System Services: Service Execution (T1569.002)

Tactic: Execution · Platforms: Windows

The interactive view maps 1 detection strategy, 3 mitigations, 16 threat groups, 51 software entries, 5 campaigns to this technique, alongside D3FEND countermeasures and data-component coverage.

Sub-technique of System Services (T1569).

Overview

Adversaries may abuse the Windows service control manager to execute malicious commands or payloads. The Windows service control manager (services.exe) is an interface to manage and manipulate services. The service control manager is accessible to users via GUI components as well as system utilities such as sc.exe and Net.

PsExec can also be used to execute commands or payloads via a temporary Windows service created through the service control manager API. Tools such as PsExec and sc.exe 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.

Explore

• Open T1569.002 in the interactive ATT&CK matrix
• ATT&CK Intelligence View guide
• Official MITRE ATT&CK entry for T1569.002
• Sigma detection rules for MITRE ATT&CK
• Built by Shahrukh Khan