CAPEC-611: BitSquatting
Description
An adversary registers a domain name one bit different than a trusted domain. A BitSquatting attack leverages random errors in memory to direct Internet traffic to adversary-controlled destinations. BitSquatting requires no exploitation or complicated reverse engineering, and is operating system and architecture agnostic. Experimental observations show that BitSquatting popular websites could redirect non-trivial amounts of Internet traffic to a malicious entity.
- Likelihood of attack
- Low
- Typical severity
- Medium
- Abstraction
- DetailedA low-level, detailed pattern, often for a particular technology.
Mechanism of attack: Engage in Deceptive Interactions
Prerequisites
- An adversary requires knowledge of popular or high traffic domains, that could be used to deceive potential targets.
Skills required
- LowAdversaries must be able to register DNS hostnames/URL’s.
Consequences
- Other
Other
Depending on the intention of the adversary, a successful BitSquatting attack can be leveraged to execute more complex attacks such as cross-site scripting or stealing account credentials.
Mitigations
- Authenticate all servers and perform redundant checks when using DNS hostnames.
- When possible, use error-correcting (ECC) memory in local devices as non-ECC memory is significantly more vulnerable to faults.
Related weaknesses (CWE)
CAPEC 3.9 links no CWE weakness to this pattern.