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Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
Passed 20 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 12 of 22 without it.
and 5 more in the full report
8 fixed12 passed either way2 still failing0 broke
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
One of 8 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
Developers sometimes hardcode system credentials into source code files or push secrets to cloud code repositories. Which MITRE mitigation ID addresses preventing plaintext credentials in application code or repositories?
| Checked | Without skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| Specifies MITRE mitigation code M1013. | Missed | Passed |
| Recommends preventing plaintext credentials in source code or repositories. | Passed | Passed |
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network. Adversaries may choose not to use malware or tools in conjunction with the legitimate access those credentials provide to make it harder to detect their presence.
In some cases, adversaries may abuse inactive accounts: for example, those belonging to individuals who are no longer part of an organization. Using these accounts may allow the adversary to evade detection, as the original account user will not be present to identify any anomalous activity taking place on their account.
The overlap of permissions for local, domain, and cloud accounts across a network of systems is of concern because the adversary may be able to pivot across accounts and systems to reach a high level of access (i.e., domain or enterprise administrator) to bypass access controls set within the enterprise.
Platforms: Containers, ESXi, IaaS, Identity Provider, Linux, macOS, Network Devices, Office Suite, SaaS, Windows
Identify Attack Surface: Determine if the target environment is susceptible to Valid Accounts by examining the target platforms (Containers, ESXi, IaaS).
Assess Existing Defenses: Review whether mitigations for T1078 are in place. If defenses are absent or misconfigured, this technique may be exploitable.
Execute Test: Use tools and methods described in the MITRE ATT&CK page and external references below.
Note: No Atomic Red Team tests available for this technique. See Atomic Red Team GitHub for updates.
test cases passed, vs 12 / 22 without
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