T1543.003: Windows Service
Adversaries may create or modify Windows services to repeatedly execute malicious payloads as part of persistence. When Windows boots up, it starts programs or applications called services that perform background system functions.[1] Windows service configuration information, including the file path to the service's executable or recovery programs/commands, is stored in the Windows Registry.
Adversaries may install a new service or modify an existing service to execute at startup in order to persist on a system. Service configurations can be set or modified using system utilities (such as sc.exe), by directly modifying the Registry, or by interacting directly with the Windows API.
Adversaries may also use services to install and execute malicious drivers. For example, after dropping a driver file (ex: `.sys`) to disk, the payload can be loaded and registered via Native API functions such as `CreateServiceW()` (or manually via functions such as `ZwLoadDriver()` and `ZwSetValueKey()`), by creating the required service Registry values (i.e. Modify Registry), or by using command-line utilities such as `PnPUtil.exe`.[2][3][4] Adversaries may leverage these drivers as Rootkits to hide the presence of malicious activity on a system. Adversaries may also load a signed yet vulnerable driver onto a compromised machine (known as "Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver" (BYOVD)) as part of Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.[5][4]
Services may be created with administrator privileges but are executed under SYSTEM privileges, so an adversary may also use a service to escalate privileges. Adversaries may also directly start services through Service Execution.
To make detection analysis more challenging, malicious services may also incorporate Masquerade Task or Service (ex: using a service and/or payload name related to a legitimate OS or benign software component). Adversaries may also create ‘hidden’ services (i.e., Hide Artifacts), for example by using the `sc sdset` command to set service permissions via the Service Descriptor Definition Language (SDDL). This may hide a Windows service from the view of standard service enumeration methods such as `Get-Service`, `sc query`, and `services.exe`.[6][7]
Analyst context for executives and security teams
Windows services are a high-value persistence and privilege-escalation path because they start in the background, can run with SYSTEM privileges, and are part of normal Windows operations. For leaders, the decision point is whether the organization can reliably prove which services were newly created or changed, who changed them, what binary or driver they point to, and whether hidden or masqueraded services would be noticed during an incident.
Executive priority
Prioritize this technique where Windows servers, privileged workstations, and operationally critical systems support business continuity. ATT&CK links this behavior to persistence and privilege escalation, and the object notes service abuse can include malicious drivers, rootkit behavior, BYOVD-style privilege escalation, and hidden services. This makes service monitoring useful not only for SOC detection, but also for incident scoping, privileged access governance, audit evidence, and resilience planning in environments where unauthorized SYSTEM-level execution could disrupt operations.
Technical view
For SOC, detection engineering, and IR teams, validate coverage for creation and modification of Windows services, not just process execution. Review telemetry around service install events, service configuration changes, Registry-backed service paths and recovery commands, service-start settings, use of utilities such as sc.exe and PnPUtil.exe, direct Registry modification, and service-related API activity where available. Because ATT&CK notes masqueraded and hidden services, compare multiple enumeration sources rather than relying only on standard tools such as Get-Service, sc query, or services.exe. The related detection strategy DET0552 should be used as the ATT&CK-aligned detection reference, while recognizing the main technique object does not provide official detection text.
Likely telemetry
- Windows service installation evidence, including Microsoft event 4697 where auditing is enabled
- Windows Event Forwarding or equivalent centralized Windows event collection
- Registry changes to Windows service configuration, executable paths, recovery commands, startup type, and service permissions
- Process creation telemetry for service-control and driver-loading utilities such as sc.exe and PnPUtil.exe
- Endpoint telemetry showing service creation or modification through Windows APIs such as CreateServiceW where available
Detection direction
- Confirm logging is enabled and centrally collected before assuming visibility; the ATT&CK object has no official detection section, so local telemetry validation is required.
- Alert on newly created services, service executable path changes, recovery-command changes, suspicious startup configuration changes, and services pointing to unusual or recently written binaries.
- Tune by distinguishing approved software installation, patching, endpoint management, and driver deployment activity from unexpected service changes, especially on servers and privileged systems.
- Hunt for masquerading by comparing service names, display names, paths, publishers, and locations against known-good baselines.
- Hunt for hidden services by comparing Registry-backed service entries and security descriptors with results from normal service enumeration tools.
Mitigation priorities
- Enforce least privilege and user account management so only authorized administrators and service-management identities can create or modify services.
- Harden Windows operating system configuration and service permissions to reduce unnecessary service abuse opportunities.
- Maintain auditing for service installation and service configuration changes, and forward relevant Windows events to centralized monitoring.
- Use endpoint behavior-prevention controls where available to block or challenge suspicious service creation, service modification, driver loading, or anomalous SYSTEM-level execution.
- Apply code-signing and trust controls for service binaries and drivers where supported, with attention to the ATT&CK-noted risk of signed yet vulnerable drivers.
Analyst notes and limits
This is a Windows sub-technique of Create or Modify System Process and supersedes older ATT&CK techniques for New Service and Modify Existing Service. The supplied relationships show many campaigns and groups have used Windows service creation or modification, including activity associated with espionage, cybercrime, and critical-infrastructure-related reporting. Use that breadth to justify control validation, but do not infer current targeting or compromise without local evidence.
The supplied ATT&CK object does not include official detection text, and related mitigation descriptions are general. This take therefore focuses on defensible validation areas from the official description, external references, and relationships. Exact event IDs beyond the supplied Microsoft 4697 reference, required audit policy settings, detection logic, and false-positive rates must be confirmed in the organization’s Windows build, logging configuration, EDR capabilities, and change-management process.
Windows Service
Adversaries may create or modify Windows services to repeatedly execute malicious payloads as part of persistence. When Windows boots up, it starts programs or applications called services that perform background system functions.[1] Windows service configuration information, including the file path to the service's executable or recovery programs/commands, is stored in the Windows Registry.
Adversaries may install a new service or modify an existing service to execute at startup in order to persist on a system. Service configurations can be set or modified using system utilities (such as sc.exe), by directly modifying the Registry, or by interacting directly with the Windows API.
Adversaries may also use services to install and execute malicious drivers. For example, after dropping a driver file (ex: `.sys`) to disk, the payload can be loaded and registered via Native API functions such as `CreateServiceW()` (or manually via functions such as `ZwLoadDriver()` and `ZwSetValueKey()`), by creating the required service Registry values (i.e. Modify Registry), or by using command-line utilities such as `PnPUtil.exe`.[2][3][4] Adversaries may leverage these drivers as Rootkits to hide the presence of malicious activity on a system. Adversaries may also load a signed yet vulnerable driver onto a compromised machine (known as "Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver" (BYOVD)) as part of Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.[5][4]
Services may be created with administrator privileges but are executed under SYSTEM privileges, so an adversary may also use a service to escalate privileges. Adversaries may also directly start services through Service Execution.
To make detection analysis more challenging, malicious services may also incorporate Masquerade Task or Service (ex: using a service and/or payload name related to a legitimate OS or benign software component). Adversaries may also create ‘hidden’ services (i.e., Hide Artifacts), for example by using the `sc sdset` command to set service permissions via the Service Descriptor Definition Language (SDDL). This may hide a Windows service from the view of standard service enumeration methods such as `Get-Service`, `sc query`, and `services.exe`.[6][7]
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.
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.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1031 | Modify Existing Service | Modify Existing Service revoked by this object. |
| Enterprise | T1050 | New Service | New Service revoked by this object. |
Groups, software, and campaigns
G0081: Tropic Trooper
Tropic Trooper is an unaffiliated threat group that has led targeted campaigns against targets in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Tropic Trooper focuses on targeting government, healthcare, transportation, and high-tech industries and has been active since 2011.[1][2][3]
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]
G0105: DarkVishnya
DarkVishnya is a financially motivated threat actor targeting financial institutions in Eastern Europe. In 2017-2018 the group attacked at least 8 banks in this region.[1]
G0143: Aquatic Panda
Aquatic Panda is a suspected China-based threat group with a dual mission of intelligence collection and industrial espionage. Active since at least May 2020, Aquatic Panda has primarily targeted entities in the telecommunications, technology, and government sectors.[1]
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.
G0030: Lotus Blossom
Lotus Blossom is a long-standing threat group largely targeting various entities in Asia since at least 2009. In addition to government and related targets, Lotus Blossom has also targeted entities such as digital certificate issuers.[1][2][3]
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]
G0102: Wizard Spider
Wizard Spider is a Russia-based financially motivated threat group originally known for the creation and deployment of TrickBot since at least 2016. Wizard Spider possesses a diverse arsenal of tools and has conducted ransomware campaigns against a variety of organizations, ranging from major corporations to hospitals.[1][2][3]
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]
G0139: TeamTNT
TeamTNT is a threat group that has primarily targeted cloud and containerized environments. The group as been active since at least October 2019 and has mainly focused its efforts on leveraging cloud and container resources to deploy cryptocurrency miners in victim environments.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
G1043: BlackByte
BlackByte is a ransomware threat actor operating since at least 2021. BlackByte is associated with several versions of ransomware also labeled BlackByte Ransomware. BlackByte ransomware operations initially used a common encryption key allowing for the development of a universal decryptor, but subsequent versions such as BlackByte 2.0 Ransomware use more robust encryption mechanisms. BlackByte is notable for operations targeting critical infrastructure entities among other targets across North America.[1][2][3][4][5]
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]
S1090: NightClub
NightClub is a modular implant written in C++ that has been used by MoustachedBouncer since at least 2014.[1]
S0604: Industroyer
Industroyer is a sophisticated malware framework designed to cause an impact to the working processes of Industrial Control Systems (ICS), specifically components used in electrical substations.[1] Industroyer was used in the attacks on the Ukrainian power grid in December 2016.[2] This is the first publicly known malware specifically designed to target and impact operations in the electric grid.[3]
S1044: FunnyDream
FunnyDream is a backdoor with multiple components that was used during the FunnyDream campaign since at least 2019, primarily for execution and exfiltration.[1]
S0141: Winnti for Windows
Winnti for Windows is a modular remote access Trojan (RAT) that has been used likely by multiple groups to carry out intrusions in various regions since at least 2010, including by one group referred to as the same name, Winnti Group.[1][2][3][4]. The Linux variant is tracked separately under Winnti for Linux.[5]
S0625: Cuba
S0204: Briba
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]
S0612: WastedLocker
WastedLocker is a ransomware family attributed to Indrik Spider that has been used since at least May 2020. WastedLocker has been used against a broad variety of sectors, including manufacturing, information technology, and media.[1][2][3]
S0493: GoldenSpy
GoldenSpy is a backdoor malware which has been packaged with legitimate tax preparation software. GoldenSpy was discovered targeting organizations in China, being delivered with the "Intelligent Tax" software suite which is produced by the Golden Tax Department of Aisino Credit Information Co. and required to pay local taxes.[1]
S0180: Volgmer
S0149: MoonWind
S0050: CosmicDuke
CosmicDuke is malware that was used by APT29 from 2010 to 2015. [1]
C0012: Operation CuckooBees
Operation CuckooBees was a cyber espionage campaign targeting technology and manufacturing companies in East Asia, Western Europe, and North America since at least 2019. Security researchers noted the goal of Operation CuckooBees, which was still ongoing as of May 2022, was likely the theft of proprietary information, research and development documents, source code, and blueprints for various technologies. Researchers assessed Operation CuckooBees was conducted by actors affiliated with Winnti Group, APT41, and BARIUM.[1]
C0061: Operation Digital Eye
Operation Digital Eye was conducted in June and July of 2024 by suspected People's Republic of China (PRC)-nexus threat actors targeting business-to-business IT service providers in Southern Europe. Operation Digital Eye activity included the use of Visual Studio Code tunnels for command and control (C2) and custom lateral movement capabilities. Overlaps in tooling between Digital Eye and previous China-nexus campaigns, Operation Soft Cell and Operation Tainted Love, indicate the potential use of shared vendors or digital quartermasters.[1]
C0040: APT41 DUST
APT41 DUST was conducted by APT41 from 2023 to July 2024 against entities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. APT41 DUST targeted sectors such as shipping, logistics, and media for information gathering purposes. APT41 used previously-observed malware such as DUSTPAN as well as newly observed tools such as DUSTTRAP in APT41 DUST.[1]
All related ATT&CK context
Mitigation direction
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 | 1.6 | Current bundle | 94898298fca9… |
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]
TechNet Services
Microsoft. (n.d.). Services. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
Open source URL -
[2]
Symantec W.32 Stuxnet Dossier
Nicolas Falliere, Liam O. Murchu, Eric Chien. (2011, February). W32.Stuxnet Dossier. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
Open source URL -
[3]
Crowdstrike DriveSlayer February 2022
Thomas, W. et al. (2022, February 25). CrowdStrike Falcon Protects from New Wiper Malware Used in Ukraine Cyberattacks. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
Open source URL -
[4]
Unit42 AcidBox June 2020
Reichel, D. and Idrizovic, E. (2020, June 17). AcidBox: Rare Malware Repurposing Turla Group Exploit Targeted Russian Organizations. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
Open source URL -
[5]
ESET InvisiMole June 2020
Hromcova, Z. and Cherpanov, A. (2020, June). INVISIMOLE: THE HIDDEN PART OF THE STORY. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
Open source URL -
[6]
SANS 1
Joshua Wright. (2020, October 13). Retrieved March 22, 2024.
Open source URL -
[7]
SANS 2
Joshua Wright. (2020, October 14). Retrieved March 22, 2024.
Open source URL -
[8]
Microsoft 4697 APR 2017
Miroshnikov, A. & Hall, J. (2017, April 18). 4697(S): A service was installed in the system. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
Open source URL -
[9]
Microsoft Windows Event Forwarding FEB 2018
Hardy, T. & Hall, J. (2018, February 15). Use Windows Event Forwarding to help with intrusion detection. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
Open source URL -
[10]
TechNet Autoruns
Russinovich, M. (2016, January 4). Autoruns for Windows v13.51. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
Open source URL -
[11]
mitre-attack T1543.003Open source URL
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