Modify Cloud Compute Infrastructure: Revert Cloud Instance, Sub-technique T1578.004 - Enterprise

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In highly virtualized environments, such as cloud-based infrastructure, this may be accomplished by restoring virtual machine (VM) or data storage snapshots through the cloud management dashboard or cloud APIs.</p><p>Another variation of this technique is to utilize temporary storage attached to the compute instance. Most cloud providers provide various types of storage including persistent, local, and/or ephemeral, with the ephemeral types often reset upon stop/restart of the VM.<span onclick=scrollToRef('scite-1') id="scite-ref-1-a" class="scite-citeref-number" title="Hardiman, N.. (2012, March 20). Backing up and restoring snapshots on Amazon EC2 machines. Retrieved October 8, 2019."data-reference="Tech Republic - Restore AWS Snapshots"><sup><a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/the-enterprise-cloud/backing-up-and-restoring-snapshots-on-amazon-ec2-machines/" target="_blank" data-hasqtip="0" aria-describedby="qtip-0">[1]</a></sup></span><span onclick=scrollToRef('scite-2') id="scite-ref-2-a" class="scite-citeref-number" title="Google. (2019, October 7). Restoring and deleting persistent disk snapshots. Retrieved October 8, 2019."data-reference="Google - Restore Cloud Snapshot"><sup><a href="https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/restore-and-delete-snapshots" target="_blank" data-hasqtip="1" aria-describedby="qtip-1">[2]</a></sup></span></p> </div> </div> <div class="col-md-4"> <div class="card"> <div class="card-body"> <div class="row card-data" id="card-id"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"></div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">ID: </span>T1578.004 </div> </div>  <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"></div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Sub-technique of: </span> <a href="/techniques/T1578">T1578</a> </div> </div>  <div id="card-tactics" class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"> <span data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="left" title="" data-test-ignore="true" data-original-title="The tactic objectives that the (sub-)technique can be used to accomplish">ⓘ</span> </div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Tactic:</span> <a href="/tactics/TA0005">Defense Evasion</a> </div> </div> <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"> <span data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="left" title="" data-test-ignore="true" data-original-title="The system an adversary is operating within; could be an operating system or application">ⓘ</span> </div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Platforms: </span>IaaS </div> </div> <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"> <span data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="left" title="" data-test-ignore="true" data-original-title="The lowest level of permissions the adversary is required to be operating within to perform the (sub-)technique on a system">ⓘ</span> </div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Permissions Required: </span>User </div> </div> <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"></div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Contributors: </span>Netskope </div> </div> <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"></div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Version: </span>1.1 </div> </div> <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"></div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Created: </span>16 June 2020 </div> </div> <div class="row card-data"> <div class="col-md-1 px-0 text-center"></div> <div class="col-md-11 pl-0"> <span class="h5 card-title">Last Modified: </span>08 March 2021 </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-center pt-2 version-button live"> <div class="live"> <a data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="bottom" title="Permalink to this version of T1578.004" href="/versions/v16/techniques/T1578/004/" data-test-ignore="true">Version Permalink</a> </div> <div class="permalink"> <a data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="bottom" title="Go to the live version of T1578.004" href="/versions/v16/techniques/T1578/004/" data-test-ignore="true">Live Version</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <h2 class="pt-3" id ="mitigations">Mitigations</h2> <p> This type of attack technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on the abuse of system features. </p> <h2 class="pt-3" id="detection">Detection</h2> <div class="tables-mobile"> <table class="table datasources-table table-bordered"> <thead> <tr> <th class="p-2" scope="col">ID</th> <th class="p-2 nowrap" scope="col">Data Source</th> <th class="p-2 nowrap" scope="col">Data Component</th> <th class="p-2" scope="col">Detects</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="datasource" id="uses-DS0030"> <td> <a href="/datasources/DS0030">DS0030</a> </td> <td class="nowrap"> <a href="/datasources/DS0030">Instance</a> </td>  <td> <a href="/datasources/DS0030/#Instance%20Metadata">Instance Metadata</a> </td> <td> <p>Periodically baseline instances to identify malicious modifications or additions.</p> </td> </tr> <tr class="datacomponent datasource" id="uses-DS0030-Instance Modification"> <td></td> <td></td> <td> <a href="/datasources/DS0030/#Instance%20Modification">Instance Modification</a> </td> <td> <p>Establish centralized logging of instance activity, which can be used to monitor and review system events even after reverting to a snapshot, rolling back changes, or changing persistence/type of storage. Monitor specifically for events related to snapshots and rollbacks and VM configuration changes, that are occurring outside of normal activity. To reduce false positives, valid change management procedures could introduce a known identifier that is logged with the change (e.g., tag or header) if supported by the cloud provider, to help distinguish valid, expected actions from malicious ones.</p> </td> </tr> <tr class="datacomponent datasource" id="uses-DS0030-Instance Start"> <td></td> <td></td> <td> <a href="/datasources/DS0030/#Instance%20Start">Instance Start</a> </td> <td> <p>Establish centralized logging of instance activity, which can be used to monitor and review system events even after reverting to a snapshot, rolling back changes, or changing persistence/type of storage. Monitor specifically for events related to activation of instances that are occurring outside of normal activity/planned operations. To reduce false positives, valid change management procedures could introduce a known identifier that is logged with the change (e.g., tag or header) if supported by the cloud provider, to help distinguish valid, expected actions from malicious ones.</p> </td> </tr> <tr class="datacomponent datasource" id="uses-DS0030-Instance Stop"> <td></td> <td></td> <td> <a href="/datasources/DS0030/#Instance%20Stop">Instance Stop</a> </td> <td> <p>Establish centralized logging of instance activity, which can be used to monitor and review system events even after reverting to a snapshot, rolling back changes, or changing persistence/type of storage. Monitor specifically for events related to deactivation of instances that are occurring outside of planned operations. To reduce false positives, valid change management procedures could introduce a known identifier that is logged with the change (e.g., tag or header) if supported by the cloud provider, to help distinguish valid, expected actions from malicious ones.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <h2 class="pt-3" id="references">References</h2> <div class="row"> <div class="col"> <ol> <li> <span id="scite-1" class="scite-citation"> <span class="scite-citation-text"> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" name="scite-1" href="https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/the-enterprise-cloud/backing-up-and-restoring-snapshots-on-amazon-ec2-machines/" target="_blank"> Hardiman, N.. (2012, March 20). Backing up and restoring snapshots on Amazon EC2 machines. Retrieved October 8, 2019. </a> </span> </span> </li> </ol> </div> <div class="col"> <ol start="2.0"> <li> <span id="scite-2" class="scite-citation"> <span class="scite-citation-text"> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" name="scite-2" href="https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/restore-and-delete-snapshots" target="_blank"> Google. (2019, October 7). Restoring and deleting persistent disk snapshots. Retrieved October 8, 2019. </a> </span> </span> </li> </ol> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>   <div class="overlay search" id="search-overlay" style="display: none;"> <div class="overlay-inner">  <div class="search-header"> <div class="search-input"> <input type="text" id="search-input" placeholder="search"> </div> <div class="search-icons"> <div class="search-parsing-icon spinner-border" style="display: none" id="search-parsing-icon"></div> <div class="close-search-icon" id="close-search-icon">×</div> </div> </div>  <div id="search-body" class="search-body"> <div class="results" id="search-results">  </div> <div id="load-more-results" class="load-more-results"> <button class="btn btn-default" id="load-more-results-button">load more results</button> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-1">  <footer class="col footer"> <div class="container-fluid"> <div class="row row-footer"> <div class="col-2 col-sm-2 col-md-2"> <div class="footer-center-responsive my-auto"> <a href="https://www.mitre.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener" aria-label="MITRE"> <img src="/theme/images/mitrelogowhiteontrans.gif" class="mitre-logo-wtrans"> </a> </div> </div> <div class="col-2 col-sm-2 footer-responsive-break"></div> <div class="footer-link-group"> <div class="row row-footer"> <div class="px-3 col-footer"> <u class="footer-link"><a href="/resources/engage-with-attack/contact" class="footer-link">Contact Us</a></u> </div> <div class="px-3 col-footer"> <u class="footer-link"><a href="/resources/legal-and-branding/terms-of-use" class="footer-link">Terms of Use</a></u> </div> <div class="px-3 col-footer"> <u class="footer-link"><a href="/resources/legal-and-branding/privacy" class="footer-link">Privacy Policy</a></u> </div> <div class="px-3"> <u class="footer-link"><a href="/resources/changelog.html" class="footer-link" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" data-html="true" title="ATT&CK content v16.1Website v4.2.1">Website Changelog</a></u> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <small class="px-3"> © 2015 - 2024, The MITRE Corporation. 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Modify Cloud Compute Infrastructure: Revert Cloud Instance, Sub-technique T1578.004 - Enterprise | MITRE ATT&CK®