Techniques › T1547 › T1547.014
T1547.014 Active Setup
persistence · privilege escalation — Windows · attack.mitre.org · JSON
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MITRE detection strategy
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analytics
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Sigma rules tagged attack.t1547.014
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KEV CVEs mapped here
<p>Adversaries may achieve persistence by adding a Registry key to the Active Setup of the local machine. Active Setup is a Windows mechanism that is used to execute programs when a user logs in. The value stored in the Registry key will be executed after a user logs into the computer. These programs will be executed under the context of the user and will have the account's associated permissions level.</p><p>Adversaries may abuse Active Setup by creating a key under <code> HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\</code> and setting a malicious value for <code>StubPath</code>. This value will serve as the program that will be executed when a user logs into the computer.</p><p>Adversaries can abuse these components to execute malware, such as remote access tools, to maintain persistence through system reboots. Adversaries may also use Masquerading to make the Registry entries look as if they are associated with legitimate programs.</p>
KEV CVEs mapped to this technique · CTID Mappings Explorer
None. No KEV entry in the public mapping names this technique. Given that 74.7% of KEV has no mapping at all, this says more about the mapping than about the technique.
Detection strategy · ATT&CK Enterprise v19.2
- DET0312 Detect Active Setup Persistence via StubPath Execution v1.0
AN0871 WindowsMulti-event correlation of Registry creation under Active Setup with anomalous execution of processes at user logon. Behavioral patterns include creation/modification of HKLM Active Setup keys with non-standard StubPath values, followed by process execution from uncommon paths, unsigned binaries, or unusual parent-child lineage post-user login.Tunable:
TimeWindowParentProcessNameStubPathValueEntropySignedBinaryStatusRegistryKeyOwner
Sigma rules · SigmaHQ da9bb07d64, tag attack.t1547.014
Author: Janantha Marasinghe
· 2022-11-18 (modified 2022-12-30) · logsource: product=windows category=process_creation · c2c76b77-32be-4d1f-82c9-7e544bdfe0eb
Detects potential suspicious behaviour using secedit.exe. Such as exporting or modifying the security policy
Rules tagged at the parent level (attack.t1547) 7
These target the parent technique, not this sub-technique specifically. Listed for completeness, not counted as coverage.
Author: Elastic, Josh Nickels, Marius Rothenbücher
· 2024-09-06 · logsource: product=windows service=security · 123e4e6d-b123-48f8-b261-7214938acaf0
Detects the modification of Group Policy Objects (GPO) to add a startup/logon script to users or computer objects.
Author: frack113
· 2021-11-18 (modified 2022-12-06) · logsource: product=windows category=registry_event · 277efb8f-60be-4f10-b4d3-037802f37167
Detects persistence registry keys for Recycle Bin
Author: Mateusz Wydra, oscd.community
· 2020-10-13 (modified 2023-01-19) · logsource: product=windows category=registry_event · 9577edbb-851f-4243-8c91-1d5b50c1a39b
Detects creation/modification of Assistive Technology applications and persistence with usage of 'at'
Author: Hai Vaknin @LuxNoBulIshit, Avihay eldad @aloneliassaf, Austin Songer @austinsonger
· 2021-09-30 (modified 2022-10-09) · logsource: product=windows category=process_creation · a2ea3ae7-d3d0-40a0-a55c-25a45c87cac1
Detects when a possible suspicious driver is being installed via pnputil.exe lolbin
Author: Greg (rule)
· 2022-07-21 (modified 2023-01-05) · logsource: product=windows category=file_event · a6976974-ea6f-4e97-818e-ea08625c52cb
Detects a phishing attack which expands a ZIP file containing a malicious shortcut.
If the victim expands the ZIP file via the explorer process, then the explorer process expands the malicious ZIP file and drops a malicious shortcut redirected to a backdoor into the Startup folder.
Additionally, the file name of the malicious shortcut in Startup folder contains {0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D} meaning the folder shortcut operation.
Author: omkar72
· 2020-10-30 (modified 2021-11-27) · logsource: product=windows category=registry_event · b98968aa-dbc0-4a9c-ac35-108363cbf8d5
Detects potential malicious modification of run keys by winekey or team9 backdoor
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
· 2022-05-19 · logsource: product=windows category=process_creation · f14e169e-9978-4c69-acb3-1cff8200bc36
Detects the suspicious execution of a utility to convert Windows 3.x .grp files or for persistence purposes by malicious software or actors