T1529: System Shutdown/Reboot
Adversaries may shutdown/reboot systems to interrupt access to, or aid in the destruction of, those systems. Operating systems may contain commands to initiate a shutdown/reboot of a machine or network device. In some cases, these commands may also be used to initiate a shutdown/reboot of a remote computer or network device via Network Device CLI (e.g. reload).[1][2] They may also include shutdown/reboot of a virtual machine via hypervisor / cloud consoles or command line tools.
Shutting down or rebooting systems may disrupt access to computer resources for legitimate users while also impeding incident response/recovery.
Adversaries may also use Windows API functions, such as `InitializeSystemShutdownExW` or `ExitWindowsEx`, to force a system to shut down or reboot.[3][4] Alternatively, the `NtRaiseHardError`or `ZwRaiseHardError` Windows API functions with the `ResponseOption` parameter set to `OptionShutdownSystem` may deliver a “blue screen of death” (BSOD) to a system.[5][6][7] In order to leverage these API functions, an adversary may need to acquire `SeShutdownPrivilege` (e.g., via Access Token Manipulation).[4] In some cases, the system may not be able to boot again.
Adversaries may attempt to shutdown/reboot a system after impacting it in other ways, such as Disk Structure Wipe or Inhibit System Recovery, to hasten the intended effects on system availability.[8][9]
Analyst context for executives and security teams
System Shutdown/Reboot is an impact behavior: an adversary forces endpoints, servers, virtual machines, or network devices offline to deny access, disrupt recovery, or accelerate destructive activity. For executives, the risk is not just a reboot event; it is loss of operational continuity at the exact point when incident responders need stable systems, logs, and recovery paths.
Executive priority
Prioritize this technique where outages would affect revenue operations, safety-adjacent processes, critical infrastructure communications, or time-sensitive incident response. ATT&CK relationships connect this behavior to multiple wiper and ransomware-associated software entries and to a campaign affecting Polish energy infrastructure, so leaders should ask whether shutdown authority, hypervisor access, network device administration, and recovery procedures are governed and evidenced well enough for crisis response and audit review.
Technical view
SOC and IR teams should validate coverage across the listed platforms: ESXi, Linux, macOS, Network Devices, and Windows. Because MITRE provides no official detection text for T1529, build detection around execution and host-status evidence: local or remote shutdown commands, network device CLI reload activity, VM shutdowns from hypervisor or cloud consoles/CLI tools, Windows shutdown API behavior, BSOD-style hard error behavior, and use or acquisition of shutdown-related privileges such as SeShutdownPrivilege. Treat shutdowns occurring after Disk Structure Wipe or Inhibit System Recovery indicators as higher-priority impact correlation, as described in the ATT&CK object.
Likely telemetry
- Endpoint process execution and command-line telemetry for shutdown or reboot utilities
- Windows security/system event logs and EDR telemetry for shutdown, reboot, BSOD, API-driven shutdown behavior, and privilege use
- Linux and macOS system logs for reboot, shutdown, service stop, and user/session context
- ESXi, hypervisor, and virtualization management logs for VM power operations
- Cloud or management console audit logs where VM shutdown or reboot is controlled through console or CLI tooling
Detection direction
- Baseline legitimate administrative shutdown and maintenance behavior by platform, time window, account, and management channel.
- Alert on unusual remote shutdowns, clustered shutdowns, shutdowns from non-standard admin hosts, or reboot activity affecting many systems in a short period.
- Correlate reboot/shutdown events with token manipulation, privilege escalation, disk wipe, recovery inhibition, ransomware, or wiper indicators when available.
- For network devices, validate that command accounting captures reload/reboot actions and the authenticated identity behind them.
- For ESXi and virtualized environments, confirm VM power operations are logged with user, source, and API/console context.
Mitigation priorities
- Restrict shutdown, reboot, hypervisor, cloud console, and network device reload privileges to approved administrative roles.
- Require strong authentication and change control for management planes that can power off systems or virtual machines.
- Harden and monitor privileged access paths, including token/privilege use associated with shutdown capabilities.
- Segment and protect administrative interfaces for network devices, ESXi, and other infrastructure control planes.
- Maintain tested recovery procedures, offline or protected backups where appropriate, and IR playbooks for mass reboot or failed-boot scenarios.
Analyst notes and limits
This is a high-business-impact technique because it directly targets availability and can also obstruct incident response. The relationship set is important: ATT&CK associates T1529 with multiple destructive or ransomware-related software entries, including Shamoon, Olympic Destroyer, NotPetya, KillDisk, WhisperGate, HermeticWiper, Black Basta, AcidRain, Apostle, MultiLayer Wiper, and others. Those relationships support prioritizing this behavior in ransomware, wiper, infrastructure, and cyber-physical resilience planning, but local exposure depends on the organization’s platforms and management architecture.
MITRE does not provide official detection guidance for this technique in the supplied object. The recommendations above are derived from the official description, platforms, tactic, external references, and relationship context only. They do not prove active exploitation, attribution, or detection coverage in any environment; local telemetry, change-management records, and incident data are required for validation.
System Shutdown/Reboot
Adversaries may shutdown/reboot systems to interrupt access to, or aid in the destruction of, those systems. Operating systems may contain commands to initiate a shutdown/reboot of a machine or network device. In some cases, these commands may also be used to initiate a shutdown/reboot of a remote computer or network device via Network Device CLI (e.g. reload).[1][2] They may also include shutdown/reboot of a virtual machine via hypervisor / cloud consoles or command line tools.
Shutting down or rebooting systems may disrupt access to computer resources for legitimate users while also impeding incident response/recovery.
Adversaries may also use Windows API functions, such as `InitializeSystemShutdownExW` or `ExitWindowsEx`, to force a system to shut down or reboot.[3][4] Alternatively, the `NtRaiseHardError`or `ZwRaiseHardError` Windows API functions with the `ResponseOption` parameter set to `OptionShutdownSystem` may deliver a “blue screen of death” (BSOD) to a system.[5][6][7] In order to leverage these API functions, an adversary may need to acquire `SeShutdownPrivilege` (e.g., via Access Token Manipulation).[4] In some cases, the system may not be able to boot again.
Adversaries may attempt to shutdown/reboot a system after impacting it in other ways, such as Disk Structure Wipe or Inhibit System Recovery, to hasten the intended effects on system availability.[8][9]
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.
Groups, software, and campaigns
G0082: APT38
APT38 is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group that specializes in financial cyber operations; it has been attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau.[1] Active since at least 2014, APT38 has targeted banks, financial institutions, casinos, cryptocurrency exchanges, SWIFT system endpoints, and ATMs in at least 38 countries worldwide. Significant operations include the 2016 Bank of Bangladesh heist, during which APT38 stole $81 million, as well as attacks against Bancomext [2] and Banco de Chile [2]; some of their attacks have been destructive.[1][2][3][4]
North Korean group definitions are known to have significant overlap, and some security researchers report all North Korean state-sponsored cyber activity under the name Lazarus Group instead of tracking clusters or subgroups.
G0067: APT37
APT37 is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber espionage group that has been active since at least 2012. The group has targeted victims primarily in South Korea, but also in Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Nepal, China, India, Romania, Kuwait, and other parts of the Middle East. APT37 has also been linked to the following campaigns between 2016-2018: Operation Daybreak, Operation Erebus, Golden Time, Evil New Year, Are you Happy?, FreeMilk, North Korean Human Rights, and Evil New Year 2018.[1][2][3]
North Korean group definitions are known to have significant overlap, and some security researchers report all North Korean state-sponsored cyber activity under the name Lazarus Group instead of tracking clusters or subgroups.
G0032: Lazarus Group
Lazarus Group is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). [1] [2] Lazarus Group has been active since at least 2009 and is reportedly responsible for the November 2014 destructive wiper attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, identified by Novetta as part of Operation Blockbuster. Malware used by Lazarus Group correlates to other reported campaigns, including Operation Flame, Operation 1Mission, Operation Troy, DarkSeoul, and Ten Days of Rain.[3]
North Korea’s cyber operations have shown a consistent pattern of adaptation, forming and reorganizing units as national priorities shift. These units frequently share personnel, infrastructure, malware, and tradecraft, making it difficult to attribute specific operations with high confidence. Public reporting often uses “Lazarus Group” as an umbrella term for multiple North Korean cyber operators conducting espionage, destructive attacks, and financially motivated campaigns.[4][5][6]
G1051: Medusa Group
Medusa Group has been active since at least 2021 and was initially operated as a closed ransomware group before evolving into a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation. Some reporting indicates that certain attacks may still be conducted directly by the ransomware’s core developers. Public sources have also referred to the group as “Spearwing” or “Medusa Actors.” [1] [2] Medusa Group employs living-off-the-land techniques, frequently leveraging publicly available tools and common remote management software to conduct operations. The group engages in double extortion tactics, exfiltrating data prior to encryption and threatening to publish stolen information if ransom demands are not met. [3] For initial access, Medusa Group has exploited publicly known vulnerabilities, conducted phishing campaigns, and used credentials or access purchased from Initial Access Brokers (IABs). The group is opportunistic and has targeted a wide range of sectors globally. [4]
S1125: AcidRain
AcidRain is an ELF binary targeting modems and routers using MIPS architecture.[1] AcidRain is associated with the ViaSat KA-SAT communication outage that took place during the initial phases of the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Analysis indicates overlap with another network device-targeting malware, VPNFilter, associated with Sandworm Team.[1] US and European government sources linked AcidRain to Russian government entities, while Ukrainian government sources linked AcidRain specifically to Sandworm Team.[2][3]
S1033: DCSrv
DCSrv is destructive malware that has been used by Moses Staff since at least September 2021. Though DCSrv has ransomware-like capabilities, Moses Staff does not demand ransom or offer a decryption key.[1]
S9038: DynoWiper
DynoWiper is a destructive malware associated with the 2025 Poland Wiper Attacks in December of 2025. DynoWiper is a native Windows binary that is distributed by a PowerShell script and overwrites files using data generated by the Mersenne Twister algorithm before they are deleted from the system. Multiple variants of DynoWiper have been identified, with the primary differences being that one variant shuts down the system after completing its destructive operations, and another introduces a time delay between file overwriting and deletion.[1][2]
S1136: BFG Agonizer
BFG Agonizer is a wiper related to the open-source project CRYLINE-v.5.0. The malware is associated with wiping operations conducted by the Agrius threat actor.[1]
S1242: Qilin
Qilin is a ransomware family operated as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) that has been active since at least 2022. It includes variants written in Go and Rust capable of targeting Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi environments. Qilin shares functionality overlaps with Black Basta, REvil, and BlackCat ransomware. Qilin affiliates have targeted multiple entities worldwide with the majority of victims in the US, France, Canada, and the UK, primarily in the manufacturing, technology, financial services, and healthcare sectors.[1][2][3][4][5]
S1135: MultiLayer Wiper
MultiLayer Wiper is wiper malware written in .NET associated with Agrius operations. Observed samples of MultiLayer Wiper have an anomalous, future compilation date suggesting possible metadata manipulation.[1]
S1167: AcidPour
AcidPour is a variant of AcidRain designed to impact a wider range of x86 architecture Linux devices. AcidPour is an x86 ELF binary that expands on the targeted devices and locations in AcidRain by including items such as Unsorted Block Image (UBI), Deice Mapper (DM), and various flash memory references. Based on this expanded targeting, AcidPour can impact a variety of device types including IoT, networking, and ICS embedded device types.[1] AcidPour is a wiping payload associated with the Sandworm Team threat actor, and potentially linked to attacks against Ukrainian internet service providers (ISPs) in 2023.[2]
S0372: LockerGoga
LockerGoga is ransomware that was first reported in January 2019, and has been tied to various attacks on European companies, including industrial and manufacturing firms.[1][2]
S0365: Olympic Destroyer
Olympic Destroyer is malware that was used by Sandworm Team against the 2018 Winter Olympics, held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The main purpose of the malware was to render infected computer systems inoperable. The malware leverages various native Windows utilities and API calls to carry out its destructive tasks. Olympic Destroyer has worm-like features to spread itself across a computer network in order to maximize its destructive impact.[1][2]
S0449: Maze
S0582: LookBack
S1133: Apostle
Apostle is malware that has functioned as both a wiper and, in more recent versions, as ransomware. Apostle is written in .NET and shares various programming and functional overlaps with IPsec Helper.[1]
C0063: 2025 Poland Wiper Attacks
2025 Poland Wiper Attacks is a Russian state-sponsored campaign that conducted destructive cyberattacks against Polish energy infrastructure in December 2025. Targets included more than 30 wind and photovoltaic farms, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, and a manufacturing sector company. The attacks on the distributed energy resources (DER) disrupted communications between affected facilities and the distribution system operator, but did not impact electricity generation or heat supply. Across the campaign, threat actors deployed two previously undocumented wiper tools, DynoWiper, a Windows-based wiper and LazyWiper, a PowerShell wiper, distributed via malicious Group Policy Objects. At the CHP plant, threat actors had maintained access since at least March 2025, using that foothold to obtain credentials and move laterally before attempting wiper deployment. Some reporting has assessed the activity to be consistent with Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) threat activity group Dragonfly, also tracked as STATIC TUNDRA, while other reporting attributes the destructive wiper activities to the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) threat activity group ELECTRUM, also tracked as Sandworm Team.[1][2][3][4]
All related ATT&CK context
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 .
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 1.5 | Current bundle | 14cbcb82ee7e… |
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]
Microsoft Shutdown Oct 2017
Microsoft. (2017, October 15). Shutdown. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
Open source URL -
[2]
alert_TA18_106A
CISA. (2018, April 20). Russian State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Targeting Network Infrastructure Devices. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
Open source URL -
[3]
CrowdStrike Blog
William Thomas, Adrian Liviu Arsene, Farid Hendi. (2022, February 25). CrowdStrike Falcon® Protects from New Wiper Malware Used in Ukraine Cyberattacks. Retrieved September 22, 2025.
Open source URL -
[4]
Unit42 Agrius 2023
Or Chechik, Tom Fakterman, Daniel Frank & Assaf Dahan. (2023, November 6). Agonizing Serpens (Aka Agrius) Targeting the Israeli Higher Education and Tech Sectors. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
Open source URL -
[5]
SonicWall
SecurityNews. (2024, July 12). Disarming DarkGate: A Deep Dive into Thwarting the Latest DarkGate Variant. Retrieved September 22, 2025.
Open source URL -
[6]
NtRaiseHardError
NtDoc. (n.d.). NtRaiseHardError - NtDoc. Retrieved September 22, 2025.
Open source URL -
[7]
NotMe-BSOD
lzcapp. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2025.
Open source URL -
[8]
Talos Nyetya June 2017
Chiu, A. (2016, June 27). New Ransomware Variant "Nyetya" Compromises Systems Worldwide. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
Open source URL -
[9]
Talos Olympic Destroyer 2018
Mercer, W. and Rascagneres, P. (2018, February 12). Olympic Destroyer Takes Aim At Winter Olympics. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
Open source URL -
[10]
mitre-attack T1529Open source URL
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