Contaminate Resource

An adversary contaminates organizational information systems (including devices and networks) by causing them to handle information of a classification/sensitivity for which they have not been authorized. When this happens, the contaminated information system, device, or network must be brought offline to investigate and mitigate the data spill, which denies availability of the system until the investigation is complete.

Abstraction

What is this attack pattern?

Extended description

Contamination through email is a very common attack vector. Systems with email servers or personal work systems using email are susceptible to this attack simply by receiving an email that contains a classified document or information. A fake classified document could even be used that is mistaken as true classified material. This would still cause the system to be taken offline until the validity of the classified material is confirmed.

Requirements

What does the attack require?

Prerequisites

The adversary needs to have real or fake classified/sensitive information to place on a system

Skills required

Low: Knowledge of classification levels of systems
High: The ability to obtain a classified document or information
Low: The ability to fake a classified document

Resources required

Not stated in the MITRE record.

Impact

What does a successful attack lead to?

Resource Consumption

Affected scopes: Availability

Read Data

Affected scopes: Confidentiality

Defence

How is it prevented and mitigated?

Properly safeguard classified/sensitive data. This includes training cleared individuals to ensure they are handling and disposing of this data properly, as well as ensuring systems only handle information of the classification level they are designed for.

Design systems with redundancy in mind. This could mean creating backing servers that could be switched over to in the event that a server has to be taken down for investigation.

Have a planned and efficient response plan to limit the amount of time a system is offline while the contamination is investigated.

Real world

MITRE example instances

Example instance 1Detail

An insider threat was able to obtain a classified document. They have knowledge that a backend server which provides access to a website also runs a mail server. The adversary creates a throwaway email address and sends the classified document to the mail server. When an administrator checks the mail server they notice that it has processed an email with a classified document and the server has to be taken offline while they investigate the contamination. In the meantime, the website has to be taken down as well and access to the website is denied until the backend can be migrated to another server or the investigation is complete.