CAPEC-442: Infected Software
An adversary adds malicious logic, often in the form of a computer virus, to otherwise benign software. This logic is often hidden from the user of the software and works behind the scenes to achieve negative impacts. Many times, the malicious logic is inserted into empty space between legitimate code, and is then called when the software is executed. This pattern of attack focuses on software already fielded and used in operation as opposed to software that is still under development and part of the supply chain.
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Overview
CAPEC-442 (Infected Software) is a standard-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.
What the attacker needs
Prerequisites
- Access to the software currently deployed at a victim location. This access is often obtained by leveraging another attack pattern to gain permissions that the adversary wouldn't normally have.
Consequences
What a successful CAPEC-442 attack can achieve.
Execute Unauthorized Commands
Affects: Authorization
How to mitigate it
Defenses that reduce the risk of CAPEC-442.
- Leverage anti-virus products to detect and quarantine software with known virus.
Terminology & mappings
Mapped taxonomies
- ATTACK: Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Dependencies and Development Tools (1195.001)
- ATTACK: Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Supply Chain (1195.002)
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about CAPEC-442.
- What is CAPEC-442?
- An adversary adds malicious logic, often in the form of a computer virus, to otherwise benign software. This logic is often hidden from the user of the software and works behind the scenes to achieve negative impacts. Many times, the malicious logic is inserted into empty space between legitimate code, and is then called when the software is executed. This pattern of attack focuses on software already fielded and used in operation as opposed to software that is still under development and part of the supply chain.
- How do you prevent CAPEC-442?
- Leverage anti-virus products to detect and quarantine software with known virus.
- What weaknesses does CAPEC-442 target?
- CAPEC-442 exploits 1 CWE weakness, including CWE-506 (Embedded Malicious Code).
- How severe is CAPEC-442?
- MITRE rates CAPEC-442 as High severity with medium likelihood of attack.
References
Attack-pattern data is sourced from the MITRE CAPEC catalog (v3.9). Weakness associations link to the corresponding CWE entries on RadicalNotion.AI.
Defend against CAPEC-442
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