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A Taxonomy of Attacks and a Survey of Defence Mechanisms for Semantic Social Engineering Attacks

Published: 09 December 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Social engineering is used as an umbrella term for a broad spectrum of computer exploitations that employ a variety of attack vectors and strategies to psychologically manipulate a user. Semantic attacks are the specific type of social engineering attacks that bypass technical defences by actively manipulating object characteristics, such as platform or system applications, to deceive rather than directly attack the user. Commonly observed examples include obfuscated URLs, phishing emails, drive-by downloads, spoofed websites and scareware to name a few. This article presents a taxonomy of semantic attacks, as well as a survey of applicable defences. By contrasting the threat landscape and the associated mitigation techniques in a single comparative matrix, we identify the areas where further research can be particularly beneficial.

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  1. A Taxonomy of Attacks and a Survey of Defence Mechanisms for Semantic Social Engineering Attacks

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    Eduardo B. Fernandez

    Social engineering attacks include a large variety of ways to manipulate and deceive users. A specific type is semantic attacks that deceive rather than directly attack a user. We find here a taxonomy and description of semantic attacks indicating possible defenses. The taxonomy is based on analyzing how an attack handles the three distinct stages of an attack: orchestration, exploitation, and execution. These are well-chosen subgroups that provide a clear picture about the nature of the attacks and allow grouping of all the known attacks of this type. A more general (in scope) threat classification uses threat patterns providing detailed descriptions of how the attacks reach their goals, and it is complementary to the one given here. Four examples illustrate the classification, followed by a table describing 30 attacks that have been found on the web. This is followed by a discussion of defense mechanisms, consisting of organizational and technical aspects. An attack and defense matrix summarizes this information, providing a mapping of defenses against semantic attacks. The paper ends with a section indicating open problems. Overall, this is a very useful paper that provides a clear perspective of what we know about semantic attacks and what we need to study further. Because semantic attacks have many aspects in common with other types of attacks, this paper is highly recommended for anybody doing research on security threats as well as for architects and developers who have to build or evaluate secure systems. Online Computing Reviews Service

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    cover image ACM Computing Surveys
    ACM Computing Surveys  Volume 48, Issue 3
    February 2016
    619 pages
    ISSN:0360-0300
    EISSN:1557-7341
    DOI:10.1145/2856149
    • Editor:
    • Sartaj Sahni
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    Publication History

    Published: 09 December 2015
    Accepted: 01 September 2015
    Revised: 01 September 2015
    Received: 01 September 2014
    Published in CSUR Volume 48, Issue 3

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    Author Tags

    1. Computer crime
    2. semantic attacks
    3. social engineering attacks
    4. survey

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