This lesson explains how Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) turn individual vulnerabilities and malware tools into long-running, stealthy campaigns by chaining techniques to gain access, escalate privileges, persist, move laterally, evade detection, and exfiltrate data. It covers the APT lifecycle, tradecraft used to defeat sandboxes and EDRs, MITRE technique mappings, practical case studies, and defensive countermeasures defenders should implement.
APT Lifecycle and Tradecraft — The Long Con of a Very Patient Attacker "If malware is the actor, tradecraft is the script — and APTs bring Broadway-level planning." — Your slightly dramatic, very caffeinated TA You already know the lay of the land from the previous sections: malware ta...
Why this matters (and why your web-app bugs are APT candy) APTs don’t usually rely on one noisy exploit and hope for the best. They chain techniques to maintain access, expand privileges, and hide for months or years. If you worked on the web-app/API hacking module, congrats: those same injection ...
The APT lifecycle (short, sharp, realistic) Reconnaissance — Passive data gathering: public sources, employee social media, service footprinting. Initial Access — Phishing, web app compromise, supply-chain attacks, stolen credentials. Establishment of Foothold — Deploy a lightweight backdoor o...
Tip: Think like a pest. The difference between a nuisance and an infestation is persistence. Tradecraft highlights: How APTs avoid your sandbox, EDR, and attention Here’s where the hacker gets fancy. These are tactics used to remain invisible to automated analysis and defenders. Environment de...
Quick MITRE-style mapping (cheat sheet) Lifecycle Phase Example Techniques (MITRE ATT&CK refs) Initial Access Phishing (T1566), Exploit Public-Facing App (T1190) Execution PowerShell (T1059.001), Scripting (T1064) Persistence Scheduled Task (T1053), Service (T1543) Priv Esc...
Practical examples — short, memorable case studies A web app with weak auth: initial access via stolen session token → upload of web shell → persistent reverse shell scheduled via cron. Sandbox sees a small upload, not the follow-on in-memory beacon. Supply-chain compromise (think SolarWinds): a...
Detection & defensive countertrade (what defenders should actually do) Harden sandboxes: simulate realistic user artifacts, run for longer durations, include real data and processes to foil trivial checks. Use behavioral telemetry, not just signatures: look for anomalies in process trees, pa...
Closing — Key takeaways (so you’ll actually remember this) An APT is less about a single exploit and more about an orchestra of techniques: reconnaissance, stealthy access, persistence, and slow exfiltration. Sandbox evasion is about appearing normal and avoiding automated curiosity . If your an...
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