T1547.012: Print Processors
| View on MITRE ATT&CK | T1547.012 |
|---|---|
| Tactic(s) | Persistence, Privilege Escalation |
Data from MITRE ATT&CK®:
Adversaries may abuse print processors to run malicious DLLs during system boot for persistence and/or privilege escalation. Print processors are DLLs that are loaded by the print spooler service, spoolsv.exe, during boot.(Citation: Microsoft Intro Print Processors)
Adversaries may abuse the print spooler service by adding print processors that load malicious DLLs at startup. A print processor can be installed through the AddPrintProcessor API call with an account that has SeLoadDriverPrivilege enabled. Alternatively, a print processor can be registered to the print spooler service by adding the HKLM\SYSTEM\[CurrentControlSet or ControlSet001]\Control\Print\Environments\[Windows architecture: e.g., Windows x64]\Print Processors\[user defined]\Driver Registry key that points to the DLL.
For the malicious print processor to be correctly installed, the payload must be located in the dedicated system print-processor directory, that can be found with the GetPrintProcessorDirectory API call, or referenced via a relative path from this directory.(Citation: Microsoft AddPrintProcessor May 2018) After the print processors are installed, the print spooler service, which starts during boot, must be restarted in order for them to run.(Citation: ESET PipeMon May 2020)
The print spooler service runs under SYSTEM level permissions, therefore print processors installed by an adversary may run under elevated privileges.
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Mitigations for this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Mitigations
How to detect this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Data Components
Driver Load (Driver)
Attaching a driver to either user or kernel-mode of a system (ex: Sysmon EID 6)Windows Registry Key Modification (Windows Registry)
Changes made to a Registry Key and/or Key value (ex: Windows EID 4657 or Sysmon EID 13|14)OS API Execution (Process)
Operating system function/method calls executed by a processModule Load (Module)
Attaching a module into the memory of a process/program, typically to access shared resources/features provided by the module (ex: Sysmon EID 7)File Creation (File)
Initial construction of a new file (ex: Sysmon EID 11)Control Validation Tests for this Technique
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SP800-53 Controls
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