Mitre’s ATT&CK security framework was mentioned often at the Techno Security and Digital Forensics Conference. I admit that I’m not well-versed on it, yet. However, its purpose makes sense. It’s a knowledge base for Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge, which is what the acronym ATT&CK stands for. Mitre created a short video to explain about ATT&CK and why it was created:
An example of how ATT&CK is a common body of knowledge which folks are striving to keep up-to-date is with respect to identified threat groups. As of this post there is information available about 86 groups, mainly nation state actors.
One of the things I try to do in my security presentations is help folks stop thinking in just what they’re good at. For instance, in my How I Would Hack SQL Server, I point out that as an attacker, going directly against SQL Server is an option of last resort. It’s much easier to find the data I care about on a file share, an Excel spreadsheet, or some other less secure spot. Compromising accounts and then using those accounts is the easier and safer road to success. What ATT&CK details is what attackers do. Therefore, if you’re in charge of security systems or applications, looking over the ATT&CK framework will help you look at your systems more as an attacker would.