COMMON ATTACK PATTERN ENUMERATION AND CLASSIFICATIONLive MITRE record

CAPEC-648

Collect Data from Screen Capture

An adversary gathers sensitive information by exploiting the system's screen capture functionality. Through screenshots, the adversary aims to see what happens on the screen over the course of an operation. The adversary can leverage information gathered in order to carry out further attacks.

Abstraction

Detailed

Typical severity

Medium

Likelihood of attack

Medium

Understand the attack

What is this attack pattern?

An adversary gathers sensitive information by exploiting the system's screen capture functionality. Through screenshots, the adversary aims to see what happens on the screen over the course of an operation. The adversary can leverage information gathered in order to carry out further attacks.

Requirements

What does the attack require?

Prerequisites

  • The adversary must have obtained logical access to the system by some means (e.g., via obtained credentials or planting malware on the system).

Skills required

  • Low: Once the adversary has logical access (which can potentially require high knowledge and skill level), the adversary needs only to leverage the relevant command for screen capture.

Resources required

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

Impact

What does a successful attack lead to?

Read Data

Affected scopes: Confidentiality

Defence

How is it prevented and mitigated?

1
Identify potentially malicious software that may have functionality to acquire screen captures, and audit and/or block it by using allowlist tools.
2
While screen capture is a legitimate and practical function, certain situations and context may require the disabling of this feature.