What does the term "Living off the Land" refer to in cybersecurity?

The term "Living off the Land" in cybersecurity specifically refers to the practice of using existing tools and utilities that are already present on a compromised system to conduct intrusions or other malicious activities. This strategy enables attackers to blend in with normal system activity, thereby reducing the chances of detection. By leveraging legitimate system tools, they can manipulate the environment without needing to install additional software, which might raise alarms.

For instance, an attacker might use built-in command-line utilities or administrative tools to execute commands and manipulate data, making it difficult for security measures that focus on detecting unauthorized software to catch them. This technique is effective because it takes advantage of the pre-existing trust and notifications associated with native applications, providing a stealthy approach to achieving their objectives.