Sub-technique of T1547 Boot or Logon Autostart Execution.View on attack.mitre.org
Adversaries may abuse time providers to execute DLLs when the system boots. The Windows Time service (W32Time) enables time synchronization across and within domains. W32Time time providers are responsible for retrieving time stamps from hardware/network resources and outputting these values to other network clients.
Time providers are implemented as dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that are registered in the subkeys of `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\`. The time provider manager, directed by the service control manager, loads and starts time providers listed and enabled under this key at system startup and/or whenever parameters are changed.
Adversaries may abuse this architecture to establish persistence, specifically by creating a new arbitrarily named subkey pointing to a malicious DLL in the `DllName` value. Administrator privileges are required for time provider registration, though execution will run in context of the Local Service account.
Rules on DetectionCode tagged with T1547.003.
| Rule | Level | Log source |
|---|---|---|
| New TimeProviders Registered With Uncommon DLL Name | high | windows / registry_set |
| Rule | Type | Risk | Data source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time Provider Persistence Registry | TTP | NULL | Sysmon EventID 13 |
None recorded.
None recorded.
None recorded.
Data from MITRE ATT&CK® (Enterprise). ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
