T1569.002 Service Execution

Adversaries may abuse the Windows service control manager to execute malicious commands or payloads. The Windows service control manager (<code>services.exe</code>) is an interface to manage and manipulate services.(Citation: Microsoft Service Control Manager) The service control manager is accessible to users via GUI components as well as system utilities such as <code>sc.exe</code> and Net.

PsExec can also be used to execute commands or payloads via a temporary Windows service created through the service control manager API.(Citation: Russinovich Sysinternals) Tools such as PsExec and <code>sc.exe</code> can accept remote servers as arguments and may be used to conduct remote execution.

Adversaries may leverage these mechanisms to execute malicious content. This can be done by either executing a new or modified service. This technique is the execution used in conjunction with Windows Service during service persistence or privilege escalation.

View in MITRE ATT&CK®

GCP Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
chronicle Chronicle technique_scores T1569.002 Service Execution
Comments
Chronicle is able to trigger an alerts based off command-line arguments and suspicious system process that could indicate abuse of Windows system service to execute malicious commands or code (e.g., "*\\execute\.bat"). This technique was scored as minimal based on low or uncertain detection coverage factor. https://github.com/chronicle/detection-rules/blob/783e0e5947774785db1c55041b70176deeca6f46/soc_prime_rules/threat_hunting/windows/smbexec_py_service_installation.yaral
References