What is lateral movement?

What is lateral movement?

Lateral movement in cybersecurity is a technique attackers use to escalate privileges, exploit vulnerabilities, and compromise additional systems within a network after gaining initial access. It is a crucial part of a broader attack, especially in advanced persistent threats (APTs), where the attacker remains undetected for extended periods. During this time, they move across systems using legitimate credentials to access critical assets, expand control, and prepare for larger-scale attacks, such as data exfiltration or ransomware deployment.

Key characteristics of lateral movement:

Here are some characteristics of lateral movement in cybersecurity:

• Privilege escalation: Attackers often escalate their privileges to gain access to more sensitive areas of the network, typically by exploiting software vulnerabilities or misconfigurations.
• Reconnaissance: After the initial access, attackers perform a thorough scan of the network to identify high-value targets and understand the network topology.
• Persistence: Attackers set up backdoors or other methods to ensure continued access even if one entry point is closed.
• Stealth: Attackers avoid detection by masking their activities as legitimate network traffic, using encryption, or employing living-off-the-land techniques.

The stages of lateral movement

Lateral movement usually occurs in a series of stages, starting from the initial point of compromise to the attackers' eventual goal. By leveraging the MITRE ATT&CK framework, we can map these stages to specific tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) employed by adversaries.To avoid detection, attackers move gradually and in phases, which can be categorized into three stages:

Lateral movement attacks : Devices targeted

Lateral movement attacks can compromise any device within a network, including:

• Endpoints: Such as laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.
• Servers: Like database servers, web servers, and domain controllers.
• IoT devices: Such as smart devices and industrial control systems.
• Cloud environments: Like virtual machines and cloud-hosted applications.

To counter these threats, Log360 monitors network endpoints in real-time to flag unauthorized processes, and isolate compromised systems to effectively stop further propagation.

Cyberattacks that rely on lateral movement techniques

Lateral movement is a key tactic in many cyberattacks, enabling attackers to achieve their objectives, such as accessing sensitive data or controlling multiple devices. Here are some common attacks that leverage this method:

1. Ransomware attacks

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts files or systems, preventing users from accessing them. Attackers demand a ransom, typically in cryptocurrency, in exchange for the decryption key. To pressure victims into paying, cybercriminals may threaten to delete or publicly release sensitive data on the dark web if their demands are not met within a specified timeframe. By moving laterally, ransomware can spread across networks, locking down critical systems and maximizing its impact

2. Espionage

Cyber espionage is a covert operation where attackers infiltrate networks to gather sensitive information without being detected. Instead of causing immediate harm or making demands, attackers focus on reconnaissance.The longer they remain hidden, the more valuable data they can collect, such as trade secrets, strategic plans, or government intelligence. Lateral movement enables these attackers to navigate networks discreetly, expanding their access to high-value targets.

3. Data exfiltration

In data exfiltration attacks, cybercriminals steal confidential or sensitive information from an organization. This may include intellectual property, personal data, or financial records. Attackers often use social engineering, malware, or direct hacking to obtain access. Lateral movement allows them to explore the network, identify critical assets, and transfer stolen data to an external location. In some cases, the stolen information is used for extortion, such as holding it for ransom or threatening to expose it publicly.

4. Botnet infections

Some attackers aim to compromise networks to create botnets, a collection of infected devices controlled remotely. Botnets are often used to carry out large-scale attacks, such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, spam campaigns, or cryptocurrency mining. Cybercriminals use lateral movement to infect multiple devices within a network, building a powerful robotic network capable of executing their objectives.

The impact of lateral movement attacks

Lateral movement attacks can cause significant damage, including:

• Data breaches: Exfiltration of sensitive information like intellectual property or personal data.
• Operational disruptions: Compromise of critical systems leading to downtime.
• Financial losses: Costs associated with remediation, legal penalties, and reputational damage.
• Further attacks: Use of compromised systems to launch additional attacks like ransomware or DDoS.

Detecting lateral movement attacks

Lateral movement attacks are hard to detect because they use attack techniques that look like a legitimate network event. To detect this activity, organizations should focus on:

Monitoring unusual login patterns:

Frequent logins from the same user to multiple systems or to systems with which the user normally wouldn’t interact. Log360 collects and process logs from endpoints, servers, and applications in real-time to identify these suspicious activities. It flags anomalies such as unusual login attempts, privilege escalations, and unauthorized access.

Behavioral analysis:

Identifying deviations from normal user behavior, such as accessing files or systems at odd hours. Log360's user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) leverages machine learning to establish a baseline of normal user behavior and helps detect deviations indicative of lateral movement, such as abnormal login times or access patterns.

Network device monitoring:

Anomalous traffic patterns, like multiple failed login attempts or unusual protocols, can indicate lateral movement. Log360 helps analyze network traffic to identify anomalies, such as unusual data transfers or unexpected communication between systems and helps detect potential exploitation of protocols like SMB or RDP for lateral movement.

Threat intelligence:

Leverage threat intelligence feeds to detect known attack techniques. Log360 integrates global threat intelligence feeds to identify known indicators of compromise (IoCs) and sends real-time alerts to security teams to detect lateral movement attacks before they escalate.

How to prevent lateral movement attacks

To effectively prevent lateral movement attacks, organizations should adopt a multi-layered approach focused on minimizing potential vulnerabilities. Key strategies include:

Least privilege for users

Organizations should implement the principle of least privilege, in which users are granted access to only what's required. The fewer privileges an account has, the more difficult it is for the attacker to gain access to their desired resource.

MFA

The implementation of multi-factor authentication (MFA) for systems, resources, and data is recommended. It is an additional layer of security that helps to prevent brute-force attacks and other password attacks.

Network segmentation

It is a good practice to segment the network into smaller sub-networks, each with its own set of protocols and policies, to prevent lateral movement within the network.

Strong passwords

Organizations should enforce a strong password policy for systems and accounts to protect privileged accounts from possible attempts at lateral movement.

Regular patching

Vulnerabilities in software and systems provide entry points for attackers. Regularly patch systems to close these gaps.

SIEM solutions

SIEM solutions play a crucial role in preventing lateral movement attacks by analyzing and correlating events across the network. By establishing a baseline of normal behavior using machine learning, SIEM tools can quickly identify and alert administrators to any anomalous activity.

ManageEngine Log360, a comprehensive SIEM solution, offers advanced threat intelligence and UEBA capabilities to further enhance protection. It continuously monitors privileged accounts to detect unauthorized access and privilege escalations, preventing attackers from exploiting admin-level accounts. Moreover, Log360's correlation engineidentifies suspicious patterns, such as credential dumping followed by unauthorized file access, which are indicative of lateral movement. With these capabilities, Log360 provides organizations with a robust and proactive defense against lateral movement and other sophisticated cyberattacks.

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