AN1542: Analytic 1542
Monitor CLI 'reload' commands issued without scheduled maintenance, and correlate to TACACS+/AAA logs for privilege validation.
Analyst context for executives and security teams
This analytic matters because an unscheduled network device CLI “reload” command can be an early decision point for availability risk and administrator misuse or compromise. For leaders, the value is not just alerting on the command; it is proving whether the action was authorized, performed by the right privilege level, and aligned to an approved maintenance window.
Executive priority
Prioritize this where network device availability is material to business operations. Security and infrastructure leaders should ask whether reload activity is logged, tied to named administrators through TACACS+/AAA, and reconciled with maintenance approvals. This also supports audit evidence for privileged access oversight and change-control discipline.
Technical view
For SOC, detection engineering, and IR teams, validate monitoring of CLI “reload” commands on network devices and correlate each event with TACACS+/AAA authentication, authorization, and accounting records. The key triage question is whether the command occurred outside scheduled maintenance and whether the account/session had validated privilege to perform it. Because no ATT&CK tactic or relationship context is supplied, treat this as a focused network-device administrative activity analytic rather than a broader intrusion pattern by itself.
Likely telemetry
- Network device CLI command accounting logs showing “reload” commands
- TACACS+/AAA authentication, authorization, and accounting logs
- Privileged administrator identity and session records
- Network device system logs indicating reload or reboot events
- Approved maintenance/change-management schedules
Detection direction
- Alert on CLI “reload” commands issued outside approved maintenance windows.
- Correlate command execution to TACACS+/AAA records to validate user identity, privilege level, and session context.
- Tune for authorized maintenance, emergency changes, lab devices, and automation accounts to reduce false positives.
- Check for blind spots where network devices do not send command accounting logs or where AAA is bypassed/local-only.
- Validate time synchronization across network devices, AAA infrastructure, and SIEM so maintenance-window correlation is reliable.
Mitigation priorities
- Require centralized AAA/TACACS+ for privileged network device administration where applicable.
- Enforce least-privilege administrative roles for commands that can affect device availability.
- Maintain and integrate approved maintenance/change records with monitoring workflows.
- Ensure network device command accounting and system logs are collected, retained, and reviewed.
- Define an incident response path for unscheduled reload commands, including privilege validation and operational impact assessment.
Analyst notes and limits
The supplied ATT&CK object is a detection analytic for Network Devices with a narrow official description: monitor CLI “reload” commands outside scheduled maintenance and correlate with TACACS+/AAA logs for privilege validation. The strongest defensive value comes from joining command telemetry, identity/AAA evidence, and change-control context.
No official detection logic, tactic mapping, relationships, adversary context, or procedure examples were supplied. Local device types, logging capabilities, AAA configuration, maintenance processes, and SIEM coverage must be validated before judging detection effectiveness.
Analytic 1542
Monitor CLI 'reload' commands issued without scheduled maintenance, and correlate to TACACS+/AAA logs for privilege validation.
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
All related ATT&CK context
No relationships are available in the current normalized data for this object.
Object version and sync metadata
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Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Current bundle | c97e214e4726… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
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[1]
mitre-attack AN1542Open source URL
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