Definition
A living off-the-land attack is a cyberattack in which attackers exploit legitimate software, tools, or features already present on a compromised system to carry out malicious activities. The attackers aim to blend with normal system behavior to avoid detection.
Common Tools Used in Living Off the Land Attacks
- PowerShell: Hackers can exploit PowerShell to scout the network, establish command-and-control channels, escalate privileges, and even download malware.
- Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI): Attackers can exploit WMI to execute commands remotely, collect system information, detect users and groups, and run malicious code.
- Command-line interface (CLI): Hackers can exploit CLI to run commands, navigate the system, and compromise files and directories.
Stopping Living Off the Land Attacks
- Employ the principle of least privilege to restrict access rights and minimize the risk of hackers exploiting privilege escalation.
- Educate users about the dangers of living off-the-land attacks, especially the need to handle administrative tools cautiously.
- Use heuristic analysis to detect anomalous behavior in the system.
- Limit the execution of unauthorized scripts to reduce the risk of hackers compromising the system.