CAPEC-121 Exploit Non-Production Interfaces

An adversary exploits a sample, demonstration, test, or debug interface that is unintentionally enabled on a production system, with the goal of gleaning information or leveraging functionality that would otherwise be unavailable.

Non-production interfaces are insecure by default and should not be resident on production systems, since they may reveal sensitive information or functionality that should not be known to end-users. However, such interfaces may be unintentionally left enabled on a production system due to configuration errors, supply chain mismanagement, or other pre-deployment activities. Ultimately, failure to properly disable non-production interfaces, in a production environment, may expose a great deal of diagnostic information or functionality to an adversary, which can be utilized to further refine their attack. Moreover, many non-production interfaces do not have adequate security controls or may not have undergone rigorous testing since they were not intended for use in production environments. As such, they may contain many flaws and vulnerabilities that could allow an adversary to severely disrupt a target.

1. [Explore] [Determine Vulnerable Interface] An adversary explores a target system for sample or test interfaces that have not been disabled by a system administrator and which may be exploitable by the adversary. 2. [Exploit] [Leverage Test Interface to Execute Attacks] Once an adversary has discovered a system with a non-production interface, the interface is leveraged to exploit the system and/or conduct various attacks.

• The target must have configured non-production interfaces and failed to secure or remove them when brought into a production environment.

• [High] Exploiting non-production interfaces requires significant skill and knowledge about the potential non-production interfaces left enabled in production.

• Confidentiality, Access Control, Authentication: Gain Privileges, Bypass Protection Mechanism • Confidentiality, Access Control, Authorization: Read Data, Execute Unauthorized Commands • Access Control, Integrity: Modify Data, Alter Execution Logic

• Ensure that production systems do not contain non-production interfaces and that these interfaces are only used in development environments.