COMMON ATTACK PATTERN ENUMERATION AND CLASSIFICATIONLive MITRE record

CAPEC-420

Influence Perception of Scarcity

The adversary leverages a perception of scarcity to persuade the target to perform an action or divulge information that is advantageous to the adversary. By conveying a perception of scarcity, or a situation of limited supply, the adversary aims to create a sense of urgency in the context of a target's decision-making process.

Abstraction

Detailed

Typical severity

Low

Likelihood of attack

High

Understand the attack

What is this attack pattern?

The adversary leverages a perception of scarcity to persuade the target to perform an action or divulge information that is advantageous to the adversary. By conveying a perception of scarcity, or a situation of limited supply, the adversary aims to create a sense of urgency in the context of a target's decision-making process.

Requirements

What does the attack require?

Prerequisites

  • The adversary must have the means and knowledge of how to communicate with the target in some manner.

Skills required

  • Low: The adversary requires strong inter-personal and communication skills.

Resources required

  • None: No specialized resources are required to execute this type of attack.

Impact

What does a successful attack lead to?

Other

Affected scopes: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability

Defence

How is it prevented and mitigated?

1
An organization should provide regular, robust cybersecurity training to its employees to prevent social engineering attacks.

Real world

MITRE example instances

Example instance 1Detail
An adversary sends an email to a target about a limited-time opportunity to claim a considerable monetary reward. The email contains a link to a site which the adversary says is only active for a short time and to the first person to claim it. By convincing the user of the scarcity of the monetary reward, the adversary aims to persuade them to click on the malicious link in the email.