Technique.View on attack.mitre.org
Adversaries may impair a system's ability to hibernate, reboot, or shut down in order to extend access to infected machines. When a computer enters a dormant state, some or all software and hardware may cease to operate which can disrupt malicious activity.
Adversaries may abuse system utilities and configuration settings to maintain access by preventing machines from entering a state, such as standby, that can terminate malicious activity.
For example, `powercfg` controls all configurable power system settings on a Windows system and can be abused to prevent an infected host from locking or shutting down. Adversaries may also extend system lock screen timeout settings. Other relevant settings, such as disk and hibernate timeout, can be similarly abused to keep the infected machine running even if no user is active.
Aware that some malware cannot survive system reboots, adversaries may entirely delete files used to invoke system shut down or reboot.
Rules on DetectionCode tagged with T1653.
| Rule | Level | Log source |
|---|---|---|
| Mask System Power Settings Via Systemctl | high | linux / process_creation |
None recorded.
| Used by | Procedure example |
|---|---|
| MalwareLine Dancer | Line Dancer can modify the crash dump process on infected machines to skip crash dump generation and proceed directly to device reboot for both persistence and forensic evasion purposes. |
| MalwareLine Runner | Line Runner used CVE-2024-20353 to trigger victim devices to reboot, in the process unzipping and installing the Line Dancer payload. |
| Used by | Procedure example |
|---|---|
| CampaignArcaneDoor | ArcaneDoor involved exploitation of CVE-2024-20353 to force a victim Cisco ASA to reboot, triggering the automated unzipping and execution of the Line Runner implant. |
Data from MITRE ATT&CK® (Enterprise). ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
