Adversaries may employ a known asymmetric encryption algorithm to conceal command and control traffic rather than relying on any inherent protections provided by a communication protocol. Asymmetric cryptography, also known as public key cryptography, uses a keypair per party: one public that can be freely distributed, and one private. Due to how the keys are generated, the sender encrypts data with the receiver’s public key and the receiver decrypts the data with their private key. This ensures that only the intended recipient can read the encrypted data. Common public key encryption algorithms include RSA and ElGamal. For efficiency, many protocols (including SSL/TLS) use symmetric cryptography once a connection is established, but use asymmetric cryptography to establish or transmit a key. As such, these protocols are classified as [Asymmetric Cryptography](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1573/002).

Linked Issues

Issuelinks
Linktype Issue
is related to Techniques
is blocked by Detection Strategy for Encrypted Channel via Asymmetric Cryptography across OS Platforms
is blocked by Network Intrusion Prevention
is blocked by SSL/TLS Inspection
is blocked by Security, Compliance & Resilience Controls Oversight
is blocked by Secure Baseline Configurations
is blocked by Least Functionality
is blocked by Continuous Monitoring
is blocked by Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
is blocked by Transmission of Cybersecurity & Data Protection Attributes
is blocked by Malicious Code Protection (Anti-Malware)
is blocked by Boundary Protection
is blocked by Data Flow Enforcement – Access Control Lists (ACLs)
is blocked by Session Integrity
Impressum German English