CAPEC-141

Standard Abstraction Level
Meta — Very abstract, high-level category
Standard — Specific enough to understand
Detailed — Tied to specific technique Draft MITRE CAPEC Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development
Incomplete — Partially defined
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CAPEC Likelihood: High Severity: High
Cache Poisoning

Description

An attacker exploits the functionality of cache technologies to cause specific data to be cached that aids the attackers' objectives. This describes any attack whereby an attacker places incorrect or harmful material in cache. The targeted cache can be an application's cache (e.g. a web browser cache) or a public cache (e.g. a DNS or ARP cache). Until the cache is refreshed, most applications or clients will treat the corrupted cache value as valid. This can lead to a wide range of exploits including redirecting web browsers towards sites that install malware and repeatedly incorrect calculations based on the incorrect value.

Prerequisites

The attacker must be able to modify the value stored in a cache to match a desired value.

The targeted application must not be able to detect the illicit modification of the cache and must trust the cache value in its calculations.

Mitigations

Configuration: Disable client side caching.

Implementation: Listens for query replies on a network, and sends a notification via email when an entry changes.

Skills Required

[Medium] To overwrite/modify targeted cache