishing can detect attacks that other defenses do not. | DTE0035 - User Training | A program to train and exercise the anti-phishing skills of users can create "Human Sensors" that help detect phishing attacks. |
T1566 - Phishing | There is an opportunity to discover who or what is being targeting by an adversary. | DTE0015 - Decoy Persona | A defender can seed information about the decoy persona's personal accounts on systems to see if the adversary collects and uses that information in future activity. |