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Difficulty: MediumSocial Engineering Attacks and Vectors

Software developers at an enterprise regularly visit a well-known third-party technical documentation website to view API specifications. A threat actor compromises this external website and injects malicious code designed to execute a drive-by download targeting visitors connecting from the enterprise's public IP block. Which of the following social engineering attack vectors is described in this scenario?

  1. Watering hole attackAnswer
  2. B
    Spear phishing
  3. C
    Pharming
  4. D
    Typosquatting

Answer

Watering hole attack
A watering hole attack occurs when a threat actor identifies and compromises a legitimate third-party website frequently visited by members of a targeted organization. When users visit the compromised site, malicious code silently executes to compromise their systems.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the target group and victim behavior in the scenario
The target group consists of enterprise software developers accessing a legitimate third-party documentation website.
Identifying the target audience and their trusted web resources clarifies the attack vector.
2
Examine the attacker's method of compromise
The attacker compromised the trusted third-party website and embedded malicious code to infect visitors from the target organization's IP address range.
Compromising a site where targets naturally congregate to deliver malware defines a watering hole strategy.
3
Match the observed technique to standard social engineering attack definitions
The technique matches a watering hole attack.
Watering hole attacks leverage implicit trust in a frequently visited third-party resource without sending direct malicious messages to the targets.

Key Concept

Watering Hole Attack
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Topics

Social Engineering Attacks and Vectors

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