Lateral Movement

Lateral Movement

"Lateral Movement" refers to the technique used by malicious actors to move from one system to another within a compromised network. It is a stage in a cyberattack where an attacker, after gaining initial access to one system, move to other systems within the same network to gain further control, gather information, elevate privileges, and generally increase their reach and impact to increase.

Lateral movement is a critical step for attackers as it allows them to hide their movement within the network and penetrate deeper into security layers. It can include various techniques and tools, including:

1. Credential harvesting: Stealing credentials from one system to gain access to other systems using the same credentials.
2. Pass-the-hash: Using stored password hashes to log into other systems.
3. Mimikatz: A well-known tool for extracting credentials and passwords from a system's memory.
4. Exploitation of vulnerabilities: Exploiting vulnerabilities in software or systems to gain access to other systems.
5. Lateral Movement Lateral Movement: An attacker can hop back and forth between multiple systems to avoid detection.
6. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and shell access: Using remote desktop protocols or shell access to access other systems from a compromised system.

Preventing and detecting lateral movement is essential for effective cybersecurity. Organizations must implement measures such as segmentation of the network, strict access control, monitoring of network activity, and use of Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) to detect and block suspicious activity.