Lateral Movement

What is Lateral Movement?

Lateral movement is a tactic used by attackers after gaining initial access to a network, allowing them to move across systems within the environment. Instead of directly attacking their primary target, attackers explore the network to find more valuable assets, escalate privileges, and gather sensitive information. This often involves leveraging compromised credentials, exploiting vulnerabilities, or using administrative tools to blend in with normal network activity. The goal is to extend the attacker’s control, maintain persistence, and avoid detection while accessing critical systems or data.

Lateral Movement Definition

Lateral movement is a cybersecurity term that refers to the techniques attackers use to navigate through a network after gaining initial access, moving from one system to another in search of valuable data or higher privileges. Attackers use lateral movement to expand their foothold, avoid detection, and gain access to critical systems by exploiting compromised credentials or vulnerabilities.

How does Lateral Movement Work?

Reconnaissance

In the context of lateral movement, reconnaissance is the initial phase where attackers gather information about the compromised network. This involves mapping the network’s structure, identifying key systems, users, services, and applications. Attackers typically use legitimate tools or built-in commands like ping, tracert, or PowerShell scripts to avoid detection while exploring accessible systems, privileges, and shared resources. The goal is to identify potential targets and vulnerabilities for further exploitation within the network.

Stealing of Credentials

After reconnaissance, attackers focus on stealing credentials to access other systems within the network. They often exploit weak passwords, misconfigured access controls, or use phishing techniques. Attackers may also capture credentials through keyloggers, memory scraping, or by accessing cached credentials and password stores. Tools like Mimikatz or Pass-the-Hash allow attackers to reuse credentials without needing plaintext passwords, enabling them to impersonate legitimate users while moving through the environment.

Lateral Movement Access

Once attackers have valid credentials, they begin moving laterally within the network by accessing additional systems, typically leveraging protocols like SMB, RDP, or SSH. Using stolen or escalated credentials, they access other machines or resources, escalating privileges when necessary. Attackers often target domain controllers, file servers, or other high-value assets, using legitimate network tools to blend in with normal traffic and avoid triggering security alarms.

Detection & Interception

Detecting lateral movement is challenging, as attackers often use legitimate credentials and tools, making their activities appear normal. Security teams can identify lateral movement through anomaly detection, monitoring for unusual patterns such as login attempts from unexpected locations, privilege escalation, or access to unusual resources. Tools like endpoint detection and response (EDR), behavioral analysis, and network segmentation can help intercept lateral movement. Timely detection is crucial to stop attackers before they reach critical systems or exfiltrate sensitive data.

How is Lateral Movement Different from Other Types Of Cyberattacks?

Lateral movement differs from other types of cyberattacks in its goal and methodology. Unlike attacks like phishing or ransomware that aim for immediate exploitation or disruption, lateral movement is a stealthy, post-exploitation tactic. After gaining initial access, the attacker’s objective is not to cause immediate damage but to move across the network undetected, probing for sensitive systems or data.

While many attacks focus on breaching the perimeter, lateral movement happens inside the compromised network, making it more challenging to detect. It often involves exploiting legitimate credentials and tools, whereas other attacks, like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or malware deployment, rely on external vulnerabilities or brute force methods. Lateral movement is also a key step in advanced persistent threats (APTs), where attackers maintain long-term access for data theft or espionage, unlike simpler attacks that aim for quick gains.

Why Do Attackers Use Lateral Movement Techniques?

To Evade Detection

Attackers use lateral movement techniques because it allows them to evade detection by blending in with normal network activity. Instead of relying on obvious malicious actions, they utilize legitimate credentials and tools, such as RDP, PowerShell, or SSH, making their behavior harder to distinguish from that of authorized users. By avoiding actions that trigger immediate alarms or security responses, attackers can quietly expand their foothold and maintain persistence within the network for extended periods.

To Learn About Vulnerabilities

Lateral movement provides attackers with the time needed to learn the network’s vulnerabilities and weaknesses. By moving slowly and stealthily through the environment, they can analyze network configurations, identify unpatched systems, and discover where sensitive data or critical systems reside. This reconnaissance allows them to plan their attack more effectively, increasing their chances of success by targeting systems with minimal defenses or those with misconfigurations that can be exploited.

To Escalate Privileges

Lateral movement techniques often give attackers the opportunity to escalate their privileges. As they move from system to system, they can find and compromise higher-level accounts, such as domain administrators or privileged service accounts. By gaining control of these elevated credentials, attackers can access more sensitive systems and data, override security restrictions, and establish more permanent control over the network, making it much harder for defenders to remove them.

Cyberattacks that use Lateral Movement

Espionage

Cyber espionage often involves lateral movement as attackers seek to silently navigate a network to gather sensitive information over an extended period. Once inside, they move laterally to avoid detection while locating valuable assets such as intellectual property, trade secrets, or government data. Lateral movement enables attackers to maintain a low profile, extract intelligence, and potentially establish long-term access to the network for ongoing data collection without triggering immediate security responses.

Data Exfiltration

In a data exfiltration attack, lateral movement is used to locate and access sensitive data across different systems within a network. Attackers may start with a less critical system, using lateral movement to identify and reach storage servers, databases, or other critical infrastructure. Once the data is located, they prepare it for extraction, often in small chunks to avoid detection. This slow, methodical approach gives attackers time to circumvent security controls and exfiltrate valuable information such as personal data, financial records, or confidential business information.

Botnet Infection

Lateral movement can also play a key role in expanding a botnet infection within an organization’s network. After compromising an initial machine, attackers use lateral movement to propagate malware to other systems, turning them into additional bots within the network. This creates a stronger foothold, allowing the botnet to grow by infecting more devices, which can then be controlled remotely for malicious activities like DDoS attacks, spam campaigns, or other forms of cybercrime. The stealthy lateral movement helps the botnet spread without being quickly detected.

Ransomware

Ransomware attacks frequently leverage lateral movement to maximize their impact by spreading across the network. Once an initial system is compromised, attackers move laterally to infect other machines and critical infrastructure, such as file servers or backups. By doing so, they can encrypt more data, increasing the scope of damage and making it harder for organizations to recover without paying a ransom. The more systems the ransomware affects, the more leverage attackers have to demand higher ransom payments, often leaving entire networks crippled.

How to Detect and Prevent Lateral Movement Attacks?

Enhance Attack Surface Awareness

To detect and prevent lateral movement, organizations need to enhance their attack surface awareness by understanding the layout of their network and identifying potential vulnerabilities. This includes mapping all devices, services, and data repositories, as well as continuously assessing exposure points that attackers could exploit. Regular vulnerability scans, penetration testing, and asset discovery tools can help uncover misconfigurations or weaknesses, reducing the opportunities for attackers to move laterally within the network.

Analyze Permissions and Identity Management

Analyzing permissions and implementing strong identity management practices is critical to minimizing lateral movement risks. Organizations should adopt the principle of least privilege, ensuring that users and systems have only the necessary access for their roles. This includes regularly reviewing access controls, deactivating unused accounts, and using multi-factor authentication (MFA) to safeguard privileged accounts. Properly managing identity and access policies limits an attacker’s ability to use stolen credentials to move freely within the network.

Monitoring for anomalies is a key technique to detect lateral movement early. Security teams should use advanced tools like behavioral analytics, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems to track unusual activity, such as unexpected login patterns, abnormal access to sensitive resources, or privilege escalation attempts. By improving detection accuracy through machine learning and continuous tuning of detection rules, organizations can more effectively spot lateral movement indicators and respond before significant damage occurs.

Implement Advanced Automation and Orchestration

To prevent lateral movement at scale, implementing advanced automation and orchestration can help speed up detection and response. Automated tools can analyze network traffic, isolate suspicious devices, and initiate incident responses without manual intervention. Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms can integrate these processes with threat intelligence feeds and predefined playbooks, allowing organizations to respond to threats in real time. Automation reduces the window of opportunity for attackers to move laterally, ensuring quicker containment and mitigation.

Lateral Movement Techniques Used in Cyberattacks

Pass the Hash (PtH) is a lateral movement technique where attackers use a hashed version of a password, rather than the plaintext password itself, to authenticate to other systems. In this method, attackers steal hashed credentials from one system and use them to gain access to others, bypassing the need to decrypt the hash. PtH is especially effective in environments where single sign-on (SSO) or weak password management is in place, allowing attackers to move laterally across systems without triggering alarms. This technique exploits weaknesses in how Windows systems handle password hashes in the authentication process.

Pass the Ticket (PtT)

Pass the Ticket (PtT) is a technique that targets Kerberos authentication in Windows environments. In PtT attacks, attackers steal a valid Kerberos ticket from a compromised machine and use it to authenticate to other systems without needing the actual password. Kerberos tickets are used for Single Sign-On (SSO), meaning once the attacker has a valid ticket-granting ticket (TGT) or service ticket, they can move laterally within the network and access resources as the original user, often with elevated privileges. This method is difficult to detect because attackers are using legitimate credentials.

Exploitation of Remote Services

The exploitation of remote services involves attackers taking advantage of exposed or vulnerable services like Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Secure Shell (SSH), or Server Message Block (SMB) to move laterally within a network. By exploiting weak configurations, unpatched vulnerabilities, or misused credentials, attackers can gain remote access to systems and then pivot to other machines. For example, weak RDP settings or exposed SMB shares are common targets that allow attackers to spread ransomware or deploy additional payloads across a network.

Internal Spear Phishing

Internal spear phishing is a lateral movement technique where attackers, after compromising one account, send targeted phishing emails from within the network to other employees. Since these emails come from a legitimate, internal address, they are more likely to evade detection and be trusted by the recipients. The attackers use this technique to gather additional credentials, compromise other users’ machines, or gain access to sensitive systems, facilitating further lateral movement without raising alarms.

SSH Hijacking

SSH hijacking involves attackers taking control of active SSH sessions between trusted systems, allowing them to assume the identity of a legitimate user and move laterally across the network. Once attackers compromise one machine, they can hijack ongoing SSH connections without needing additional credentials, exploiting trust relationships between systems. This technique is commonly used in Linux environments and is particularly dangerous because SSH traffic is encrypted, making it difficult for security monitoring tools to detect unauthorized activity.

Windows Admin Shares

Windows admin shares are hidden network shares used by system administrators for remote management, such as accessing the C$ or ADMIN$ directories. Attackers exploit these shares by using stolen credentials or through privilege escalation to move laterally within a network. Once they gain access to admin shares, they can copy malware or tools to the target systems, execute commands remotely, and further compromise the network. Since these shares are typically trusted for administrative tasks, malicious use of them can be hard to detect without advanced monitoring.

How Can Acalvio Protect Your Enterprise from Lateral Movement Attacks?

Acalvio offers a comprehensive solution called ShadowPlex to protect enterprises from lateral movement attacks.The approach leverages deception technology,which involves deploying highly-realistic deceptions throughout the network to lure and distract attackers.

When attackers attempt to move laterally and interact with these deceptive assets, Acalvio ShadowPlex immediately alerts security teams, allowing for early detection and containment without affecting the actual infrastructure.

ShadowPlex provides detailed insights into attackers’ behaviors, mapping their path through the network and showing which systems they attempt to access. This allows security teams to understand the scope of the attack and respond quickly.

Pass the Hash (PtH)

Pass the Hash (PtH) is a lateral movement technique where attackers use a hashed version of a password, rather than the plaintext password itself, to authenticate to other systems. In this method, attackers steal hashed credentials from one system and use them to gain access to others, bypassing the need to decrypt the hash. PtH is especially effective in environments where single sign-on (SSO) or weak password management is in place, allowing attackers to move laterally across systems without triggering alarms. This technique exploits weaknesses in how Windows systems handle password hashes in the authentication process.

Pass the Ticket (PtT)

Pass the Ticket (PtT) is a technique that targets Kerberos authentication in Windows environments. In PtT attacks, attackers steal a valid Kerberos ticket from a compromised machine and use it to authenticate to other systems without needing the actual password. Kerberos tickets are used for Single Sign-On (SSO), meaning once the attacker has a valid ticket-granting ticket (TGT) or service ticket, they can move laterally within the network and access resources as the original user, often with elevated privileges. This method is difficult to detect because attackers are using legitimate credentials.

Exploitation of Remote Services

The exploitation of remote services involves attackers taking advantage of exposed or vulnerable services like Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Secure Shell (SSH), or Server Message Block (SMB) to move laterally within a network. By exploiting weak configurations, unpatched vulnerabilities, or misused credentials, attackers can gain remote access to systems and then pivot to other machines. For example, weak RDP settings or exposed SMB shares are common targets that allow attackers to spread ransomware or deploy additional payloads across a network.

Internal Spear Phishing

Internal spear phishing is a lateral movement technique where attackers, after compromising one account, send targeted phishing emails from within the network to other employees. Since these emails come from a legitimate, internal address, they are more likely to evade detection and be trusted by the recipients. The attackers use this technique to gather additional credentials, compromise other users’ machines,or gain access to sensitive systems,facilitating further lateral movement without raising alarms.

SSH Hijacking

SSH hijacking involves attackers taking control of active SSH sessions between trusted systems,allowing them to assume the identity of a legitimate user and move laterally across the network.Once attackers compromise one machine,they can hijack ongoing SSH connections without needing additional credentials,exploiting trust relationships between systems.This technique is commonly used in Linux environments and is particularly dangerous because SSH traffic is encrypted,making it difficult for security monitoring tools to detect unauthorized activity.

Windows Admin Shares

Windows admin shares are hidden network shares used by system administrators for remote management,such as accessing the C$ or ADMIN$ directories.Attackers exploit these shares by using stolen credentials or through privilege escalation to move laterally within a network.Once they gain access to admin shares,they can copy malware or tools to the target systems,execute commands remotely,and further compromise the network.Since these shares are typically trusted for administrative tasks,malicious use of them can be hard to detect without advanced monitoring.

How Can Acalvio Protect Your Enterprise from Lateral Movement Attacks?

Acalvio offers a comprehensive solution calledShadowPlexto protect enterprises from lateral movement attacks.The approach leverages deception technology,which involves deploying highly-realistic deceptions throughout the network to lure and distract attackers.

When attackers attempt to move laterally and interact with these deceptive assets,Acalvio ShadowPlex immediately alerts security teams,allowing for early detection and containment without affecting the actual infrastructure

ShadowPlex provides detailed insights into attackers’ behaviors,mapping their path through the network and showing which systems they attempt to access.This allows security teams to understand the scope of the attack and respond quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions