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MITRE ATT&CK® Technique

T1059.001: PowerShell

Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution. PowerShell is a powerful interactive command-line interface and scripting environment included in the Windows operating system.[1] Adversaries can use PowerShell to perform a number of actions, including discovery of information and execution of code. Examples include the Start-Process cmdlet which can be used to run an executable and the Invoke-Command cmdlet which runs a command locally or on a remote computer (though administrator permissions are required to use PowerShell to connect to remote systems).

PowerShell may also be used to download and run executables from the Internet, which can be executed from disk or in memory without touching disk.

A number of PowerShell-based offensive testing tools are available, including Empire, PowerSploit, PoshC2, and PSAttack.[2]

PowerShell commands/scripts can also be executed without directly invoking the powershell.exe binary through interfaces to PowerShell's underlying System.Management.Automation assembly DLL exposed through the .NET framework and Windows Common Language Interface (CLI).[3][4][5]

EnterpriseT1059.001Sub-techniqueObject v1.5 Modified
Glexia's Take

Analyst context for executives and security teams

Analyst confidence High

PowerShell matters because it is a built-in Windows administration capability that can also be abused for execution. For leaders, the issue is not whether PowerShell exists, but whether the organization can distinguish authorized administration from suspicious script-driven execution, downloads, in-memory activity, or PowerShell invoked through .NET without directly launching powershell.exe.

Executive priority

Treat this as a resilience and audit-evidence priority for Windows environments. PowerShell is legitimate and widely useful, so blanket concern is less valuable than proving governance: who may use it, where privileged use is allowed, what execution controls apply, and whether SOC and IR teams can reconstruct script activity. The relationship set maps this technique to many campaigns, including ransomware, espionage, supply-chain, and cyber-physical-related campaign contexts, making it material for incident readiness and business continuity planning without assuming local exposure.

Technical view

This is a Windows execution sub-technique under Command and Scripting Interpreter. Validate visibility for PowerShell commands and scripts, including cmdlets such as Start-Process and Invoke-Command, remote use requiring administrator permissions, download-and-execute behavior, diskless or in-memory execution, and invocation through System.Management.Automation/.NET where powershell.exe may not appear. MITRE did not provide an official detection paragraph for this object, but the relationship to DET0455 indicates a relevant detection strategy for abuse of PowerShell for arbitrary execution.

Likely telemetry

  • PowerShell operational and logging events, where enabled
  • Process creation telemetry with command-line arguments and parent-child process context
  • Script content or script-block/module logging evidence, where configured
  • Network connection evidence from Windows hosts running PowerShell or PowerShell-hosted automation
  • File creation or download evidence tied to PowerShell-driven execution

Detection direction

  • Confirm detections do not rely only on the powershell.exe process name, because the supplied description notes PowerShell can be invoked through System.Management.Automation and .NET interfaces.
  • Baseline legitimate administrative automation so alerts can focus on unusual users, hosts, parent processes, remote execution patterns, encoded or obfuscated command lines, download-and-run behavior, and privileged context.
  • Validate DET0455-style coverage against arbitrary PowerShell execution using local lab or purple-team tests, but avoid assuming coverage from tool deployment alone.
  • Tune for context: PowerShell is common for administrators, so false positives are expected unless detections include user role, host role, script provenance, command intent, and change-window context.
  • For incident response, ensure collected logs are sufficient to reconstruct what script ran, under which account, from which host, and whether execution touched disk, memory, network, or remote systems.

Mitigation priorities

  • Start with privileged account management: restrict and monitor administrative use because remote PowerShell activity can require administrator permissions.
  • Apply execution prevention controls for unauthorized or malicious scripts and code, while preserving approved administration paths.
  • Use code signing or trusted-script policies where operationally feasible to separate approved automation from untrusted script execution.
  • Disable or remove unnecessary PowerShell features or legacy exposure where business use does not require them.
  • Maintain antivirus/antimalware and endpoint behavioral controls as a supporting layer, not the only control, because legitimate interpreters can be abused.
Analyst notes and limits

The most important defensive question is whether PowerShell activity is governable and explainable in the local Windows estate. ATT&CK relationships show broad adversary and campaign relevance, but local risk depends on Windows exposure, administrative practices, logging configuration, and how much business automation relies on PowerShell.

Official detection text was not provided for this ATT&CK object. Telemetry and control guidance is derived from the official description, external reference themes around PowerShell logging/investigation, and supplied mitigation/detection relationships. This take does not assert active exploitation, attribution, or existing detection coverage in any environment.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

PowerShell

Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution. PowerShell is a powerful interactive command-line interface and scripting environment included in the Windows operating system.[1] Adversaries can use PowerShell to perform a number of actions, including discovery of information and execution of code. Examples include the Start-Process cmdlet which can be used to run an executable and the Invoke-Command cmdlet which runs a command locally or on a remote computer (though administrator permissions are required to use PowerShell to connect to remote systems).

PowerShell may also be used to download and run executables from the Internet, which can be executed from disk or in memory without touching disk.

A number of PowerShell-based offensive testing tools are available, including Empire, PowerSploit, PoshC2, and PSAttack.[2]

PowerShell commands/scripts can also be executed without directly invoking the powershell.exe binary through interfaces to PowerShell's underlying System.Management.Automation assembly DLL exposed through the .NET framework and Windows Common Language Interface (CLI).[3][4][5]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

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.

Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

Group Enterprise

G0090: WIRTE

WIRTE is a cyberespionage actor, believed to be a subgroup of the Hamas-affiliated Gaza Cybergang, that has been active since at least August 2018. WIRTE has targeted diplomatic, financial, military, legal, and technology organizations across the Middle East, North Africa, and in Europe to gather intelligence. WIRTE has remained persistently active despite the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and has expanded their operations to include wiper malware attacks against Israeli targets.[1][2][3][4]

Group Enterprise

G1044: APT42

APT42 is an Iranian-sponsored threat group that conducts cyber espionage and surveillance.[1] The group primarily focuses on targets in the Middle East region, but has targeted a variety of industries and countries since at least 2015.[1] APT42 starts cyber operations through spearphishing emails and/or the PINEFLOWER Android malware, then monitors and collects information from the compromised systems and devices.[1] Finally, APT42 exfiltrates data using native features and open-source tools.[2]

APT42 activities have been linked to Magic Hound by other commercial vendors. While there are behavior and software overlaps between Magic Hound and APT42, they appear to be distinct entities and are tracked as separate entities by their originating vendor.

Group Enterprise

G1023: APT5

APT5 is a China-based espionage actor that has been active since at least 2007 primarily targeting the telecommunications, aerospace, and defense industries throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. APT5 has displayed advanced tradecraft and significant interest in compromising networking devices and their underlying software including through the use of zero-day exploits.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Group Enterprise

G0108: Blue Mockingbird

Blue Mockingbird is a cluster of observed activity involving Monero cryptocurrency-mining payloads in dynamic-link library (DLL) form on Windows systems. The earliest observed Blue Mockingbird tools were created in December 2019.[1]

Group Enterprise

G0087: APT39

APT39 is one of several names for cyber espionage activity conducted by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) through the front company Rana Intelligence Computing since at least 2014. APT39 has primarily targeted the travel, hospitality, academic, and telecommunications industries in Iran and across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America to track individuals and entities considered to be a threat by the MOIS.[1][2][3][4][5]

Group Enterprise

G0059: Magic Hound

Magic Hound is an Iranian-sponsored threat group that conducts long term, resource-intensive cyber espionage operations, likely on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They have targeted European, U.S., and Middle Eastern government and military personnel, academics, journalists, and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), via complex social engineering campaigns since at least 2014.[1][2][3][4][5]

Group Enterprise

G0073: APT19

APT19 is a Chinese-based threat group that has targeted a variety of industries, including defense, finance, energy, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, high tech, education, manufacturing, and legal services. In 2017, a phishing campaign was used to target seven law and investment firms. [1] Some analysts track APT19 and Deep Panda as the same group, but it is unclear from open source information if the groups are the same. [2] [3] [4]

Group Enterprise

G0007: APT28

APT28 is a threat group that has been attributed to Russia's General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS) military unit 26165.[1][2] This group has been active since at least 2004.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

APT28 reportedly compromised the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2016 in an attempt to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.[5] In 2018, the US indicted five GRU Unit 26165 officers associated with APT28 for cyber operations (including close-access operations) conducted between 2014 and 2018 against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the US Anti-Doping Agency, a US nuclear facility, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Spiez Swiss Chemicals Laboratory, and other organizations.[14] Some of these were conducted with the assistance of GRU Unit 74455, which is also referred to as Sandworm Team.

Group Enterprise

G0096: APT41

APT41 is a threat group that researchers have assessed as Chinese state-sponsored espionage group that also conducts financially-motivated operations. Active since at least 2012, APT41 has been observed targeting various industries, including but not limited to healthcare, telecom, technology, finance, education, retail and video game industries in 14 countries.[1] Notable behaviors include using a wide range of malware and tools to complete mission objectives. APT41 overlaps at least partially with public reporting on groups including BARIUM and Winnti Group.[2][3]

Group Enterprise

G0034: Sandworm Team

Sandworm Team is a destructive threat group that has been attributed to Russia's General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Main Center for Special Technologies (GTsST) military unit 74455.[1][2] This group has been active since at least 2009.[3][4][5][6]

In October 2020, the US indicted six GRU Unit 74455 officers associated with Sandworm Team for the following cyber operations: the 2015 and 2016 attacks against Ukrainian electrical companies and government organizations, the 2017 worldwide NotPetya attack, targeting of the 2017 French presidential campaign, the 2018 Olympic Destroyer attack against the Winter Olympic Games, the 2018 operation against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and attacks against the country of Georgia in 2018 and 2019.[1][2] Some of these were conducted with the assistance of GRU Unit 26165, which is also referred to as APT28.[7]

Group Enterprise

G1055: VOID MANTICORE

VOID MANTICORE is a threat group assessed to operate on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).[1] Active since at least mid-2022, VOID MANTICORE has targeted government entities, critical infrastructure, and private sector organizations across Albania, Israel, and the United States.[1][2] VOID MANTICORE conducts destructive cyber operations, combining wiper attacks with hack-and-leak campaigns. The group has operated under multiple public-facing personas, including HomeLand Justice in operations against Albania, Karma and Karma Below in campaigns targeting Israeli organizations, and Handala Hack, its current primary persona, which has claimed activity against Israeli and U.S. entities, including a March 2026 attack against Stryker Corporation.[1][3] VOID MANTICORE has been observed collaborating with Scarred Manticore, which has been linked to initial access operations preceding VOID MANTICORE’s activity.[4]

Malware Enterprise

S1212: RansomHub

RansomHub is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) offering with Windows, ESXi, Linux, and FreeBSD versions that has been in use since at least 2024 to target organizations in multiple sectors globally. RansomHub operators may have purchased and rebranded resources from Knight (formerly Cyclops) Ransomware which shares infrastructure, feature, and code overlaps with RansomHub.[1][2]

LinuxWindows
Malware Enterprise

S1081: BADHATCH

BADHATCH is a backdoor that has been utilized by FIN8 since at least 2019. BADHATCH has been used to target the insurance, retail, technology, and chemical industries in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Panama, and Italy.[1][2]

Windows
Tool Enterprise

S0363: Empire

Empire is an open-source, cross-platform remote administration and post-exploitation framework that is publicly available on GitHub. While the tool itself is primarily written in Python, the post-exploitation agents are written in pure PowerShell for Windows and Python for Linux/macOS. Empire was one of five tools singled out by a joint report on public hacking tools being widely used by adversaries.[1][2][3]

LinuxmacOSWindows
Malware Enterprise

S0330: Zeus Panda

Zeus Panda is a Trojan designed to steal banking information and other sensitive credentials for exfiltration. Zeus Panda’s original source code was leaked in 2011, allowing threat actors to use its source code as a basis for new malware variants. It is mainly used to target Windows operating systems ranging from Windows XP through Windows 10.[1][2]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S9001: SystemBC

SystemBC is a malware family offered as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) that is used to establish command and control and facilitate follow-on activity, including ransomware deployment.SystemBC executes a variety of tasks including setting up SOCKS5 proxies, maintaining persistence, ingesting malicious files, and handing C2 communication. SystemBC was first detected in 2018, and has been used by Wizard Spider since at least 2020, and by FIN7 since at least 2022.[1][2][3][4][5]

LinuxWindows
Malware Enterprise

S0650: QakBot

QakBot is a modular banking trojan that has been used primarily by financially-motivated actors since at least 2007. QakBot is continuously maintained and developed and has evolved from an information stealer into a delivery agent for ransomware, most notably ProLock and Egregor.[1][2][3][4]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S1202: LockBit 3.0

LockBit 3.0 is an evolution of the LockBit Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) offering with similarities to BlackMatter and BlackCat ransomware. LockBit 3.0 has been in use since at least June 2022 and features enhanced defense evasion and exfiltration tactics, robust encryption methods for Windows and VMware ESXi systems, and a more refined RaaS structure over its predecessors such as LockBit 2.0.[1][2][3][4]

Windows
Tool Enterprise

S1155: Covenant

Covenant is a multi-platform command and control framework written in .NET. While designed for penetration testing and security research, the tool has also been used by threat actors such as HAFNIUM during operations. Covenant functions through a central listener managing multiple deployed "Grunts" that communicate back to the controller.[1][2]

LinuxmacOSWindows
Malware Enterprise

S0496: REvil

REvil is a ransomware family that has been linked to the GOLD SOUTHFIELD group and operated as ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) since at least April 2019. REvil, which as been used against organizations in the manufacturing, transportation, and electric sectors, is highly configurable and shares code similarities with the GandCrab RaaS.[1][2][3]

Windows
Campaign Enterprise

C0051: APT28 Nearest Neighbor Campaign

APT28 Nearest Neighbor Campaign was conducted by APT28 from early February 2022 to November 2024 against organizations and individuals with expertise on Ukraine. APT28 primarily leveraged living-off-the-land techniques, while leveraging the zero-day exploitation of CVE-2022-38028. Notably, APT28 leveraged Wi-Fi networks in close proximity to the intended target to gain initial access to the victim environment. By daisy-chaining multiple compromised organizations nearby the intended target, APT28 discovered dual-homed systems (with both a wired and wireless network connection) to enable Wi-Fi and use compromised credentials to connect to the victim network.[1]

Campaign Enterprise

C0022: Operation Dream Job

Operation Dream Job was a cyber espionage operation likely conducted by Lazarus Group that targeted the defense, aerospace, government, and other sectors in the United States, Israel, Australia, Russia, and India. In at least one case, the cyber actors tried to monetize their network access to conduct a business email compromise (BEC) operation. In 2020, security researchers noted overlapping TTPs, to include fake job lures and code similarities, between Operation Dream Job, Operation North Star, and Operation Interception; by 2022 security researchers described Operation Dream Job as an umbrella term covering both Operation Interception and Operation North Star.[1][2][3][4]

Campaign Enterprise

C0001: Frankenstein

Frankenstein was described by security researchers as a highly-targeted campaign conducted by moderately sophisticated and highly resourceful threat actors in early 2019. The unidentified actors primarily relied on open source tools, including Empire. The campaign name refers to the actors' ability to piece together several unrelated open-source tool components.[1]

Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

Mitigations

Mitigation direction

Change history

Object version and sync metadata

The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .

ATT&CK release
19.1
Object version
1.5
Created
Modified
Raw hash
8a76dc4bf42bcf9d...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
Release Bundle imported Object version Modified Status Raw hash
19.1 1.5 Current bundle 8a76dc4bf42b…
Raw source

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.

Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    TechNet PowerShell

    Microsoft. (n.d.). Windows PowerShell Scripting. Retrieved April 28, 2016.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Github PSAttack

    Haight, J. (2016, April 21). PS>Attack. Retrieved September 27, 2024.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    Sixdub PowerPick Jan 2016

    Warner, J.. (2015, January 6). Inexorable PowerShell – A Red Teamer’s Tale of Overcoming Simple AppLocker Policies. Retrieved December 8, 2018.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    SilentBreak Offensive PS Dec 2015

    Christensen, L.. (2015, December 28). The Evolution of Offensive PowerShell Invocation. Retrieved December 8, 2018.

    Open source URL
  5. [5]
    Microsoft PSfromCsharp APR 2014

    Babinec, K. (2014, April 28). Executing PowerShell scripts from C#. Retrieved April 22, 2019.

    Open source URL
  6. [6]
    FireEye PowerShell Logging 2016

    Dunwoody, M. (2016, February 11). GREATER VISIBILITY THROUGH POWERSHELL LOGGING. Retrieved February 16, 2016.

    Open source URL
  7. [7]
    Malware Archaeology PowerShell Cheat Sheet

    Malware Archaeology. (2016, June). WINDOWS POWERSHELL LOGGING CHEAT SHEET - Win 7/Win 2008 or later. Retrieved June 24, 2016.

    Open source URL
  8. [8]
    inv_ps_attacks

    Hastings, M. (2014, July 16). Investigating PowerShell Attacks. Retrieved December 1, 2021.

    Open source URL
  9. [9]
    mitre-attack T1059.001
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

Source: MITRE ATT&CK®. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Glexia is not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE.