Cryptography Data Obfuscation

Cryptography is a technique often used by malware to protect against analysis or to perform malicious actions such as in ransomware attacks. In these cases, malware will use cryptography to encrypt their payloads or communication channels in order to make it difficult for security tools and forensic investigators to detect and analyze their activities.

Additionally, cryptography can be used …

Execution Guardrails: Environmental Keying Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may environmentally key payloads or other features of malware to evade defenses and constraint execution to a specific target environment. Environmental keying uses cryptography to constrain execution or actions based on adversary supplied environment specific conditions that are expected to be present on the target. Environmental keying is an implementation of Execution Guardrails that utilizes cryptographic techniques for deriving …

Subvert Trust Controls: SIP and Trust Provider Hijacking Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may tamper with SIP and trust provider components to mislead the operating system and application control tools when conducting signature validation checks. In user mode, Windows Authenticode digital signatures are used to verify a file's origin and integrity, variables that may be used to establish trust in signed code (ex: a driver with a valid Microsoft signature may be …

ROL Data Obfuscation

ROL, or Rotate Left, is a simple encoding algorithm similar to the Caesar Cipher. In the ROL algorithm, each letter of the plaintext is replaced with a letter that is a fixed number of positions down the alphabet. For example, if the rotation value is 3, then the letter "A" would be replaced with "D", "B" would be replaced with …

Domain Generation Algorithm Network Evasion

Domain generation algorithms (DGAs) are algorithms used by malware to generate a large number of domain names that can be used as communication channels with their command and control servers. These domain names are generated periodically, typically using a pseudorandom number generator.

The use of DGAs makes it difficult for law enforcement and other security actors to shut down …

Subvert Trust Controls: Install Root Certificate Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to adversary controlled web servers. Root certificates are used in public key cryptography to identify a root certificate authority (CA). When a root certificate is installed, the system or application will trust certificates in the root's chain of trust that have been signed by the …