tfMITRE ATT&CK sub-technique

Disable Crypto Hardware T1600.002

sub-technique of T1600 Weaken Encryption

Tactic: Defense Impairment
Platform: Network Devices
Version: 2.0
Created: 19 October 2020
Last modified: 12 May 2026

Adversaries disable a network device’s dedicated hardware encryption, which may enable them to leverage weaknesses in software encryption in order to reduce the effort involved in collecting, manipulating, and exfiltrating transmitted data.

ReconResource DevInitial AccessExecutionPersistencePriv EscStealthDef ImpairmentCred AccessDiscoveryLateral MoveCollectionC2ExfiltrationImpact

Threat groupsNone recorded

Threat groupsNone recorded · 29% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

CampaignsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded · 54% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Tools & malwareNone recorded

Tools & malwareNone recorded · 29% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Detection rulesNone recorded

Detection rulesNone recorded · 33% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Offense vs defense T1600.002

Is defensive coverage keeping up with adversary use? Eight counts, each ranked against all 697 ATT&CK techniques. Attack sits left, defense right, so a shape leaning left means adversaries are better documented here than defenders are equipped. Hover any spoke for its percentile and the share of techniques that have more. The timeline below shows when each side arrived.

Disable Crypto Hardware detection strategy DET0494

MITRE names one behaviour worth catching for this technique and breaks it into 1 analytic, one per platform. Each carries the log sources it needs and the fields you tune per environment.

Detection Strategy for Weaken Encryption: Disable Crypto Hardware on Network Devices

Enterprise

1 platform

AN1360 · Network Devices

Defenders may observe attempts to disable dedicated crypto hardware on network devices, often visible through anomalous CLI commands, unexpected firmware or configuration updates, and degraded encryption performance. Suspicious indicators include commands that alter hardware acceleration settings (e.g., disabling AES-NI or crypto engines), modification of system image files, or logs showing fallback from hardware to software encryption. Network traffic analysis may also reveal a sudden downgrade in throughput or cipher negotiation behavior consistent with the absence of hardware acceleration.

Log sources

The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.

Data component	Name	Channel
File ModificationDC0061	networkdevice:config	Configuration changes referencing cryptographic hardware modules or disabling hardware acceleration
Command ExecutionDC0064	networkdevice:cli	Execution of commands disabling crypto hardware acceleration (e.g., 'no crypto engine enable')
Network Traffic ContentDC0085	NSM:Flow	Degraded encryption throughput or switch to weaker cipher suites compared to historical baselines

Tunable fields

MITRE calls these the analytic’s mutable elements: the thresholds and filters you set for your own environment.

Field	What you tune
AuthorizedAdminAccounts	Defines trusted administrator accounts allowed to modify encryption hardware settings; deviations trigger alerts.
BaselineThroughput	Expected performance metrics with hardware acceleration enabled; drops may indicate tampering.
ApprovedFirmwareVersions	Whitelist of vendor-signed firmware versions; unexpected updates could signal malicious modification.
TimeWindow	Period of correlation between configuration change and observed traffic downgrade; tunable to reduce false positives.

Disable Crypto Hardware detections T1600.002

No detection rules are mapped to this technique yet.

None recorded— 33% of ATT&CK techniques have none either

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