Attivo Networks Inc.

Sentinelone, Inc.

Mcafee, Inc.

Venu Vissamsetty

Harinath Vishwanath Ramchetty

Anil Gupta

Shivakumar Buruganahalli

Srikant Vissamsetti

Muthukumar Lakshmanan

Nitin Jyoti

Prashanth Srinivas Mysore

Pavan Patel

Vinod Kumar A Porwal

Vinay Mahadik

Bharath Madhusudan

Sachin Kajekar

Sreenivasa Sudheendra Penupolu

Ankur Rungta

Satya Das

Navtej Singh

Endpoints in a network execute a sensor module that intercepts commands to obtain information regarding a remote network resource. The sensor module compares a source of commands to a sanctioned list of applications. If the source is not sanctioned, then a simulated response can be provided to the source that references a decoy server.

Deceiving attackers accessing network data

Endpoints in a network execute a sensor module that intercepts responses from a directory service to a source on the endpoint. The sensor module determines if the source is sanctioned, such as by referencing a sanctioned list of applications. If the source is not sanctioned, then a simulated response can be provided to the source that references a decoy server.

A system includes one or more 'BotMagnet' modules that are exposed to infection by malicious code. The BotMagnets may include one or more virtual machines hosting operating systems in which malicious code may be installed and executed without exposing sensitive data or other parts of a network. In particular, outbound traffic may be transmitted to a Sinkhole module that implements a service requested by the outbound traffic and transmits responses to the malicious code executing within the BotMagnet. Credentials for services implemented by a BotSink may be planted in an active directory (AD) server. The BotSink periodically uses the credentials thereby creating log entries indicating use thereof. When an attacker accesses the services using the credentials, the BotSink engages and monitors an attacker system and may generate an alert. Decoy services may be assigned to a domain and associated with names according to a naming convention of the domain.

Implementing decoys in a network environment

Endpoints in a network execute a sensor module that intercepts commands. The sensor module compares a source of commands to a sanctioned list of applications received from a management server. If the source does not match a sanctioned application and the command is a write or delete command, the command is ignored and a simulated acknowledgment is sent. If the command is a read command, deception data is returned instead. In some embodiments, certain data is protected such that commands will be ignored or modified to refer to deception data where the source is not a sanctioned application. The source may be verified to be a sanctioned application by evaluating a certificate, hash, or path of the source. Responses from an active directory server may be intercepted and modified to reference a decoy server when not addressed to a sanctioned application.

Deceiving attackers accessing active directory data

Endpoints in a network execute a sensor module that intercepts commands. The sensor module compares a source of commands to a sanctioned list of applications received from a management server. If the source does not match a sanctioned application the command is ignored and a simulated acknowledgment is sent or, deception data is returned instead. In some embodiments, certain data is protected such that commands will be ignored or modified to refer to deception data where the source is not a sanctioned application. The source may be verified to be a sanctioned application by evaluating a certificate, hash, or path of the source. Responses from an active directory server may be intercepted and modified to reference a decoy server when not addressed to a sanctioned application. Requests to view network resources may be responded to with references to a decoy server.

An endpoint executes a deflection service that detects failed connection attempts (TCP RST packets) and evaluates whether they are likely the result of a reconnaissance attack. If an inbound connection fails, a connection request packet (TCP SYN) is sent to a decoy server that includes data from the TCP RST packet. The decoy server then completes a connection handshake with a destination of the TCP RST packet and engages a process at the destination. If an outbound connection fails, the deflection service facilitates a connection between a process executing on the endpoint and the decoy server and associated with a destination port referenced by the TCP RST packet.

Deceiving attackers in endpoint systems

Endpoints of various domains implement forwarding modules as well as perform various production tasks. The endpoints of a domain participate in an election process by which one or more endpoints are selected to operate as honeypots. The forwarding modules of non-selected endpoints become inactive, but wake up periodically to determine whether an election process is occurring. Selected endpoints obtain configuration data from a management server. The endpoints then acquire IP addresses and implement one or more services according to the configuration data. The management server may configure the services based on a location of the selected endpoint. Traffic received by the selected endpoints is forwarded to the management server, which engages an attacker system using one or more VMs. When an endpoint moves to a different domain, it releases acquired IP addresses and attempts to participate in the election process in the different domain.

Implementing decoys in network endpoints

A system includes one or more 'BotMagnet' modules that are exposed to infection by malicious code. The BotMagnets may include one or more virtual machines hosing operating systems in which malicious code may be installed and executed without exposing sensitive data or other parts of a network. In particular, outbound traffic may be transmitted to a Sinkhole module that implements a service requested by the outbound traffic and transmits responses to the malicious code executing within the BotMagnet. In the case of shellcode attacks, unsuccessful attacks may be emulated by selecting a corresponding emulator that will receive and execute instructions, as would a successful shellcode attack. Events occurring on the BotMagnet and Sinkhole are correlated and used to characterize the malicious code. The characterization may be transmitted to other computer systems in order to detect instances of the malicious code.

Emulating shellcode attacks

A system reports credentials on nodes of a network. Nodes are assigned to security silos. If a credential reported from a node is found to match a credential found on a node outside of its security silo or be for authentication with a node outside the its security an alert is generated, unless proper precautions are generated. Credentials may be reported as one-way hashes of credentials. Security silos may be automatically generated to segregate at-risk nodes from critical servers based on the presence or use of email clients and browsers. Precautions that may be used to suppress alerts, such as using KERBEROS TGT.

Authentication incident detection and management

Endpoints in a network environment include remote file systems mounted thereto that reference a file system generator that responds to file system commands with deception data. Requests to list the contents of a directory are intercepted, such as while a response is passed up through an IO stack. The response is modified to include references to deception files and directories that do not actually exist on the system hosting the file system generator. The number of the deception files and directories may be randomly selected. Requests to read deception files are answered by generating a file having a file type corresponding to the deception file. Deception files may be written back to the system by an attacker and then deleted.

Ransomware mitigation system

A system includes one or more 'BotMagnet' modules that are exposed to infection by malicious code. The BotMagnets may include one or more virtual machines hosing operating systems in which malicious code may be installed and executed without exposing sensitive data or other parts of a network. In particular, outbound traffic may be transmitted to a Sinkhole module that implements a service requested by the outbound traffic and transmits responses to the malicious code executing within the BotMagnet. Dark space in a network (unused IP addresses, unused ports and absent applications, and invalid usernames and passwords) is consumed by a BotSink such that attempts to access Darkspace resources will be directed to the BotSink, which will engage the source host of such attempts.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Venu Vissamsetty