The Art of Camouflage
Crafting Convincing Lures
Deception has emerged as a powerful and innovative strategy for defending against sophisticated cyber adversaries. At the heart of cyber deception lies the creation of convincing lures—artificial yet realistic traps designed to entice attackers, diverting them from their true targets and enabling security teams to gather valuable intelligence on their modus operandi. The ability to craft and deploy effective lures can make all the difference in identifying, mitigating, and even preventing cyber threats.
This article delves into the art of crafting convincing lures in cyber deception, beginning with understanding the mindset and behaviour of the adversaries we face. We will explore various types of lures, from honeypots to decoy files, and discuss how to make them believable and enticing to attackers. Additionally, we will examine the psychology behind successful lure design, touching upon cognitive biases and decision-making processes that influence attackers' actions. Lastly, we will discuss strategies for deploying and managing lures, as well as the importance of continuously adapting them to the evolving threat landscape.
II. Understanding the Adversary
A critical component of crafting convincing lures in cyber deception is understanding the mindset, behaviour, and tactics of the adversaries you're likely to face. By gaining insight into attackers' goals, motivations, and techniques, you can anticipate their actions by focusing on the attacker’s mindset and tailoring your lures accordingly, increasing the chances of successful deception.
A. Profiling attackers
1. Goals and motivations
To effectively anticipate the actions of cyber adversaries, it is essential to understand their objectives and motivations. Attackers may fall into various categories, such as nation-state actors, cybercriminals, hacktivists, or insider threats, each with unique goals and motivations. Nation-state actors often seek strategic or political advantages, while cybercriminals are primarily driven by financial gain. Hacktivists typically pursue ideological causes, and insider threats may act out of personal grievances or other motivations. Recognizing these distinctions can help you design lures that are specifically tailored to the interests of your potential adversaries.
2. Common tactics and techniques
Familiarizing yourself with the common TTPs employed by different attacker profiles can help you create more effective lures. For example, cybercriminals may rely on ransomware, phishing, or exploitation of known vulnerabilities, whereas nation-state actors may employ advanced persistent threats (APTs), zero-day exploits, or supply chain attacks. By understanding these TTPs, you can create lures that mimic the vulnerabilities and targets these attackers are most likely to pursue.
In order to understand who you are most likely to face you may
Understand and establish your organization's risk profile: Assess the nature of your organization, including its size, industry, geographical presence, and the type of data and assets it possesses. Certain industries or sectors, such as finance, healthcare, or critical infrastructure, may be more likely to be targeted by specific threat actors.
Analyze past incidents: Review any historical security incidents that have affected your organization or industry. Identify patterns, tactics, techniques, and procedures, indicators of attacks and indicators of compromise used in these incidents, and determine if any specific threat actors are known to employ them. Cyber deception can be used to obtain data if you haven’t suffered any past incidents.
Monitor threat intelligence: Actively monitor and analyse threat intelligence from various sources, including industry reports, security blogs, threat intelligence feeds, and information-sharing platforms. This can help you stay up-to-date with the latest attacker trends and identify threat actors that may have an interest in targeting your organization or industry. Cyber deception can be used to obtain contextual intelligence, i.e., intelligence gathered specifically for your organization.
Identify valuable assets: Determine which of your organization's assets or data are most valuable and attractive to potential attackers. This might include intellectual property, financial information, customer data, or other sensitive information. Understanding what makes your organization a desirable target can help you anticipate the type of threat actors that may be interested in your assets.
Assess geopolitical factors: In some cases, nation-state actors may target organizations based on geopolitical motivations or regional conflicts. Evaluate any geopolitical factors that could influence the likelihood of specific threat actors targeting your organization.
Perform a threat modelling exercise: Conduct a structured threat modelling exercise to identify potential attack scenarios, vulnerabilities, and threat actors that could exploit them. This exercise can help you understand the type of threat actors your organization might face and inform your security strategy.
Approach experts: Deception vendors such as Lupovis gather, collate and analyze this information across a variety of sectors & industries and maps threats and threat actors capabilities.
There are many more possibilities, although these may be a good step forward.
B. Anticipating attacker behaviour
1. Identifying patterns
Identifying patterns in attacker behaviour can provide valuable insights into their preferences, allowing you to refine your lures and make them more appealing. This may involve analysing past incidents, industry trends, or threat intelligence reports to determine the types of targets and vulnerabilities attackers are most likely to exploit. This information can be used to create lures that mimic these patterns, increasing the likelihood that attackers will engage with them.
III. Crafting Convincing Lures
Once you have a solid understanding of the adversaries you're likely to face, the next step is to create lures that are both convincing and appealing to attackers. This involves selecting appropriate lure types, ensuring their realistic appearance and functionality, and integrating them seamlessly into the target environment.
A. Selecting appropriate lure types
Decoy systems are designed to mimic real-world assets, such as servers, databases, or web applications, with the purpose of attracting and engaging attackers. They can be classified as low-interaction or high-interaction, depending on the level of complexity and interaction offered. Low-interaction ones simulate basic services and functions, while high-interaction ones provide more realistic and complex environments, allowing for deeper attacker engagement. Choosing the right type of decoy depends on your organization's goals, resources, risk tolerance and most importantly the adversaries that you may face.
Decoy files and credentials are another type of lure that can be used to entice attackers. These might include seemingly sensitive documents, such as financial reports or employee records, as well as fake login credentials or encryption keys. When attackers attempt to access or use these decoys, their actions can trigger alerts and provide valuable information about their techniques and objectives.
Fake network services can also serve as effective lures in cyber deception. These may include simulated web applications, open network shares, or vulnerable services that appear to be exploitable. By offering seemingly attractive targets, these deceptive services can entice attackers to interact with them, revealing their presence and intentions.
B. Making lures believable
Credibility: Realistic appearance and functionality For lures to be effective, they must appear genuine and believable to attackers. This involves ensuring that they mimic the appearance, functionality, and behaviour of real assets or services. For example, decoys should be configured to resemble legitimate systems, while decoy files should contain realistic content and metadata. This level of realism is essential to convincing attackers that they are engaging with genuine targets, rather than deceptive traps. However, the realisticity should be based on the type of adversaries the organization will face. Script kiddies may not need the same level of details than APTs.
Dynamicity: Integration into the target environment Seamless integration of lures into the target environment is crucial for maintaining their credibility. Lures should be placed in logical locations within the network topology, alongside real assets, and appear as part of the normal IT/OT infrastructure. Additionally, they should be connected to relevant network segments, use appropriate naming conventions, and exhibit typical patterns. This integration helps ensure that lures blend in with their surroundings, making them more likely to be targeted by attackers.
Attractivity: Ensuring lures are attractive to attackers To draw the attention of attackers, lures must be designed to appeal to their interests and objectives. This can involve tailoring lures to specific attacker profiles, as discussed in the previous section, as well as creating a sense of value or urgency around the lures. For example, decoy files might be labelled as "confidential" or "top secret," or could be configured to appear as high-value targets, such as financial servers or intellectual property repositories. The more attractive and relevant the lures are to the attackers, the more likely they are to engage with them, allowing for successful deception.
Telemetry: Telemetry in decoys plays a critical role in the effectiveness of cyber deception strategies. By collecting and analyzing data on attacker interactions with decoys, organizations can gain valuable insights into TTPs used by adversaries. However, it is essential to gather the right alerts to minimize false positives, as these can lead to unnecessary distractions and resource expenditures for security teams. Accurate and relevant telemetry data ensures that alerts generated by decoy interactions are representative of genuine attacker activities, enabling organizations to focus on legitimate threats while avoiding the pitfalls associated with false positives. By carefully calibrating telemetry in decoys and fine-tuning alert criteria, security teams can maximize the value of their cyber deception efforts and improve their overall cybersecurity posture. This is also why, most often, open source honeypots are hard to adapt and scale to a given infrastructure.
IV. The Psychology of Lure Design
Understanding the psychological aspects behind lure design can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your deception strategy. This section explores how cognitive biases and decision-making processes influence attacker behavior, and how these psychological principles can be leveraged to create more convincing lures.
A. Cognitive biases in decision-making
Anchoring effect: The anchoring effect occurs when an individual relies too heavily on an initial piece of information (the "anchor") when making decisions. In the context of cyber deception, this bias can be exploited by providing false information or carefully crafted decoys that influence the attacker's perception of a target or its value, leading them to focus on the deceptive assets.
Confirmation bias: Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to search for, interpret, or recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. By designing lures that align with the attacker's expectations, such as mimicking known vulnerabilities or common target patterns, you can exploit this bias to increase the likelihood of engaging the attacker with your deception assets.
B. Decision-making processes in lure design
Perceived value and attractiveness: In designing lures, it is essential to consider the perceived value and attractiveness of the deceptive assets from the attacker's perspective. By understanding the goals and motivations of potential threat actors, you can create lures that appeal to their interests and objectives, making them more likely to engage with the deception.
Risk vs. reward assessment: Attackers often evaluate potential targets based on the perceived risk and reward associated with the attack. By creating lures that present an appealing risk-reward balance, such as appearing less secure or offering seemingly valuable information, you can increase the chances of enticing the attacker to engage with your deceptive assets.
Cost of engagement: Another factor that influences attacker decision-making is the cost of engagement with a target, including the time, effort, and resources required to exploit it. By designing lures that appear to be easy targets or require minimal effort to compromise, you can make them more appealing to potential attackers.
By incorporating psychological principles into lure design, such as leveraging cognitive biases and understanding decision-making processes, you can create more convincing and effective deception assets.
V. Deploying and Managing Lures
After crafting convincing lures tailored to your organization's specific threat landscape, the next step is to deploy and manage them effectively within your environment. This involves strategically placing lures, monitoring and analyzing attacker interactions, and adapting your deception tactics over time.
A. High-value asset proximity
Visibility and accessibility to maximize the effectiveness of your lures, they should be visible and accessible to potential attackers. Place lures in areas where they are likely to be discovered during reconnaissance or initial compromise stages, such as externally facing servers, network perimeters, or alongside sensitive assets.
Diversifying lure types and locations, using a variety of lure types and distributing them across different locations within your environment can increase the chances of attracting and engaging attackers. This diversification can help ensure that your deception efforts are not easily bypassed or recognized by sophisticated adversaries. The lures however must reflect your current estate.
B. Monitoring and analyzing attacker interactions
Collecting telemetry data: As attackers interact with your lures, it's essential to collect telemetry data to gain insights into their TTPs and objectives. This data can include network traffic, system logs, or other behavioral indicators associated with the lures.
Alerting and incident response: Timely alerting is crucial for an effective deception strategy. Configure your lures to generate alerts when attackers interact with them, and ensure that your security team is prepared to respond to these alerts promptly. This can help mitigate potential threats and minimize the potential impact of an attack.
Analyzing data for actionable intelligence: Analyze the data collected from attacker interactions with your lures to identify patterns, trends, and valuable threat intelligence. This information can be used to enhance your security posture, improve your incident response capabilities, and inform future deception tactics.
C. Adapting deception tactics over time
Continuous improvement: Cyber threats and attacker TTPs are constantly evolving. It is essential to continuously assess and improve your deception tactics to ensure they remain effective in the face of changing threat landscapes. This may involve updating lures to mimic new technologies, adapting to emerging attacker trends, or refining your deception strategy based on lessons learned from previous engagements.
Maintaining the element of surprise: One of the keys to successful deception is maintaining the element of surprise. Regularly update and modify your lures to prevent them from becoming predictable or easily recognizable to attackers. This can help ensure that your deception efforts remain effective and continue to provide valuable intelligence on potential threats.
By strategically deploying and managing lures within your environment, monitoring and analyzing attacker interactions, and adapting your deception tactics over time, you can create a dynamic and effective deception strategy.
VI. Case Study: Public Health Insurance
A. Context and objectives
A public health insurance the size of an SME, with a medium security maturity level. Their cybersecurity objectives included enhancing detection capabilities, mitigating potential data breaches, and gathering valuable intelligence on possible internal and external threats.
B. Decoy design and deployment strategy
Understanding the Threat Landscape: They identified that insider threats, particularly those involving compromised credentials, posed significant risks. Given the nature of their operations, they had a wealth of sensitive data that would be attractive to both insiders and external threat actors.
Crafting Tailored Decoys: They used a set of decoys that mirrored their critical systems and data repositories. Realistic decoys where created and entirely fabricated set of health records and insurance claims, mimicking the actual data structures and contents were used. Additionally, they deployed a decoy VPN server that mirrored the real VPN access point to their network.
Leveraging Psychological Principles: With the help of a vendor they leveraged the principle of 'perceived value' by making their decoys appear as high-value targets, containing sensitive client data. They also exploited the 'risk vs. reward' mindset, making the decoys seemingly less secure and easy to access, thereby increasing their attractiveness to potential attackers.
Strategic Placement and Deployment: The decoys were strategically placed to be easily discoverable, especially through the decoy VPN server. The goal was to make any insider or external actor with stolen credentials engage with the decoys, believing they were accessing real systems.
C. Results and lessons learned
Successful Threat Detection and Mitigation Within a short time, they detected an unusual login to the decoy VPN server using valid but rarely used credentials. The user engaged with the decoy health records, triggering immediate alerts. Within an hour of this anomalous activity, the security team was able to isolate the adversary, preventing any potential data breach.
Valuable Threat IntelligenceL The telemetry data collected from the decoy systems provided actionable intelligence. It revealed the attacker's tactics and strategies, providing insights that helped refine their threat models and improve their overall security posture.
Enhancing Future Cyber Deception Strategies: This successful operation underscored the value of integrating psychological principles into their cyber deception strategy. The perceived value and ease of access to the decoys were pivotal in luring the threat actor.
Conclusion
The importance of crafting convincing lures as part of a robust cyber deception strategy cannot be overstated. As we have discussed throughout this article, the design and deployment of these lures require a deep understanding of both the technical landscape and the psychological tendencies of potential adversaries.
Decoys, when crafted with care and insight, become potent tools in the cybersecurity arsenal. They serve not only as traps for would-be attackers but also as sources of valuable intelligence that can inform and strengthen an organization's overall security posture. The psychology behind these lures is equally critical, exploiting cognitive biases and decision-making processes to make the decoys more enticing to potential threat actors.
A well-designed lure is not a static entity but is continually evolving, just as the threats it aims to counteract do. Tailoring lures to align with the motivations and tactics of the most relevant threat actors increases their effectiveness. Regular reassessment and adaptation of the deception strategy ensure its relevance in the face of a shifting threat landscape.