T1205.001 Port Knocking
sub-techniqueEnterpriseAdversaries may use port knocking to hide open ports used for persistence or command and control. To enable a port, an adversary sends a series of attempted connections to a predefined sequence of closed ports. After the sequence is completed, opening a port is often accomplished by the host based firewall, but could also be implemented by custom software. This technique has been observed both for the dynamic opening of a listening port as well as the initiating of a connection to a listening server on a different system. The observation of the signal packets to trigger the communication can be conducted through different methods. One means, originally implemented by Cd00r, is to use the libpcap libraries to sniff for the packets in question. Another method leverages raw sockets, which enables the malware to use ports that are already open for use by other programs.
platforms
Platforms this applies to.
tactics
ATT&CK tactics this technique serves.
sub-technique of
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mitigations
ATT&CK mitigations that reduce this.
detected by (3)
Data components that detect this.
countered by (D3FEND)
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Detect
NIST CSF 2.0 — areas of relevance (Protect / Detect)
NIST CSF 2.0 areas this most relates to (evidence-ranked).
- DE.CMContinuous Monitoringstrong · backed by 5 of 8 mapped controls
- PR.DSData Securitystrong · backed by 4 of 8 mapped controls
- PR.IRTechnology Infrastructure Resiliencemoderate · backed by 3 of 8 mapped controls
Derived from MITRE CTID (Apache-2.0) and the NIST 800-53 ↔ CSF crosswalk (public domain). Indicative relevance along the Protect/Detect axis — not a compliance assessment or coverage claim.
mitigating controls (8)
Security controls that mitigate this.
groups (2)
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software (4)
Malware and tools associated with this.
source
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