Stopping Active Adversaries:
Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Learnings for IT and business leaders based on analysis of 232 major cyber
incidents remediated by Sophos X-Ops incident responders
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Setting the scene
The Sophos X-Ops Incident Response team
Background
Sophos Rapid Response is a dedicated team of incident responders who specialize
This paper shares key findings from analysis of 232 cyberattacks remediated
in stopping active cyberattacks and preventing further damage. Any organization,
by Sophos X-Ops incident responders in 2022 and the first half of 2023. It
whether a Sophos customer or not, can call on them for expert assistance when
consolidates learnings from the three Sophos Active Adversary reports of 2023 to
dealing with a live attack.
provide a unique window into the tactics, techniques, and procedures employed
by today’s skilled, professional cybercriminals. The team is available 24/7/365 and consists of 50 digital forensic specialists and
35 deployment engineers who are experts at hands-on-keyboard combat.
For a deeper dive into the findings shared in this report, see:
Sophos Rapid Response is supported by over 150 analysts in the Sophos Managed
Ì Active Adversary Report for Business Leaders 2023
Detection and Response (MDR) Security Operations Center (SOC). These analysts
Ì Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders 2023 provide real-time insights into what they are seeing and stopping across the many
thousands of customer environments that they monitor and proactively secure
Ì Active Adversary Report for Security Practitioners 2023
every day. Further supporting the team are 400 Sophos Labs malware analysts
who are experts at unpacking, understanding, and blocking malicious code.
Sophos incident responders’ goal is to quickly triage, contain, and neutralize active
threats and eject adversaries to prevent any further damage.
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Analysis of 232 incident response cases Active adversaries
This study spans 232 cases from 2022 and the first half of 2023 that were As this report looks at attacks executed by active adversaries specifically, it is
remediated by Sophos incident responders covering organizations across important to understand who they are and what they do.
35 nations and 25 sectors.
Who they are
83% of incidents occurred in organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees. This
Active adversaries are highly skilled cybercriminals, often equipped with
broad scope ensures a wide representation of adversary behaviors that everyone
sophisticated software and networking skills. They are generally very well paid,
can learn from.
and often part of a professional cybercriminal network.
What they do
Active adversaries infiltrate organizations’ systems, evade detection, and
continuously adapt their techniques, using keystroke and AI-based methods
to bypass preventative security controls and execute their attacks. Continuous
adaptation is the key. They launch an attack, see what happens, and respond
accordingly. If they don’t succeed the first time, they try another option and
another option until they achieve their goal.
Prevalence
Despite misconceptions that active adversaries only target larger
organizations, the reality is that they impact organizations of all sizes. 24% of IT
leaders in organizations with 100-250 employees report that they experienced
an attack involving an active adversary in the last year1.
It’s worth noting that, with the occasional exception of very high value political
targets, active adversaries rarely deliberately target a particular organization.
Rather, they look for organizations with gaps in their security defenses and
Countries represented in the dataset
then go in for the kill.
1 The State of Cybersecurity 2023: The Business Impact of Adversaries, Sophos - Survey of 3,000 IT leaders across
14 countries
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Step 1: Initial entry
Let us start by unpacking how adversaries are getting into organizations. Root cause of attack
Attack vectors are evolving 2022 2023 H1
In 2022, exploited vulnerabilities were the number one root cause of attacks, used
in 37% of cases, followed by compromised credentials, used in 30% of cases. Exploited Vulnerabilities 37% 23%
These findings are reinforced by data from the Sophos State of Ransomware 2023
study, which reported that 36% of ransomware attacks in the previous year started
with exploited vulnerabilities and 29% with compromised credentials. Compromised Credentials 30% 50%
Looking deeper into the 2022 attacks remediated by the Sophos Incident
Response team, over half (55%) of those that started with exploited vulnerabilities
Source: The Active Adversary Report for Business Leaders, 2023, Sophos (n=152); Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders,
were associated with just two vulnerabilities: ProxyShell and Log4Shell - both of 2023, Sophos (n=80)
which had patches available at the time of compromise.
Moving into the first half of 2023, the order switched and compromised
credentials was the number one root cause, used in half of the incidents
remediated by the team. Exploited vulnerabilities were used as the entry method
in just under a quarter (23%) of cases.
It is too early to say that adversaries have definitively changed their tactics. It
may be that in the first half of 2023 there weren’t as many easily exploitable
vulnerabilities for adversaries to take advantage of, or that initial access brokers
had a lot of inventory that they were willing to sell off cheaply. However, what is
certain is that compromised credentials are readily available on the dark web,
often obtained through phishing attacks or previous data breaches.
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA) leaves the door
open to adversaries
One thing that makes it easier for adversaries to abuse compromised credentials
is the lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA) in many organizations. Well over
B
usiness hours in target time zone
a third (39%) of the incidents remediated in the first half of 2023 found that the (8am-6pm M-F)
victims did not have MFA configured. B
efore / after business hours
in target time zone
MFA is not a brand new, untested technology. It’s well-established, readily
Workweek attacks
available, and there’s really no excuse for not having it in place. If you do not have
MFA enabled, you are making it incredibly easy for attackers to infiltrate your eekend attacks
W
(6pm Fri-12am Mon)
organization.
Attackers target off-hours
Another key finding is that adversaries actively target organizations when there’s
a higher chance they won’t be detected (for this analysis we have focused
on ransomware attacks because they have the most reliable and objective
The time of day ransomware attacks start
indicators).
43% of ransomware attacks were launched on a Friday or Saturday in the victim’s
time zone. Adversaries deliberately launch their attacks on these days so that This 24-hour clock image shows the time of the attack in the victim’s time zone.
they can work on them over the weekend – when IT teams are less likely to be The orange dots are weekend attacks (6pm Friday – 12am Monday) and the black
actively monitoring and responding to security alerts. crosses are weekday attacks. The image makes clear that the vast majority of the
attacks cluster between 11pm and 6am – demonstrating that adversaries are
Diving deeper we see that 9 in 10 attacks (91%) start outside of normal working
deliberately working at night.
hours in the victim’s time zone (i.e., outside of 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday).
How many people do you have actively monitoring and responding to alerts and
suspicious activity outside of standard business hours? Not people who can be
called up if needed, but rather analysts who are actively identifying and investigating
suspicious activity? If you don’t have anyone covering nights, weekends, and holiday
periods, it’s time to elevate your defenses.
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Step 2: Internal activity
Now let’s unpack what adversaries do once they’re inside your network - In the diagram, the top row shows the median dwell time for all types of cyber
and how long it takes them. incidents and the bottom row shows the median dwell time for ransomware
incidents.
Adversaries are speeding up
Ì In 2021, dwell time was 15 days for all incidents and 11 days for ransomware.
Once adversaries infiltrate your network, they move quickly. In the last two and
Ì In 2022, dwell time dropped to 10 days for all
a half years, we’ve seen adversaries pick up the pace. This is partially due to
incidents and nine days for ransomware.
improvements in defense capabilities that have necessitated faster attacks. In
addition, adversaries are simply getting well-practiced – the more attacks they Ì In the first half of 2023, dwell time shrunk yet further: eight
carry out, the faster they get. days for all incidents and just five days for ransomware.
Dwell time is the time an adversary spends in your environment before being Combining this learning with our previous findings around attack timings makes
detected. In successful cyberattacks, adversaries typically remain undetected clear the challenges facing organizations that lack 24/7 security operations
until the point at which they detonate their attack, for example, when they launch coverage. If an adversary starts their ransomware attack at 9pm Friday night but
their ransomware and start encrypting files. As a result, shorter dwell time means you don’t see the suspicious activity and alerts until 9am Monday morning, you
faster overall attack execution. Dwell time also represents your opportunity to have already lost half of your window of opportunity to detect the attacker and
detect and neutralize an active adversary before they can achieve their goal. eject them from your environment.
Median dwell time: all incidents
15 days 10 days 8 days
2021 2022 2023 H1
11 days 9 days 5 days
Median dwell time: ransomware incidents
Source: Active Adversary Playbook 2022, Sophos (n=144); Active Adversary Report for Business Leaders, 2023,
Sophos (n=152); Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders, 2023, Sophos (n=80)
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Dwell time varies by attack type
Dwell Time by Attack Type, 2022 -1H23
Digging a little deeper, the chart below shows dwell times for several popular
attack types. We’ve explored the ransomware number, so let’s focus on a few
Ransomware
other areas of note.
Coinminers have a very long dwell time, but they are meant to be long
running. Coinminers will happily squat on a server, accruing fractions of a cent Network breach
per month, in perpetuity.
Data extortion. Most, but not all, attacks fell into the “slower” attack dataset. Data extortion
In an extortion attack, the threat actors tended to stay on the network longer
than in cases where data is simply exfiltrated, but no extortion was attempted.
Data exfiltration
It is likely that, because there is no encryption component to these attacks,
the threat actors are able to operate more silently, and therefore more slowly
Web shell
and deliberately.
Data exfiltration is a variant of data extortion (all extortions involve some form
of exfiltration, but not all exfiltrations involve extortion) and also leans slightly Loader
toward longer attacks for similar reasons. (“Data exfiltration” in our dataset
indicates cases where it is confirmed that data left the affected network, but
Coinminer
no further information is available about what the attacker did with that data.)
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Five days or less Greather than five days
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Dwell time varies by root cause Dwell Time by Root Cause, 2022 -1H23
We saw earlier that the most common root causes of attacks were compromised Compromised
credentials and exploited vulnerabilities. Now let’s look at how dwell time varies credentials
by root cause.
Exploited
In general, attacks that started with compromised credentials moved faster than vulnerability
those that started with an exploited vulnerability. More than half of the attacks
that started with compromised credentials had a dwell time of five days or less, Unkown
compared to a third of the attacks that started with an exploited vulnerability.
Malicious
The notable outlier in this view of the data is supply chain attacks, where document
more than three quarters had a dwell time of less than five days. Supply chain Brute force
compromises are the ready-made meal kits of threats: all the ingredients are attack
provided and ready –to go, and it’s just a matter of making it happen.
Phishing
Adware
Supply chain
compromise
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Five days or less Greather than five days
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Adversaries race to Active Directory Disabling protection is now commonplace
Findings from incident analysis suggests that once adversaries get inside an In recent years, adversaries have become very adept at disabling cybersecurity
organization, they make a concerted effort to move laterally to Active Directory protection: we now see this approach used in almost half of the attacks
(AD) servers as quickly as possible. In fact, the median time-to-AD for attacks in remediated by Sophos incident responders.
the first half of 2023 was just 0.68 days – approximately 16 hours.
Percentage of compromises where adversaries disable protection
Median Time-to-Active-Directory for attacks in 2023 H1
24% 36% 43%
0.68 days = 16 hours 2021 2022 2023 H1
Source: Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders, 2023, Sophos (n=80)
Combining this finding with the earlier data around attack timing makes clear Source: Active Adversary Playbook 2022, Sophos (n=144); Active Adversary Report for Business Leaders, 2023,
Sophos (n=152); Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders, 2023, Sophos (n=80)
that AD can easily be compromised during off-hours.
There are many operational reasons for an adversary to focus on Active
Directory. Establishing a foothold on an AD server greatly enhances an attacker’s
capabilities. An AD server is typically the most powerful and privileged asset
on a network, one that’s capable of controlling identity and policies across an
entire organization. Attackers can exploit highly privileged accounts, create new
accounts, or disable legitimate accounts.
Attackers can also use the AD server to distribute their malware from a trusted
source. Plus, when attackers get to AD, they find that most servers are protected
with only Microsoft Defender, and sometimes are not running protection at all.
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Living off the Land (i.e., exploiting legitimate IT tools) Ubiquity of RDP in attacks
Adversaries often exploit legitimate IT tools when carrying out their attacks to As evidenced by the chart below, adversaries love to use RDP. In fact, in the first half
avoid triggering protection technologies.This chart shows the most commonly of 2023, RDP played a role in a staggering 95% of attacks, an increase from 2022,
exploited legitimate IT tools (or Living off the Land Binaries to use the technical when it played a role in a previous all-time high of 88% of attacks.
name) used in the attacks.
Use of RDP in attacks
Top 10 Living off the Land Binaries (LOLBins) observed in the dataset
88% 95%
RANK 5 DAYS OR LESS GREATER THAN 5 DAYS RANK
of attacks of attacks
1 RDP RDP 1
2 PowerShell PowerShell 2 2022 2023 H1
3 PsExec cmd.exe 3
4 cmd.exe PsExec 4 86% 22% 93% 18%
5 Task Scheduler Net.exe 5 internal use external use internal use external use
6 net.exe Task Scheduler 6 Source: Active Adversary Report for Business Leaders, 2023, Sophos (n=152);
Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders, 2023, Sophos (n=80)
7 rundll32.exe rundll32.exe 7
8 ping.exe WMI 8 Many people think of RDP as a way for adversaries to get into organizations. And
that’s true - they do use it for external access. But most often, they use it to advance
9 reg.exe ping.exe 9
their attacks once they are inside.
10 vssadmin.exe whoami.exe 10 In the first half of 2023, RDP was used for internal movement in 93% of incidents and
externally in 18% of incidents. This compares to 86% and 22% respectively in 2022.
We’ve split them between fast attacks (five days or less) and slower attacks As the data makes clear, there were a number of incidents where RDP was used for
(greater than five days). Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is the number one both internal and external access. However, it is rarely used for external access only -
most abused IT tool in both fast and slow attack categories, followed closely by both in 2022 and in the first half of 2023, RDP was used solely for external access in
PowerShell. just 2% of cases.
Furthermore, eight tools feature on both sides of the chart and, if we expand the This means that if you only focus on looking for RDP abuse as a means to infiltrate
list to look at the top 20 binaries, 90% appear on both the fast and slow lists. your organization, you’re missing the main adversary use case.
If you see signsof suspicious activities involving these tools, investigate without
delay.
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Removing the evidence
Another common approach used by active adversaries is to remove evidence of The further along in the attack chain an attacker gets, the bigger the headache
their activities in order to cover their tracks. In 82% of cases where telemetry logs for responders. Missing telemetry only adds time to remediation that most
were missing, cybercriminals had disabled or deleted it. organizations can’t afford. That is why complete and accurate logging is essential.
Time is of the essence when responding to an active threat: the time between Now that Microsoft has begun making logging free and available for basic licenses
detecting the initial access event and fully mitigating the threat should be as short (as of September 2023), there’s no reason for your organization to not take full
as possible. advantage of it.
And like many other types of data, logs should be securely backed up so that they
can be used in the event that forensic analysis is required.
Causes of Missing Telemetry, 1H23
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Protection disabled Logs cleared Logs unavailable
Reasons telemetry was not available to investigators from incidents in the first half of 2023.
As more than one reason can be true in any given attack, the percentages add up to over 100 percent
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
Key takeaways for defenders
Based on the insights from incidents remediated by Sophos incident responders, Maintain 24/7 vigilance
we recommend adopting the following steps to help enhance your resilience
If you’re only doing security operations during working hours, you’ll miss important
against active adversaries.
signs of adversary activity until it’s too late.
Increase friction for attackers wherever possible
Be ready to investigate and respond promptly
If your systems are well maintained, attackers have to do more to subvert them.
Having a response plan is important, but you also need to be ready to respond
This takes time and increases the window of detection. Fancy techniques like
promptly. Timely response can mean the difference between cleaning up a nuisance
“bring your own vulnerable driver” (BYOVD) attacks are fourth or fifth on most
issue and rebuilding your entire environment from backups. Be sure to have
attackers’ list of options – after everything else fails and they have to go nuclear.
response plans for the types of attacks most likely to affect your organization and
Robust, layered defenses, including automated, adaptive protection creates practice implementing them with both your security practitioners and the other
friction for attackers and increases the skill level they need to bring to the table. company stakeholders on whom you’d need to rely in a crisis.
Many simply won’t have what it takes and will move on to easier targets.
Protect everything
Attackers will take advantage of any weak spot they can find to penetrate your
environment and then move around as they escalate their attacks. Make sure your
entire environment is protected – you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Plus,
strong defenses also provide valuable telemetry, which can help to accelerate
threat detection and response.
A Sophos Whitepaper. December 2023
Stopping Active Adversaries: Lessons From The Cyber Frontline
How Sophos can help
Sophos X-Ops
Sophos X-Ops brings together deep expertise across the attack environment to
defend against even the most advanced threats. The team publishes materials
designed to provide expert insights and advice that helps defenders secure their
organizations.
Resources published by the X-Ops team can be accessed by visiting news.
sophos.com/category/threat-research/.
Alternatively, you can follow X-Ops on X with the handle @SophosXOps. The team
utilizes the same handle on InfoSec Exchange.
Sophos services and products
Sophos has a range of best-in-class solutions designed to detect and stop
active adversaries in their tracks. These include a 24/7 managed detection and
response service, adaptive endpoint protection, and incident response support.
To learn more, start a free trial or speak to our team.
For more information on
Sophos solutions click here
Sophos delivers industry leading cybersecurity solutions to businesses of all sizes, protecting them in real time from advanced threats
such as malware, ransomware, and phishing. With proven next-gen capabilities your business data is secured effectively by products
that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
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Sophos is the registered trademark of Sophos Ltd. All other product and company names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
2023-12-15 (WP-NP)
