sica-fondt/knowledge/cyber-skills/mappings/mitre-attack

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

This directory maps the cybersecurity skills in this repository to the MITRE ATT&CK framework (Enterprise v15).

Overview

MITRE ATT&CK is a curated knowledge base and model for cyber adversary behavior, reflecting the various phases of an adversary's lifecycle and the platforms they target. This mapping connects our hands-on skills to ATT&CK tactics and techniques, enabling:

• Threat-informed defense -- prioritize skill development based on real adversary behavior
• Gap analysis -- identify ATT&CK techniques not yet covered by available skills
• Purple team exercises -- pair offensive (red team) and defensive (blue team) skills for each technique
• Agent-driven discovery -- AI agents can query skills by ATT&CK ID for automated security workflows

Mapping Methodology

Tactic Mapping (TA00xx)

Each of the 14 ATT&CK Enterprise tactics represents a distinct adversary objective. Skills are mapped to tactics based on which adversary goal they help achieve (offensive) or defend against (defensive):

Tactic	ID	Offensive Skills	Defensive Skills
Reconnaissance	TA0043	penetration-testing, red-teaming	threat-intelligence, phishing-defense
Resource Development	TA0042	red-teaming	threat-intelligence
Initial Access	TA0001	web-application-security, penetration-testing	phishing-defense, endpoint-security
Execution	TA0002	penetration-testing, red-teaming	malware-analysis, endpoint-security, soc-operations
Persistence	TA0003	red-teaming, penetration-testing	threat-hunting, digital-forensics, endpoint-security
Privilege Escalation	TA0004	penetration-testing, red-teaming	endpoint-security, identity-access-management
Defense Evasion	TA0005	red-teaming	malware-analysis, endpoint-security, threat-hunting
Credential Access	TA0006	penetration-testing, red-teaming	identity-access-management, soc-operations
Discovery	TA0007	penetration-testing, red-teaming	threat-hunting, network-security
Lateral Movement	TA0008	red-teaming, penetration-testing	network-security, threat-hunting, soc-operations
Collection	TA0009	red-teaming	digital-forensics, threat-hunting
Command and Control	TA0011	red-teaming	threat-intelligence, network-security, soc-operations
Exfiltration	TA0010	red-teaming	threat-hunting, digital-forensics, network-security
Impact	TA0040	red-teaming	ransomware-defense, incident-response

Technique Mapping (T1xxx)

Skills are mapped to specific techniques based on their content. Examples:

Technique	ID	Example Skills
Phishing	T1566	analyzing-phishing-email-headers, analyzing-certificate-transparency-for-phishing
Exploit Public-Facing Application	T1190	web-application-security skills (SQL injection, XSS, SSRF)
OS Credential Dumping	T1003	penetration-testing credential harvesting skills
PowerShell	T1059.001	analyzing-windows-event-logs-in-splunk, malware-analysis skills
Remote Services	T1021	network-security lateral movement skills
Data Encrypted for Impact	T1486	analyzing-ransomware-encryption-mechanisms
Command and Scripting Interpreter	T1059	malware-analysis script deobfuscation skills
Scheduled Task/Job	T1053	analyzing-malware-persistence-with-autoruns
Registry Run Keys	T1547.001	analyzing-windows-registry-for-artifacts
DLL Side-Loading	T1574.002	analyzing-bootkit-and-rootkit-samples

Sub-technique Mapping (T1xxx.xxx)

Where applicable, skills are mapped to sub-techniques for precision. For example:

• T1566.001 (Spearphishing Attachment) -- analyzing-email-headers-for-phishing-investigation
• T1566.002 (Spearphishing Link) -- analyzing-certificate-transparency-for-phishing
• T1003.001 (LSASS Memory) -- analyzing-memory-dumps-with-volatility

ATT&CK Navigator Integration

You can visualize our skill coverage using the ATT&CK Navigator. To generate a Navigator layer:

1. Use the coverage summary in coverage-summary.md to identify covered tactics
2. Import the tactic/technique IDs into a Navigator layer JSON
3. Color-code by coverage depth (number of skills per technique)

Suggested Color Scale

Coverage	Color	Meaning
0 skills	White	No coverage -- gap
1-2 skills	Light blue	Basic coverage
3-5 skills	Medium blue	Moderate coverage
6+ skills	Dark blue	Strong coverage

Skill Tag Convention

Skills relevant to ATT&CK carry these tags in their YAML frontmatter:

• mitre-attack -- general ATT&CK relevance (56 skills currently tagged)
• Technique-specific tags like privilege-escalation, lateral-movement, persistence
• Tool-specific tags that map to ATT&CK software entries (e.g., cobalt-strike, mimikatz)

How to Contribute Mappings

1. Identify the skill -- Read the skill's SKILL.md to understand what it teaches
2. Find the ATT&CK technique -- Search attack.mitre.org for the matching technique
3. Determine offensive vs. defensive -- Is the skill about performing or detecting/preventing the technique?
4. Update the mapping -- Add the technique ID to the appropriate table in this directory
5. Update skill tags -- Add mitre-attack and technique-specific tags to the skill's frontmatter
6. Submit a PR -- Include the ATT&CK technique URL as justification

References

• MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Matrix
• MITRE ATT&CK Navigator
• ATT&CK v15 Release Notes
• MITRE ATT&CK for ICS -- relevant for ot-ics-security skills
• MITRE ATT&CK for Mobile -- relevant for mobile-security skills