
BianLian: Exfiltration-Based Extortion
A threat actor with a valid domain account and no MFA to stop them lands on an internet-facing RDP jump host, spends the morning living off the land, dumps credentials from LSASS, and spends the afternoon moving approximately 47 GB of engineering documents out of the network through a cloud-sync utility pointed at storage they control. No files are encrypted; the leverage is the stolen data itself. Reconstruct the full chain from initial RDP spray to log wipe.
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Investigation Tasks
Complete each task by investigating alerts and submitting your findings.
Identify the entry point
25Unusual activity is radiating from a Windows jump host that faces the internet. Before anything else, establish which external address used a valid account to land on that host and how it got in without triggering an MFA challenge.
Trace the account used to move laterally
30The attacker's standard-user foothold was not enough. They needed higher privileges to reach the file server and its shares. Determine which elevated account they acquired after landing on the jump host.
Fingerprint the recon tooling
25Before dumping credentials, the operator downloaded and ran a custom script to survey the environment. Your EDR captured its hash. Provide the SHA-256 of that script.
Classify the data staging method
20Somewhere between gaining elevated access and starting the exfil, the operator compiled the target data into a local directory. Identify the MITRE ATT&CK sub-technique that describes bulk staging of data to a location on the same compromised host before exfiltration.
Name the primary exfil destination
30The bulk of the stolen data left the network over a single HTTPS channel opened by a cloud-sync utility. Determine where the data was sent.
Identify the secondary exfil channel
20The operator did not rely on a single exfiltration path. A second, smaller stream left the network through a different protocol to the same external server that hosted the recon script. Map this secondary channel to its MITRE ATT&CK technique.
Uncover the persistence mechanism
25The attacker ensured they could resume the exfiltration even if the session was interrupted. A Windows scheduled task was created to keep the upload tool running. Identify the scheduled task name used.
Map the final cover-up action
20Before disconnecting, the operator wiped evidence from the host. The SIEM shows a distinctive event that signals deliberate removal of Windows audit records. Identify the MITRE ATT&CK sub-technique used.
Confirm the foreign tenant
30The cloud audit log records the tenant ID behind the exfil storage account. Confirming it differs from the victim's own tenant proves the destination was attacker-controlled infrastructure. Provide the tenant ID of the storage account that received the stolen data.
9 tasks · 225 points total
Training Tools
SIEM Console
Log analysis & SPL queries
XDR Console
Endpoint detection & response
Firewall Console
Network traffic analysis
Cloud Console
Cloud infrastructure logs
Skills You'll Build
Complex multi-stage investigations. Realistic noise, ambiguous indicators, lateral movement.
Prerequisites
- Basic understanding of security alerts
- Experience with log analysis tools
- Familiarity with SIEM concepts
- Familiarity with XDR concepts
- Familiarity with Firewall concepts
- Familiarity with Cloud concepts
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