T1563 Remote Service Session Hijacking
Adversaries may take control of preexisting sessions with remote services to move laterally in an environment. Users may use valid credentials to log into a service specifically designed to accept remote connections, such as telnet, SSH, and RDP. When a user logs into a service, a session will be established that will allow them to maintain a continuous interaction with that service.
Adversaries may commandeer these sessions to carry out actions on remote systems. Remote Service Session Hijacking differs from use of Remote Services because it hijacks an existing session rather than creating a new session using Valid Accounts.12
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| ID | T1563 |
| Sub-techniques | T1563.001, T1563.002 |
| Tactics | TA0008 |
| Platforms | Linux, Windows, macOS |
| Version | 1.1 |
| Created | 25 February 2020 |
| Last Modified | 24 October 2025 |
Mitigations
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1042 | Disable or Remove Feature or Program | Disable the remote service (ex: SSH, RDP, etc.) if it is unnecessary. |
| M1030 | Network Segmentation | Enable firewall rules to block unnecessary traffic between network security zones within a network. |
| M1027 | Password Policies | Set and enforce secure password policies for accounts. |
| M1026 | Privileged Account Management | Do not allow remote access to services as a privileged account unless necessary. |
| M1018 | User Account Management | Limit remote user permissions if remote access is necessary. |