User Lockout Policy and Identifying Attacks

CE.

The user lockout policy is a security measure to prevent brute force attacks on user accounts. Brute force attacks involve an attacker repeatedly attempting to guess a user's password until the correct one is found. In this scenario, the user lockout policy is triggered after five unsuccessful login attempts. This policy helps to protect user accounts from being compromised through brute force attacks.

However, in this scenario, the help desk notices that a user is repeatedly locked out over the course of a workweek, even though the user is on vacation and does not have network access. This suggests that someone or something is trying to log in to the user's account repeatedly, causing the lockout policy to be triggered.

There are several types of attacks that could be causing this issue, but the two most likely types of attacks are as follows:

1. Brute Force Attack: Brute force attacks involve an attacker repeatedly attempting to guess a user's password until the correct one is found. In this scenario, someone or something could be attempting to log in to the user's account repeatedly using different password combinations. However, since the user is on vacation and does not have network access, it is unlikely that the attacker is able to gain access to the user's account through this method.

2. Replay Attack: A replay attack is a type of network attack in which an attacker captures network traffic and then replays it at a later time to gain unauthorized access to a system or application. In this scenario, an attacker could have captured the user's login credentials and is now replaying them repeatedly, causing the lockout policy to be triggered. However, since the user is on vacation and does not have network access, it is unlikely that the attacker is able to gain access to the user's account through this method.

Therefore, the two most likely types of attacks that could be causing this issue are a Brute Force Attack and a Replay Attack.