| ID | Name |
|---|---|
| T1598.001 | Spearphishing Service |
| T1598.002 | Spearphishing Attachment |
| T1598.003 | Spearphishing Link |
Adversaries may send spearphishing messages with a malicious attachment to elicit sensitive information that can be used during targeting. Spearphishing for information is an attempt to trick targets into divulging information, frequently credentials or other actionable information. Spearphishing for information frequently involves social engineering techniques, such as posing as a source with a reason to collect information (ex: Establish Accounts or Compromise Accounts) and/or sending multiple, seemingly urgent messages.
All forms of spearphishing are electronically delivered social engineering targeted at a specific individual, company, or industry. In this scenario, adversaries attach a file to the spearphishing email and usually rely upon the recipient populating information then returning the file.[1][2] The text of the spearphishing email usually tries to give a plausible reason why the file should be filled-in, such as a request for information from a business associate. Adversaries may also use information from previous reconnaissance efforts (ex: Search Open Websites/Domains or Search Victim-Owned Websites) to craft persuasive and believable lures.
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S0373 | Astaroth |
Astaroth has been delivered via malicious e-mail attachments.[3] |
| G0035 | Dragonfly |
Dragonfly has used spearphishing with Microsoft Office attachments to enable harvesting of user credentials.[4] |
| G0121 | Sidewinder |
Sidewinder has sent e-mails with malicious attachments that lead victims to credential harvesting websites.[5][6][7] |
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1054 | Software Configuration |
Use anti-spoofing and email authentication mechanisms to filter messages based on validity checks of the sender domain (using SPF) and integrity of messages (using DKIM). Enabling these mechanisms within an organization (through policies such as DMARC) may enable recipients (intra-org and cross domain) to perform similar message filtering and validation.[8][9] |
| M1017 | User Training |
Users can be trained to identify social engineering techniques and spearphishing attempts. |
| ID | Data Source | Data Component |
|---|---|---|
| DS0015 | Application Log | Application Log Content |
| DS0029 | Network Traffic | Network Traffic Content |
| Network Traffic Flow |
Monitor for suspicious email activity, such as numerous accounts receiving messages from a single unusual/unknown sender. Filtering based on DKIM+SPF or header analysis can help detect when the email sender is spoofed.[8][9]