Common resource location exploration
Attack Pattern ID: 150 (Standard Attack Pattern Completeness: Stub)Typical Severity: MediumStatus: Draft
+ Description

Summary

An attacker exploits well known locations for resources for the purposes of undermining the security of the target. In many, if not most, systems, files and resources are organized in the same tree structure. This can be useful for attackers because they often know where to look for resources or files that are necessary for attacks. Even when the precise location of a targeted resource may know be known, naming conventions may indicate a small area of the target machine's file tree where the resources are typically located. For example, configuration files are normally stored in the /etc director on Unix systems. Attackers can take advantage of this to commit other types of attacks.

+ Attack Prerequisites

The targeted applications must either expect files to be located at a specific location or, if the location of the files can be configured by the user, the user either failed to move the files from the default location or placed them in a conventional location for files of the given type.

+ Resources Required

No special resources are required for most variants of this attack. In some cases, the attacker need not even have direct access to the locations on the target computer where the targeted resources reside.

+ Related Attack Patterns
NatureTypeIDNameDescriptionView(s) this relationship pertains toView\(s\)
ChildOfAttack PatternAttack Pattern154Resource Location Attacks 
Mechanism of Attack (primary)1000
ParentOfAttack PatternAttack Pattern149Explore for predictable temporary file names 
Mechanism of Attack (primary)1000
Back to top