Eavesdropping

Threat actors may seek to capture network communications throughout the ground station and communication channel (i.e. radio frequency, optical) used for uplink and downlink communications

ID: EXF-0003
Sub-techniques:  EXF-0003.01 | EXF-0003.02
Tactic:
Created: 2022/10/19
Last Modified: 2022/10/19

Countermeasures

ID Name Description NIST Rev5 D3FEND ISO 27001
CM0002 COMSEC Utilizing secure communication protocols with strong cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure of, and detect changes to, information during transmission. Systems should also maintain the confidentiality and integrity of information during preparation for transmission and during reception. Spacecraft should not employ a mode of operations where cryptography on the TT&C link can be disabled (i.e., crypto-bypass mode). The cryptographic mechanisms should identify and reject wireless transmissions that are deliberate attempts to achieve imitative or manipulative communications deception based on signal parameters. AC-17(1) AC-17(10) AC-17(10) AC-17(2) AC-18(1) AC-2(11) AC-3(10) IA-4(9) IA-5 IA-5(7) IA-7 SA-8(18) SA-9(6) SC-10 SC-12 SC-12(1) SC-12(2) SC-12(3) SC-12(6) SC-13 SC-16(3) SC-28(1) SC-28(3) SC-7 SC-7(11) SC-7(18) SI-10 SI-10(3) SI-10(5) SI-10(6) SI-19(4) A.8.16 A.5.16 A.5.17 A.5.14 A.8.16 A.8.20 A.8.22 A.8.23 A.8.26 A.8.20 A.8.24 A.8.24 A.8.26 A.5.31 A.5.33 A.8.11
CM0036 Session Termination Terminate the connection associated with a communications session at the end of the session or after an acceptable amount of inactivity which is established via the concept of operations. AC-12 SC-10 SI-14(3) A.8.20
CM0029 TRANSEC Utilize TRANSEC to secure data transmissions from being infiltrated, exploited, or intercepted. AC-18(5) CP-8 SC-40 SC-40(1) SC-40(3) SC-40(4) SC-8(4) A.5.29 A.7.11

Indicators of Behavior

ID Name Description STIX Pattern
CSNE-16 Suspicious Network Traffic Without Expected Encryption Detection of unencrypted telemetry data being transmitted to the ground station when encryption is expected, potentially indicating that encryption has been bypassed to enable unauthorized data exfiltration. [network-traffic:encryption_status != 'encrypted' AND network-traffic:protocols[*] = 'satellite_communication' AND network-traffic:dst_ref.role = 'ground_station']

References