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MITRE ATT&CK® Technique

T1191: CMSTP

The Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer (CMSTP.exe) is a command-line program used to install Connection Manager service profiles. [1] CMSTP.exe accepts an installation information file (INF) as a parameter and installs a service profile leveraged for remote access connections.

Adversaries may supply CMSTP.exe with INF files infected with malicious commands. [2] Similar to Regsvr32 / ”Squiblydoo”, CMSTP.exe may be abused to load and execute DLLs [3] and/or COM scriptlets (SCT) from remote servers. [4] [5] [6] This execution may also bypass AppLocker and other whitelisting defenses since CMSTP.exe is a legitimate, signed Microsoft application.

CMSTP.exe can also be abused to Bypass User Account Control and execute arbitrary commands from a malicious INF through an auto-elevated COM interface. [3] [5] [6]

EnterpriseT1191TechniqueObject v1.1 Modified
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Historical object

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Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

CMSTP

The Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer (CMSTP.exe) is a command-line program used to install Connection Manager service profiles. [1] CMSTP.exe accepts an installation information file (INF) as a parameter and installs a service profile leveraged for remote access connections.

Adversaries may supply CMSTP.exe with INF files infected with malicious commands. [2] Similar to Regsvr32 / ”Squiblydoo”, CMSTP.exe may be abused to load and execute DLLs [3] and/or COM scriptlets (SCT) from remote servers. [4] [5] [6] This execution may also bypass AppLocker and other whitelisting defenses since CMSTP.exe is a legitimate, signed Microsoft application.

CMSTP.exe can also be abused to Bypass User Account Control and execute arbitrary commands from a malicious INF through an auto-elevated COM interface. [3] [5] [6]

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

Glexia analysis

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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.

ATT&CK relationship table

Related techniques

This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.

1 rows
Domain ID Name Relationship / procedure
Enterprise T1218.003 CMSTP Sub-technique This object revoked by CMSTP.
Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

revoked by · Technique T1218.003: CMSTP Enterprise
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
1.1
Created
Modified
Raw hash
f67f2cac6e52da0f...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
Release Bundle imported Object version Modified Status Raw hash
19.1 1.1 Current bundle Revoked f67f2cac6e52…
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.

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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]
    Microsoft Connection Manager Oct 2009

    Microsoft. (2009, October 8). How Connection Manager Works. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Twitter CMSTP Usage Jan 2018

    Carr, N. (2018, January 31). Here is some early bad cmstp.exe... Retrieved April 11, 2018.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    MSitPros CMSTP Aug 2017

    Moe, O. (2017, August 15). Research on CMSTP.exe. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    Twitter CMSTP Jan 2018

    Tyrer, N. (2018, January 30). CMSTP.exe - remote .sct execution applocker bypass. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

    Open source URL
  5. [5]
    GitHub Ultimate AppLocker Bypass List

    Moe, O. (2018, March 1). Ultimate AppLocker Bypass List. Retrieved April 10, 2018.

    Open source URL
  6. [6]
    Endurant CMSTP July 2018

    Seetharaman, N. (2018, July 7). Detecting CMSTP-Enabled Code Execution and UAC Bypass With Sysmon.. Retrieved August 6, 2018.

    Open source URL
  7. [7]
    mitre-attack T1191
    Open source URL
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