Level 5: Core to Sub-Technique or Technique

Description: Observables associated with “chokepoints” or “invariant behaviors” of the (Sub-)Technique, unavoidable by any implementation

Some ATT&CK Techniques produce artifacts which are the same across all implementations of that behavior. These artifacts are considered invariant behaviors, i.e. an essential part of any implementation of the behavior. While identifying these invariant behaviors requires research into all possible implementations of a technique and the observables which are produced, this provides the defender the most robust analytic option, as it forces the adversary to switch to an entirely different technique.

Note

These observables may change if the definition of the technique is modified in a new version of ATT&CK.

Observables

Sub-Technique/Technique

Observables

Invariant Behavior

Scheduled Tasks (T1053)

TargetObject = “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree” OR “HKLM\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Schedule\TaskCache”

The registry key value is generated whenever a new task is created, regardless of implementation 1

References

1

https://posts.specterops.io/abstracting-scheduled-tasks-3b6451f6a1c5