MITRE Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (MIT3490134112625)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the MITRE breach identified under incident ID MIT3490134112625.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of MITRE's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mitre, the number of followers: 234635, the industry type: Research Services and the number of employees: 9312 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 775 and after the incident was 774 with a difference of -1 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on MITRE and their customers.

On 20 February 2024, European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) disclosed Vulnerability Management and Operational Risk issues under the banner "Launch of European Union's Vulnerability Database and Concerns Over CVE Program Funding".

The European Union launched its new European Vulnerability Database (EVD), a notification platform for cybersecurity vulnerabilities, while concerns arose over the funding and future of MITRE's CVE Program.

Impact assessments are still underway, so the full scope is not yet clear.

In response, and began remediation that includes Temporary 11-month contract extension for MITRE to continue operating the CVE program; historical CVE records to remain available on GitHub if funding lapses, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public statements by ENISA and MITRE; media coverage by Recorded Future News.

The case underscores how Ongoing coordination between ENISA and MITRE; CVE program operations secured for 11 months via temporary contract extension, teams are taking away lessons such as The incident highlights the critical dependency of the global cybersecurity ecosystem on centralized vulnerability databases like the CVE program. It underscores the need for sustainable funding models and contingency planning to ensure continuity of essential cybersecurity infrastructure. Collaboration between regional entities (e.g., ENISA) and global programs (e.g., MITRE) is vital for resilience, and recommending next steps like Establish long-term funding mechanisms for critical cybersecurity utilities like the CVE program to prevent operational disruptions, Develop redundant or distributed vulnerability databases to mitigate single points of failure and Enhance transparency in contract renewals and funding allocations for foundational cybersecurity programs, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Cybersecurity vendors, governments, and critical infrastructure entities advised to monitor updates from ENISA and MITRE regarding the CVE program's future.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Endpoint Denial of Service: Application Exhaustion Flood (T1499.004) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating potential disruption to global vulnerability tracking and response prioritization if CVE program funding lapses and Network Denial of Service (T1498) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating halting new vulnerability entries and eventually taking the platform offline. Under the Resource Development tactic, the analysis identified Obtain Capabilities: Vulnerabilities (T1588.006) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating threat actors could exploit unpatched vulnerabilities without centralized tracking. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Domain Policy Modification: Domain Trust Modification (T1484.002) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating reliance on a single entity for a foundational cybersecurity service creates systemic trust risks. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.