MITRE ATT&CK Technique
Description
Adversaries may hijack domains and/or subdomains that can be used during targeting. Domain registration hijacking is the act of changing the registration of a domain name without the permission of the original registrant.(Citation: ICANNDomainNameHijacking) Adversaries may gain access to an email account for the person listed as the owner of the domain. The adversary can then claim that they forgot their password in order to make changes to the domain registration. Other possibilities include social engineering a domain registration help desk to gain access to an account, taking advantage of renewal process gaps, or compromising a cloud service that enables managing domains (e.g., AWS Route53).(Citation: Krebs DNS Hijack 2019) Subdomain hijacking can occur when organizations have DNS entries that point to non-existent or deprovisioned resources. In such cases, an adversary may take control of a subdomain to conduct operations with the benefit of the trust associated with that domain.(Citation: Microsoft Sub Takeover 2020) Adversaries who compromise a domain may also engage in domain shadowing by creating malicious subdomains under their control while keeping any existing DNS records. As service will not be disrupted, the malicious subdomains may go unnoticed for long periods of time.(Citation: Palo Alto Unit 42 Domain Shadowing 2022)
Supported Platforms
Created
April 29, 2026
Last Updated
April 29, 2026
STIX Data
{'created': '2020-10-01T00:51:28.513Z',
'created_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'description': 'Adversaries may hijack domains and/or subdomains that can be '
'used during targeting. Domain registration hijacking is the '
'act of changing the registration of a domain name without the '
'permission of the original registrant.(Citation: '
'ICANNDomainNameHijacking) Adversaries may gain access to an '
'email account for the person listed as the owner of the '
'domain. The adversary can then claim that they forgot their '
'password in order to make changes to the domain registration. '
'Other possibilities include social engineering a domain '
'registration help desk to gain access to an account, taking '
'advantage of renewal process gaps, or compromising a cloud '
'service that enables managing domains (e.g., AWS '
'Route53).(Citation: Krebs DNS Hijack 2019)\n'
'\n'
'Subdomain hijacking can occur when organizations have DNS '
'entries that point to non-existent or deprovisioned '
'resources. In such cases, an adversary may take control of a '
'subdomain to conduct operations with the benefit of the trust '
'associated with that domain.(Citation: Microsoft Sub Takeover '
'2020)\n'
'\n'
'Adversaries who compromise a domain may also engage in domain '
'shadowing by creating malicious subdomains under their '
'control while keeping any existing DNS records. As service '
'will not be disrupted, the malicious subdomains may go '
'unnoticed for long periods of time.(Citation: Palo Alto Unit '
'42 Domain Shadowing 2022)',
'external_references': [{'external_id': 'T1584.001',
'source_name': 'mitre-attack',
'url': 'https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1584/001'},
{'description': 'Brian Krebs. (2019, February 18). A '
'Deep Dive on the Recent Widespread '
'DNS Hijacking Attacks. Retrieved '
'February 14, 2022.',
'source_name': 'Krebs DNS Hijack 2019',
'url': 'https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/a-deep-dive-on-the-recent-widespread-dns-hijacking-attacks/'},
{'description': 'ICANN Security and Stability '
'Advisory Committee. (2005, July 12). '
'Domain Name Hijacking: Incidents, '
'Threats, Risks and Remediation. '
'Retrieved November 17, 2024.',
'source_name': 'ICANNDomainNameHijacking',
'url': 'https://www.icann.org/en/ssac/registration-services/documents/sac-007-domain-name-hijacking-incidents-threats-risks-and-remediation-12-07-2005-en'},
{'description': 'Janos Szurdi, Rebekah Houser and '
'Daiping Liu. (2022, September 21). '
'Domain Shadowing: A Stealthy Use of '
'DNS Compromise for Cybercrime. '
'Retrieved March 7, 2023.',
'source_name': 'Palo Alto Unit 42 Domain Shadowing '
'2022',
'url': 'https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/domain-shadowing/'},
{'description': 'Microsoft. (2020, September 29). '
'Prevent dangling DNS entries and '
'avoid subdomain takeover. Retrieved '
'October 12, 2020.',
'source_name': 'Microsoft Sub Takeover 2020',
'url': 'https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/subdomain-takeover'}],
'id': 'attack-pattern--f9cc4d06-775f-4ee1-b401-4e2cc0da30ba',
'kill_chain_phases': [{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
'phase_name': 'resource-development'}],
'modified': '2025-10-24T17:49:38.448Z',
'name': 'Domains',
'object_marking_refs': ['marking-definition--fa42a846-8d90-4e51-bc29-71d5b4802168'],
'revoked': False,
'spec_version': '2.1',
'type': 'attack-pattern',
'x_mitre_attack_spec_version': '3.2.0',
'x_mitre_contributors': ['Jeremy Galloway'],
'x_mitre_deprecated': False,
'x_mitre_detection': '',
'x_mitre_domains': ['enterprise-attack'],
'x_mitre_is_subtechnique': True,
'x_mitre_modified_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'x_mitre_platforms': ['PRE'],
'x_mitre_version': '1.4'}