CyberzSOC

This guide, authored by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), agencies (hereafter referred to as the authoring agencies), provides information on common living off the land (LOTL) techniques and common gaps in cyber defense capabilities. The joint guide for network defenders focuses on how to mitigate identified gaps and to detect and hunt for LOTL activity. The information in this joint guide is derived from a previously published joint advisory; incident response engagements undertaken by several of the authoring agencies; red team assessments by several of the authoring agencies using LOTL for undetected, persistent access; and collaborative efforts with industry. The authoring agencies have observed cyber threat actors, including the People’s Republic of China (PRC) [1],[2] and Russian Federation [3] state-sponsored actors, leveraging LOTL techniques to compromise and maintain persistent access to critical infrastructure organizations. The authoring agencies are releasing this joint guide for network defenders (including threat hunters) as the malicious use of LOTL techniques is increasingly emerging in the broader cyber threat environment. Cyber threat actors leveraging LOTL abuse native tools and processes on systems, often using “living off the land binaries.