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CAPEC-224: Fingerprinting

Attack Pattern ID: 224
Abstraction: Meta
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+ Description
An adversary compares output from a target system to known indicators that uniquely identify specific details about the target. Most commonly, fingerprinting is done to determine operating system and application versions. Fingerprinting can be done passively as well as actively. Fingerprinting by itself is not usually detrimental to the target. However, the information gathered through fingerprinting often enables an adversary to discover existing weaknesses in the target.
+ Likelihood Of Attack

High

+ Typical Severity

Very Low

+ Relationships
Section HelpThis table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern. These relationships are defined as ChildOf and ParentOf, and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as CanFollow, PeerOf, and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar attack patterns that the user may want to explore.
NatureTypeIDName
ParentOfStandard Attack PatternStandard Attack Pattern - A standard level attack pattern in CAPEC is focused on a specific methodology or technique used in an attack. It is often seen as a singular piece of a fully executed attack. A standard attack pattern is meant to provide sufficient details to understand the specific technique and how it attempts to accomplish a desired goal. A standard level attack pattern is a specific type of a more abstract meta level attack pattern.312Active OS Fingerprinting
ParentOfStandard Attack PatternStandard Attack Pattern - A standard level attack pattern in CAPEC is focused on a specific methodology or technique used in an attack. It is often seen as a singular piece of a fully executed attack. A standard attack pattern is meant to provide sufficient details to understand the specific technique and how it attempts to accomplish a desired goal. A standard level attack pattern is a specific type of a more abstract meta level attack pattern.313Passive OS Fingerprinting
ParentOfStandard Attack PatternStandard Attack Pattern - A standard level attack pattern in CAPEC is focused on a specific methodology or technique used in an attack. It is often seen as a singular piece of a fully executed attack. A standard attack pattern is meant to provide sufficient details to understand the specific technique and how it attempts to accomplish a desired goal. A standard level attack pattern is a specific type of a more abstract meta level attack pattern.541Application Fingerprinting
Section HelpThis table shows the views that this attack pattern belongs to and top level categories within that view.
+ Prerequisites
A means by which to interact with the target system directly.
+ Skills Required
[Level: Medium]
Some fingerprinting activity requires very specific knowledge of how different operating systems respond to various TCP/IP requests. Application fingerprinting can be as easy as envoking the application with the correct command line argument, or mouse clicking in the appropriate place on the screen.
+ Resources Required
If on a network, the adversary needs a tool capable of viewing network communications at the packet level and with header information, like Mitmproxy, Wireshark, or Fiddler.
+ Consequences
Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the attack pattern. The Scope identifies the security property that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in their attack. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a pattern will be used to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
ScopeImpactLikelihood
Confidentiality
Read Data
+ Mitigations
While some information is shared by systems automatically based on standards and protocols, remove potentially sensitive information that is not necessary for the application's functionality as much as possible.
+ Taxonomy Mappings
Relevant to the WASC taxonomy mapping
Entry IDEntry Name
45Fingerprinting
+ Content History
Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganization
2014-06-23
(Version 2.6)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Modifications
Modification DateModifierOrganization
2017-01-09
(Version 2.9)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Related_Attack_Patterns
2017-05-01
(Version 2.10)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Attack_Motivation-Consequences, Attack_Prerequisites, Attacker_Skills_or_Knowledge_Required, Description Summary, Related_Weaknesses, Resources_Required, Solutions_and_Mitigations, Typical_Likelihood_of_Exploit
2018-07-31
(Version 2.12)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Attacker_Skills_or_Knowledge_Required
2020-12-17
(Version 3.4)
CAPEC Content TeamThe MITRE Corporation
Updated Description, Taxonomy_Mappings
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Page Last Updated or Reviewed: July 31, 2018