T1491.002sub-technique of T1491 Defacement
External Defacement
Windows · IaaS · Linux · macOSnothing on this site yetT1491.002 on attack.mitre.org
An adversary may deface systems external to an organization in an attempt to deliver messaging, intimidate, or otherwise mislead an organization or users. External Defacement may ultimately cause users to distrust the systems and to question/discredit the system’s integrity. Externally-facing websites are a common victim of defacement; often targeted by adversary and hacktivist groups in order to push a political message or spread propaganda.
If this is happening now
Checklists and playbooks to open while the alert is still live.
Playbook for this stage
Ransomware, suspected or confirmed
Files renamed or unreadable, a ransom note, or backup deletion commands seen.
how MITRE says to see it
Behavioral Detection of External Website Defacement across Platforms
- Adversary modifies externally-facing web content by accessing and overwriting hosted HTML/JS/CSS files, typically following web shell deployment, credential abuse, or exploitation of web application vulnerabilities.
- Adversary compromises a Linux-based web server and modifies hosted web files by exploiting upload vulnerabilities, remote code execution, or replacing index.html via SSH/webshell.
- Adversary modifies web-facing content on macOS via web development environments like MAMP or misconfigured Apache instances, typically with access to the hosting user account or via persistence tools.
- Adversary modifies content in cloud-hosted websites (e.g., AWS S3-backed, Azure Blob-hosted sites) by gaining access to management consoles or APIs and uploading altered HTML/JS files.
what reduces it
- M1053 Data Backup. Consider implementing IT disaster recovery plans that contain procedures for taking regular data backups that can be used to restore organizational data. Ensure backups are stored off system and is protected from common methods adversaries may use to gain access and destroy the backups to prevent recovery.