MITRE ATT&CKsub-technique
T1686.001 Cloud Firewall
- Domain
- enterprise
- Tactics
- Defense Impairment
- Platforms
- IaaS
- Version
- 1.0
- Created
- 2026-04-14
Description
Adversaries may disable or modify a firewall within a cloud environment to bypass controls that limit access to cloud resources.
Cloud environments typically utilize restrictive security groups and firewall rules that only allow network activity from trusted IP addresses via expected ports and protocols. An adversary with appropriate permissions may introduce new firewall rules or policies to allow access into a victim cloud environment and/or move laterally from the cloud control plane to the data plane.
For example, an adversary may use a script or utility that creates new ingress rules in existing security groups (or creates new security groups entirely) to allow any TCP/IP connectivity to a cloud-hosted instance. They may also remove networking limitations to support traffic associated with malicious activity (such as cryptomining).
Related
Subtechnique of · MITRE ATT&CK (1)
- T1686 Disable or Modify System Firewall technique
Tactic · MITRE ATT&CK (1)
- TA0112 Defense Impairment tactic
Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · mitigates (2)
Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · uses (1)
- S1091 Pacu software (tool)
Referenced by Compliance · mitigates (1)
- CIS-4.4 Implement and Manage a Firewall on Servers CIS Safeguard v8.1
References
- https://expel.com/blog/finding-evil-in-aws/ Expel AWS
- https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/compromised-cloud-compute-credentials/ Palo Alto Unit 42 Compromised Cloud Compute Credentials 2022