Adversaries may establish persistence and/or elevate privileges using system mechanisms that trigger execution based on specific events. Various operating systems have means to monitor and subscribe to events such as logons or other user activity such as running specific applications/binaries. Cloud environments may also support various functions and services that monitor and can be invoked in response to specific cloud events.(Citation: Backdooring an AWS account)(Citation: Varonis Power Automate Data Exfiltration)(Citation: Microsoft DART Case Report 001)
Adversaries may abuse these mechanisms as a means of maintaining persistent access to a victim via repeatedly executing malicious code. After gaining access to a victim system, adversaries may create/modify event triggers to point to malicious content that will be executed whenever the event trigger is invoked.(Citation: FireEye WMI 2015)(Citation: Malware Persistence on OS X)(Citation: amnesia malware)
Since the execution can be proxied by an account with higher permissions, such as SYSTEM or service accounts, an adversary may be able to abuse these triggered execution mechanisms to escalate their privileges.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM-06 | Configuration Settings | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| IA-09 | Service Identification and Authentication | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| SI-02 | Flaw Remediation | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| SI-07 | Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| CM-02 | Baseline Configuration | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| AC-02 | Account Management | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| AC-03 | Access Enforcement | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| AC-06 | Least Privilege | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | |
| CM-03 | Configuration Change Control | mitigates | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| file_integrity_monitoring | Microsoft Defender for Cloud: File Integrity Monitoring | technique_scores | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution |
Comments
The detection score for this technique was assessed as Partial because it doesn't detect some of the sub-techniques of this technique such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Event Subscription and Trap sub-techniques. Additionally for some sub-techniques, this control can be noisy.
References
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| ai_security_recommendations | Microsoft Defender for Cloud: AI Security Recommendations | technique_scores | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution |
Comments
This control's "Immutable (read-only) root filesystem should be enforced for containers" recommendation can mitigate a sub-technique of this technique. Due to its Minimal coverage, its score is assessed as Minimal.
References
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| alerts_for_windows_machines | Alerts for Windows Machines | technique_scores | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution |
Comments
This control's detection is specific to a minority of this technique's sub-techniques resulting in a Minimal Coverage score and consequently an overall score of Minimal.
References
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| google_secops | Google Security Operations | technique_scores | T1546 | Event Triggered Execution |
Comments
Google Security Ops is able to trigger an alert based on manipulation of default programs.
This technique was scored as minimal based on low or uncertain detection coverage factor.
https://github.com/chronicle/detection-rules/blob/783e0e5947774785db1c55041b70176deeca6f46/mitre_attack/T1546_001_windows_change_default_file_association.yaral
References
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