> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.prismacloud.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.prismacloud.io/admin-guide/33/runtime-defense/attack.md).

# ATTACK explorer

Prisma Cloud’s monitoring section includes an Att\&CK Explorer dashboard providing a framework that helps you to contextualize runtime audits, manage them, and generate risk reports.

ATT\&CK Explorer is a knowledge base of tactics and techniques that adversaries use to attack applications and infrastructure. It’s a useful framework for threat-informed defense, where a deep understanding of adversary tradecraft can help protect against attacks.

The ATT\&CK framework has two key concepts:

* **Tactics** - An adversary’s technical goals.
* **Techniques** - How those goals are achieved or What they acheive

The relationship between tactics and techniques is presented as a matrix. One tactic in the matrix is called *Persistence*. After establishing a foothold in your environment, adversaries want to reliably return to it. Adversaries use a number of techniques to achieve persistence, such as *Account Manipulation* and *Event Triggered Execution*.

## Cloud Native threat matrix

Prisma Cloud protects cloud native applications running in Kubernetes clusters, serverless functions, Containers-as-a-Service offerings, and virtual machines. The Cloud Native threat matrix covers the different techniques that impact cloud native applications across all these environments. It’s composed from ATT\&CK for Linux, recent community efforts around ATT\&CK for Containers and Kubernetes, and a few techniques from Prisma Labs. The Cloud Native threat matrix is the foundation for the ATT\&CK dashboard.

## ATT\&CK dashboard

The ATT\&CK dashboard serves as a portal to the raw events in the **Monitor > Events** view. All Prisma Cloud audits are mapped to the tactics and techniques in the ATT\&CK framework. For example, when Defender detects a crypto miner in your environment, we map the audit to the *Resource Hijacking* technique under the *Impact* tactic.

The ATT\&CK dashboard collates audits, maps them to the tactics and techniques, and presents the data visually in the ATT\&CK matrix. Each card in the matrix shows a count of events. Higher counts represent a higher severity issues. Filters let you slice and dice the data to inspect specific segments of your environment. The dashboard:

* Presents a real-time view of tactics and techniques being employed by adversaries.
* Identifies weaknesses in your defenses. Use the counts to prioritize work to fortify defenses for the techniques favored by adversaries.
* Provides raw data for risk reports for management.

Audits from the following subsystems flow into the ATT\&CK dashboard:

* Container runtime audits.
* Host runtime audits.
* Serverless runtime audits.
* App-Embedded runtime audits.
* WAAS audits.
* Kubernetes audits.
* Admission (OPA) audits.
* Custom runtime rule audits for builtin system checks only. Currently, you cannot specify tactic and technique for user-defined custom runtime rules.

To see the ATT\&CK dashboard, open Console, and go to **Monitor > ATT\&CK**. The following screenshot highlights the main components in the dashboard:

<figure><img src="/files/BaPX5J7M73IVxGNgiudE" alt="attack dashboard"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

**1. Filter** - Filter data in the dashboard by:

* **Impacted technique**.
* **Date**: View events that occurred in the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or 3 months.
* **Collection**: View data for just some segment of your environment (e.g., a production cluster).

**2. Tactics** - Tactics are listed across the top row of the matrix. A count shows the sum of all events for all corresponding techniques in the category. Each column lists the techniques that can be used to achieve the tactic.

**3. Techniques** - Lists of techniques that can be used to achieve a tactic. The color of the card is based on the event count for a technique. If there is one or more events for a technique, the card is colored red. Otherwise, if there are no events, the card is gray. All techniques are fully described [here](https://cdn.twistlock.com/docs/attachments/full_attack_explorer_matrix.pdf).

Clicking on an impacted technique card opens a dialog that shows all relevant audits for the technique.

The following screenshot shows the dialog for the *Privileged Container* card. The dialogs are organized as follows:

* Description.
* Audit source filter (pick from the drop-down list).
* Table of relevant audits.

<figure><img src="/files/iyWOWO7tmM7WVGxa5W7q" alt="attack explore card"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Syslog messages contain tactic and technique information for all relevant audits.

## Investigating incidents

As you monitor your environment, you’ll see tactics and techniques are applied consistently across views. Tactics and techniques are shown in **Monitor > ATT\&CK**, **Monitor > Events**, and **Monitor > Runtime > Incident explorer**.

<figure><img src="/files/jUnLkzZQxOI0blKaLdMl" alt="attack tactics techniques"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Surfacing impacted techniques

When investigating an incident, you’ll want to focus on the segment of your environment that has been impacted. Use the filter box to focus your view of the data.

One important filter is **Impacted techniques**. Without the filter, all technique cards are displayed.

<figure><img src="/files/GugixzmXoPI646sut4qO" alt="attack unfiltered dashboard"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

With the filter, only techniques that have been detected are displayed. In the following screenshot, we’ve narrowed the data to:

* Audits within the past seven days.
* Containers in the frontend collection, which are exposed to the Internet, and likely where the attack started.
* Attack techniques used by the adversary.

<figure><img src="/files/HfgG3FAUSHq5aifL6kMz" alt="attack filtered dashboard"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Mapping audits to techniques

Every audit (for example, runtime, admission, and so on) maps to one or more techniques. The following table shows the mappings.

The **Techniques** column shows the technique to which an audit is always mapped.

The **Possible Additional Techniques** column shows the techniques that to which an audit can be optionally mapped, depending on changing information from the audit. For example, for some audits, on new files being created, we will check if the process that created the files is a compiler. If so, we also map the audit to the **Compile After Delivery** technique.

| Category         | Audit Type                                                    | Techniques (techniques that the audit is always mapped to)            | Possible Additional Techniques (techniques that the audit can optionally be mapped to, depending on changing information from the audit)                                              |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cloud            | cloudMetadataProbing                                          | Cloud Instance Metadata API                                           | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Kubernetes       | kubeletAPIAccess                                              | Access Kubelet Main API                                               | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Kubernetes       | kubeletReadonlyAccess                                         | Query Kubelet Readonly API                                            | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Kubernetes       | kubectlSpawned                                                | <p>Access the Kubernetes API Server<br>Software Deployment Tools</p>  | <p>Lateral Tool Transfer<br>Exec Into Container<br>Create Container<br>Kubernetes Secrets</p>                                                                                         |
| Kubernetes       | kubectlDownloaded                                             | <p>Ingress Tool Transfer<br>Software Deployment Tools,</p>            | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | horizontalPortScanning                                        | Network Service Scanning                                              | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | verticalPortScanning                                          | Network Service Scanning                                              | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | explicitlyDeniedIP                                            | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | customFeedIP                                                  | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | feedIP                                                        | <p>Command and Control / General<br>Resource Hijacking</p>            | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | unexpectedOutboundPort                                        | <p>Exfiltration<br>Command and Control / General</p>                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | suspiciousNetworkActivity                                     | -                                                                     | <p>Man In The Middle<br>Network Service Scanning</p>                                                                                                                                  |
| Network          | unexpectedListeningPort                                       | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | explicitlyDeniedListeningPort                                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | explicitlyDeniedOutboundPort                                  | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | listeningPortModifiedProcess                                  | Command and Control / General                                         | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Network          | outboundPortModifiedProcess                                   | <p>Exfiltration<br>Command and Control / General</p>                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| DNS              | feedDNS                                                       | <p>Command and Control / General<br>Resource Hijacking</p>            |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| DNS              | explicitlyDeniedDNS                                           | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| DNS              | dnsQuery                                                      | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | unexpectedProcess                                             | Native Binary Execution                                               |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Processes        | portScanProcess                                               | Network Service Scanning                                              |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Processes        | explicitlyDeniedProcess                                       | Native Binary Execution                                               |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Processes        | modifiedProcess                                               | Foreign Binary Execution                                              |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Processes        | cryptoMinerProcess                                            | Resource Hijacking                                                    |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Processes        | lateralMovementProcess                                        | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | tmpfsProcess                                                  | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | policyHijacked                                                | Impair Defences                                                       | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | reverseShell                                                  | Native Binary Execution                                               | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | SuidBinaries                                                  | Abuse Elevation Control Mechanisms                                    | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | ProcUnknownOriginBinary                                       | Foreign Binary Execution                                              | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | administrativeAccount                                         | -                                                                     | <p>Account Manipulation<br>Create Account<br>Abuse Elevation Control Mechanisms</p>                                                                                                   |
| Filesystem       | sshAccess                                                     | -                                                                     | Account Manipulation                                                                                                                                                                  |
| Filesystem       | explicitlyDeniedFile                                          | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | malwareFileCustom                                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | malwareFileFeed                                               | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | execFileAccess                                                | -                                                                     | <p>Masquerading<br>IngressToolTransfer<br>Compile After Delivery</p>                                                                                                                  |
| Filesystem       | elfFileAccess                                                 | -                                                                     | <p>IngressToolTransfer<br>Compile After Delivery</p>                                                                                                                                  |
| Filesystem       | secretFileAccess                                              | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | regFileAccess                                                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | fileIntegrity                                                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | alteredBinary                                                 | Supply Chain Compromise                                               | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | malwareDownloaded                                             | Ingress Tool Transfer                                                 |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Filesystem       | suspiciousELFHeader                                           | Obfuscated Files                                                      |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Filesystem       | executionFlowHijackAttempt                                    | Hijack Execution Flow                                                 |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Filesystem       | RuntimeAttackTypeFSEncryptedBinary                            | Obfuscated Files                                                      |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Filesystem       | WildFireMalware                                               | -                                                                     | <p>Masquerading<br>IngressToolTransfer<br>Compile After Delivery</p>                                                                                                                  |
| Filesystem       | webShell                                                      | <p>Web Shell<br>Ingress Tool Transfer</p>                             | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Filesystem       | FSUnknownOriginBinary                                         | -                                                                     | <p>Masquerading<br>IngressToolTransfer<br>Compile After Delivery</p>                                                                                                                  |
| Processes        | Running privileged process within container                   | Software Deployment Tools                                             | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | Running cron app                                              | Scheduled Task / Job                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | Database app spawned process                                  | <p>Application Exploit (RCE)<br>Exploitation Of Remote Services</p>   | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | Suspicious networking tool                                    | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | Suspicious networking scaning tool                            | Network Service Scanning                                              | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | User creation (Container)                                     | Create Account                                                        | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | User deletion (Container)                                     | Account Access Removal                                                | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Processes        | User modification (Container)                                 | Account Manipulation                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| filesystem       | Bash shell tampering                                          | Event Triggered Execution                                             | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| filesystem       | Linux user management files                                   | <p>CreateAccount<br>Account Manipulation</p>                          | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| filesystem       | Configuration file changes (Host)                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| filesystem       | Configuration file changes (Container)                        | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| network-outgoing | Common data exfiltration ports                                | Exfilitration                                                         | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| network-outgoing | Common crypto mining pool ports                               | Resource Hijacking                                                    | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| network-outgoing | Cloud platform metadata API access (Container)                | Cloud Instance Metadata API                                           | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | xss                                                           | ExploitationForPrivilegeEscalation                                    |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | sqli                                                          | <p>Exploit Public-Facing Application<br>Application Exploit (RCE)</p> |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | cmdi                                                          | <p>Exploit Public-Facing Application<br>Application Exploit (RCE)</p> |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | lfi                                                           | <p>Exploit Public-Facing Application<br>Application Exploit (RCE)</p> |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | codeInjection                                                 | <p>Exploit Public-Facing Application<br>Application Exploit (RCE)</p> |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | deniedIP                                                      | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | deniedCountry                                                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | header                                                        | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                |                                                               |                                                                       |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | attackTools                                                   | NetworkServiceScanning                                                | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | shellshock                                                    | <p>Exploit Public-Facing Application<br>Application Exploit (RCE)</p> |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | disallowedFile                                                | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | malformedRequest                                              | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | informationLeak                                               | Exfilitration                                                         | <p>System Credential Dumping<br>System Account Discovery<br>File And Directory Discovery<br>System Unsecured Credentials<br>Network Configuration Discovery<br>Software Discovery</p> |
| -                | unexpectedAPI                                                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | dos                                                           | Endpoint Denial-of-Service                                            | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | searchEngineCrawler                                           | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | businessAnalyticsBot                                          | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | educationalBot                                                | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | newsBot                                                       | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | financialBot                                                  | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | contentFeedClient                                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | archivingBot                                                  | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | careerSearchBot                                               | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | mediaSearchBot                                                | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | genericBot                                                    | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | webAutomationTool                                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | webScraper                                                    | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | apiLibrary                                                    | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | httpLibrary                                                   | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | sessionValidation                                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | javascriptTimeout                                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | missingCookie                                                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | browserImpersonation                                          | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | requestAnomalies                                              | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | userDefinedBot                                                | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | GKE - pod created in host process namespace                   | Privileged Container                                                  |                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| -                | GKE - pod created with host file system mount                 | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | GKE - pod created without security context                    | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | GKE - pod created on host network                             | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | GKE - privileged pod creation                                 | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | GKE - Forbidden request                                       | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | GKE - exec or attach to a pod                                 | Exec Into Container                                                   | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Twistlock Labs - GKE - Tampering with Twistlock configuration | Impair Defences                                                       | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Pod created in host process namespace                         | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Pod created with host file system mount                       | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Pod created without security context                          | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Pod created on host network                                   | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Privileged pod creation                                       | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Forbidden request                                             | -                                                                     | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Exec or attach to a pod                                       | Exec Into Container                                                   | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Twistlock Labs - Tampering with Twistlock configuration       | Impair Defences                                                       | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | CIS - Privileged pod created                                  | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | CIS - Pod created in host process ID namespace                | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | CIS - Pod created on host IPC namespace                       | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | CIS - Pod created on host network                             | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | CIS - Privilege escalation pod created                        | Privileged Container                                                  | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Pod created with sensitive host file system mount             | Writable Volumes                                                      | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -                | Exec or attach to a pod                                       | Exec Into Container                                                   | -                                                                                                                                                                                     |


---

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