Lateral Movement

Lateral movement is a critical phase in the attack lifecycle that occurs after an adversary has established a foothold within a network. Rather than remaining on the initially compromised host, the attacker pivots to other systems to escalate privileges, access sensitive data, or reach domain controllers and critical infrastructure.

Common lateral movement techniques include pass-the-hash, pass-the-ticket, remote service exploitation, abuse of legitimate remote administration tools like RDP and WMI, and leveraging compromised credentials. Attackers often blend in with normal administrative traffic to avoid detection, making this phase particularly challenging to identify.

Defending against lateral movement requires a layered approach. Network segmentation restricts an attacker's ability to reach other subnets. Implementing the principle of least privilege limits what compromised accounts can access. Monitoring for anomalous authentication patterns, unusual remote connections, and credential misuse through SIEM and endpoint detection tools is essential. Deploying honeypots and deception technologies can also help detect movement early in the attack chain.