T1053.002: At
| View on MITRE ATT&CK | T1053.002 |
|---|---|
| Tactic(s) | Execution, Privilege Escalation, Persistence |
Data from MITRE ATT&CK®:
Adversaries may abuse the at utility to perform task scheduling for initial or recurring execution of malicious code. The at utility exists as an executable within Windows, Linux, and macOS for scheduling tasks at a specified time and date. Although deprecated in favor of Scheduled Task's schtasks in Windows environments, using at requires that the Task Scheduler service be running, and the user to be logged on as a member of the local Administrators group.
On Linux and macOS, at may be invoked by the superuser as well as any users added to the at.allow file. If the at.allow file does not exist, the at.deny file is checked. Every username not listed in at.deny is allowed to invoke at. If the at.deny exists and is empty, global use of at is permitted. If neither file exists (which is often the baseline) only the superuser is allowed to use at.(Citation: Linux at)
Adversaries may use at to execute programs at system startup or on a scheduled basis for Persistence. at can also be abused to conduct remote Execution as part of Lateral Movement and/or to run a process under the context of a specified account (such as SYSTEM).
In Linux environments, adversaries may also abuse at to break out of restricted environments by using a task to spawn an interactive system shell or to run system commands. Similarly, at may also be used for Privilege Escalation if the binary is allowed to run as superuser via sudo.(Citation: GTFObins at)
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Cyber Threat Graph Context
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Mitigations for this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Mitigations
Privileged Account Management
Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to privileged accounts, including SYSTEM and root.Audit
Perform audits or scans of systems, permissions, insecure software, insecure configurations, etc. to identify potential weaknesses.User Account Management
Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to user accounts.Operating System Configuration
Make configuration changes related to the operating system or a common feature of the operating system that result in system hardening against techniques.How to detect this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Data Components
Command Execution (Command)
The execution of a line of text, potentially with arguments, created from program code (e.g. a cmdlet executed via powershell.exe, interactive commands like >dir, shell executions, etc. )Process Creation (Process)
The initial construction of an executable managed by the OS, that may involve one or more tasks or threads. (e.g. Win EID 4688, Sysmon EID 1, cmd.exe > net use, etc.)Network Traffic Flow (Network Traffic)
Summarized network packet data, with metrics, such as protocol headers and volume (ex: Netflow or Zeek http.log)Scheduled Job Creation (Scheduled Job)
Initial construction of a new scheduled job (ex: Windows EID 4698 or /var/log cron logs)File Modification (File)
Changes made to a file, or its access permissions and attributes, typically to alter the contents of the targeted file (ex: Windows EID 4670 or Sysmon EID 2)Control Validation Tests for this Technique
Use Atomic Red Team tests to test your defenses against this technique.
Sigma Detections for this Technique
Interactive AT Job
Scheduled Task/Job At
MITRE BZAR Indicators for Execution
Remote Schedule Task Lateral Movement via ITaskSchedulerService
Remote Task Creation via ATSVC Named Pipe
Remote Schedule Task Lateral Movement via SASec
Remote Schedule Task Lateral Movement via ATSvc
Remote Task Creation via ATSVC Named Pipe - Zeek
SP800-53 Controls
See which controls can help protect against this MITRE ATT&CK technique. This is based on mappings to associated SP800-53 controls produced by the MITRE Engenuity Center for Threat-Informed Defense.