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