MITRE ATT&CK technique

T1031

Modify Existing Service

About this technique

Windows service configuration information, including the file path to the service's executable or recovery programs/commands, is stored in the Registry. Service configurations can be modified using utilities such as sc.exe and Reg.

Read the full ATT&CK description

Adversaries can modify an existing service to persist malware on a system by using system utilities or by using custom tools to interact with the Windows API. Use of existing services is a type of Masquerading that may make detection analysis more challenging. Modifying existing services may interrupt their functionality or may enable services that are disabled or otherwise not commonly used.

Adversaries may also intentionally corrupt or kill services to execute malicious recovery programs/commands. (Citation: Twitter Service Recovery Nov 2017) (Citation: Microsoft Service Recovery Feb 2013)

TA0003
Curated mapping

Curated incident relationships

These associations come from maintained incident records. The recorded confidence is shown when the source record provides it.

0 items
No curated incident mappings yet.
Heuristic association

Daily items linked through predicted CVEs

A Daily item appears here when it mentions a CVE whose triage artifact predicts this technique. This is not a verified ATT&CK mapping.

0 items
No heuristic Daily associations yet.
Heuristic association

Predicted CVE associations

These backfilled or model-produced candidates come from the current triage artifact. They are informational, not official MITRE mappings.

0 items
No predicted associations yet for this technique.
T1031 · Modify Existing Service · Baitaphish