AN1522: Analytic 1522
Repeated failed SSH login attempts followed by a possible success from the same remote host
Analyst context for executives and security teams
This analytic matters because repeated failed SSH logins followed by a possible successful login from the same remote host can indicate password guessing that may have become an unauthorized Linux access event. For leaders, the value is not simply alerting on failed logins; it is confirming whether the organization can quickly distinguish routine administrator mistakes from a potential account compromise that could affect server availability, privileged access, and incident response decisions.
Executive priority
Prioritize this as an identity and Linux server access-control validation item. Security leaders should ask whether SSH authentication logs are centrally collected, retained, and reviewed; whether successful logins after failure bursts trigger timely triage; and whether incident responders can quickly identify the account, source host, destination system, and business criticality. This also supports audit and compliance evidence around access monitoring, especially for Linux systems that host sensitive or operationally important workloads.
Technical view
For SOC and detection engineering teams, validate coverage for Linux SSH authentication events where multiple failed login attempts from the same remote host are followed by a possible success from that same remote host. Because the official object provides no tactic mapping, detection logic, threshold, or relationship context, teams should tune thresholds locally using normal SSH administration patterns, bastion-host behavior, service accounts, and known vulnerability-scanning or monitoring sources. IR playbooks should preserve the timeline of failures and success, the username involved, remote source, target host, and any post-login activity available from local telemetry.
Likely telemetry
- Linux SSH authentication logs showing failed and successful login events
- Source remote host/IP address associated with each SSH attempt
- Username or account targeted during failed and successful attempts
- Destination Linux host receiving the SSH connection
- Timestamp sequence sufficient to correlate repeated failures followed by success
Detection direction
- Confirm that Linux SSH authentication logs are collected from relevant servers and retained long enough for investigation.
- Build or validate correlation that links repeated failed SSH login attempts and a subsequent possible success from the same remote host.
- Tune thresholds to reduce noise from mistyped passwords, jump hosts, bastion hosts, automation, and approved administrative activity.
- Prioritize alerts involving privileged accounts, critical Linux systems, unusual remote sources, or accounts with no expected SSH usage.
- Validate that analysts can pivot from the authentication sequence to account ownership, source reputation or ownership, target asset criticality, and follow-on session activity.
Mitigation priorities
- Ensure Linux SSH authentication logging is enabled and centrally collected for systems in scope.
- Review SSH access paths and restrict exposure where business requirements allow, especially for critical Linux hosts.
- Strengthen account controls for SSH-accessible users, including appropriate credential hygiene and least-privilege access.
- Define response procedures for suspected SSH account compromise, including account review, session investigation, and host-level triage.
- Use this analytic as evidence for access monitoring readiness, but validate locally because the supplied ATT&CK object does not provide official detection logic or thresholds.
Analyst notes and limits
This is a detection analytic object, AN1522, for Linux. The official description is limited to repeated failed SSH login attempts followed by a possible success from the same remote host. No tactics, relationships, aliases, or official detection text were supplied, so the practical value depends on local SSH log quality, identity context, asset criticality, and baseline administrative behavior.
The supplied ATT&CK fields do not include an official detection query, threshold, tactic mapping, related technique, mitigation, data source list, or evidence of active exploitation. This take should therefore be used as defensive validation guidance, not as proof of compromise or guaranteed detection coverage.
Analytic 1522
Repeated failed SSH login attempts followed by a possible success from the same remote host
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
All related ATT&CK context
No relationships are available in the current normalized data for this object.
Object version and sync metadata
The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Current bundle | 7d8d52376eb6… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
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[1]
mitre-attack AN1522Open source URL
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