CAPECattack pattern

CAPEC-416 Manipulate Human Behavior

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Abstraction
Meta
Status
Stable
Likelihood of attack
Medium
Typical severity
Medium
CAPEC version
3.9

Description

An adversary exploits inherent human psychological predisposition to influence a targeted individual or group to solicit information or manipulate the target into performing an action that serves the adversary's interests. Many interpersonal social engineering techniques do not involve outright deception, although they can; many are subtle ways of manipulating a target to remove barriers, make the target feel comfortable, and produce an exchange in which the target is either more likely to share information directly, or let key information slip out unintentionally. A skilled adversary uses these techniques when appropriate to produce the desired outcome. Manipulation techniques vary from the overt, such as pretending to be a supervisor to a help desk, to the subtle, such as making the target feel comfortable with the adversary's speech and thought patterns.

Prerequisites

• The adversary must have the means and knowledge of how to communicate with the target in some manner.

Consequences

• Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability: Other

Mitigations

• An organization should provide regular, robust cybersecurity training to its employees to prevent successful social engineering attacks.

Related

Referenced by CAPEC · child of (5)

  • CAPEC-407 Pretexting attack pattern
  • CAPEC-417 Influence Perception attack pattern
  • CAPEC-425 Target Influence via Framing attack pattern
  • CAPEC-426 Influence via Incentives attack pattern
  • CAPEC-427 Influence via Psychological Principles attack pattern