CAPEC-424: Influence Perception of Consensus or Social Proof

Description
The adversary influences the target's actions by leveraging the inherent human nature to assume behavior of others is appropriate. In situations of uncertainty, people tend to behave in ways they see others behaving. The adversary convinces the target of adopting behavior or actions that is advantageous to the adversary.
Extended Description

Pretexting can also be used to impersonate people in certain jobs and roles that they never themselves have done. In simple form, these attacks can be leveraged to learn information about a target. More complicated iterations may seek to solicit a target to perform some action that assists the adversary in exploiting organizational weaknesses or obtaining access to secure facilities or systems. Pretexting is not a one-size fits all solution. Good information gathering techniques can make or break a good pretext. A solid pretext is an essential part of building trust. If an adversary’s alias, story, or identity has holes or lacks credibility or even the perception of credibility the target will most likely catch on.

Severity :

Low

Possibility :

Low

Type :

Detailed
Relationships with other CAPECs

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

Prerequisites

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

  • The adversary must have the means and knowledge of how to communicate with the target in some manner.
Skills required

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

  • Low The adversary requires strong inter-personal and communication skills.
Taxonomy mappings

Mappings to ATT&CK, OWASP and other frameworks.

Related CWE

A Related Weakness relationship associates a weakness with this attack pattern. Each association implies a weakness that must exist for a given attack to be successful.

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