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T1204 User Execution

An adversary may rely upon specific actions by a user in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to execute malicious code by, for example, opening a malicious document file or link. These user actions will typically be observed as follow-on behavior from forms of Phishing.

While User Execution frequently occurs shortly after Initial Access it may occur at other phases of an intrusion, such as when an adversary places a file in a shared directory or on a user’s desktop hoping that a user will click on it. This activity may also be seen shortly after Internal Spearphishing.

Adversaries may also deceive users into performing actions such as enabling Remote Access Software, allowing direct control of the system to the adversary, or downloading and executing malware for User Execution. For example, tech support scams can be facilitated through Phishing, vishing, or various forms of user interaction. Adversaries can use a combination of these methods, such as spoofing and promoting toll-free numbers or call centers that are used to direct victims to malicious websites, to deliver and execute payloads containing malware or Remote Access Software.1

Item Value
ID T1204
Sub-techniques T1204.001, T1204.002, T1204.003
Tactics TA0002
Platforms Containers, IaaS, Linux, Windows, macOS
Version 1.5
Created 18 April 2018
Last Modified 19 April 2022

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G1004 LAPSUS$ LAPSUS$ has recruited target organization employees or contractors who provide credentials and approve an associated MFA prompt, or install remote management software onto a corporate workstation, allowing LAPSUS$ to take control of an authenticated system.3

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1040 Behavior Prevention on Endpoint On Windows 10, enable Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules to prevent executable files from running unless they meet a prevalence, age, or trusted list criteria and to prevent Office applications from creating potentially malicious executable content by blocking malicious code from being written to disk. Note: cloud-delivered protection must be enabled to use certain rules. 2
M1038 Execution Prevention Application control may be able to prevent the running of executables masquerading as other files.
M1031 Network Intrusion Prevention If a link is being visited by a user, network intrusion prevention systems and systems designed to scan and remove malicious downloads can be used to block activity.
M1021 Restrict Web-Based Content If a link is being visited by a user, block unknown or unused files in transit by default that should not be downloaded or by policy from suspicious sites as a best practice to prevent some vectors, such as .scr, .exe, .pif, .cpl, etc. Some download scanning devices can open and analyze compressed and encrypted formats, such as zip and rar that may be used to conceal malicious files.
M1017 User Training Use user training as a way to bring awareness to common phishing and spearphishing techniques and how to raise suspicion for potentially malicious events.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0015 Application Log Application Log Content
DS0017 Command Command Execution
DS0032 Container Container Creation
DS0022 File File Creation
DS0007 Image Image Creation
DS0030 Instance Instance Creation
DS0029 Network Traffic Network Connection Creation
DS0009 Process Process Creation

References

  1. Selena Larson, Sam Scholten, Timothy Kromphardt. (2021, November 4). Caught Beneath the Landline: A 411 on Telephone Oriented Attack Delivery. Retrieved January 5, 2022. ↩

  2. Microsoft. (2021, July 2). Use attack surface reduction rules to prevent malware infection. Retrieved June 24, 2021. ↩

  3. MSTIC, DART, M365 Defender. (2022, March 24). DEV-0537 Criminal Actor Targeting Organizations for Data Exfiltration and Destruction. Retrieved May 17, 2022. ↩