Threadlinqs IntelligenceStart free

ATT&CK techniqueCredential AccessCollection

T1557 Adversary-in-the-Middle

Credential AccessCollectionEnterprise

As of 2026-10-05, T1557 (Adversary-in-the-Middle) appears in 170 tracked threats, first reported 2026-02-02 and most recently 2026-10-04, with linked actors including ShinyHunters, Scattered Spider, UNC6671; it most often appears alongside T1539 (Steal Web Session Cookie).

Tracked threats
17045 critical, 94 high, 27 medium, 2 low
First seen
2026-02-02
Last seen
2026-10-04
Threat actors
60In the threats using it
Detection rules
323Blue tier and above

Data as of:

Activity timeline

T1557 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-07 with 58 reports, and 170 of the 170 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-10.

How adversaries use it

T1557 Adversary-in-the-Middle is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Credential Access and Collection tactics in the Enterprise matrix. Threadlinqs maps 170 of 2623 tracked threats (6.5%) to it; by severity that is 45 critical, 94 high, 27 medium, 2 low.

Threats that use T1557 most often also use T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie (74 threats), T1078 Valid Accounts (69 threats), T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application (64 threats), T1583 Acquire Infrastructure (61 threats), T1566 Phishing (59 threats). These are the techniques an intrusion set tends to chain with it, so they are the natural next places to look when it is observed.

60 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1557; the most frequent are ShinyHunters (7), Scattered Spider (5), UNC6671 (5), APT28 (4), The Com (4).

Mitigations

MITRE ATT&CK lists 7 mitigations for T1557.

Data sources

Telemetry that can reveal T1557, per MITRE ATT&CK.

  • Application Log — Application Log Content
  • Network Traffic — Network Traffic Content, Network Traffic Flow
  • Service — Service Creation
  • Windows Registry — Windows Registry Key Modification

Threat actors using it

Tracked threats

The 30 most recent of 170 tracked threats that use T1557.

Detection coverage

Threadlinqs maintains 323 detection rules mapped to T1557 (SPL 117, KQL 99, Sigma 107). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.

323 detection rules (SPL/KQL/Sigma) · Blue and above. Compare plans

Sub-techniques