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Triggers as a Windows persistence mechanism — an example

by davehull on February 12, 2014

@keydet89 posed the following question on Twitter:

The SANS ISC post discussing triggers as a persistence mechanism is at the following URL:

https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Wipe+the+drive+Stealthy+Malware+Persistence+-+Part+3/15448

@z4ns4tsu responded that he’d seen it and gave some information about the scenario.

I replied that I’d encountered it as well and that it also works for Scheduled Tasks, which is actually where I’ve seen it used. So technically, I guess I should have answered that I hadn’t seen it, because I’ve yet to encounter it on Services, but the mechanism is largely the same for Scheduled Tasks.

@keydet89 asked if I could provide more details.

Twitter is not the ideal medium, so here’s an example:


PS C:\> Get-ScheduledTask | ? { $_.TaskName -match "lochemoot" } | fl *

State                 : Ready
Actions               : {MSFT_TaskExecAction}
Author                : Ridley\Scott
Date                  : 2019-11-07T07:07:07.031337
Description           :
Documentation         :
Principal             : MSFT_TaskPrincipal2
SecurityDescriptor    :
Settings              : MSFT_TaskSettings3
Source                :
TaskName              : lochemoot
TaskPath              : \Microsoft\
Triggers              : {MSFT_TaskEventTrigger}
URI                   :
Version               :
PSComputerName        :
CimClass              : Root/Microsoft/Windows/TaskScheduler:MSFT_ScheduledTask
CimInstanceProperties : {Actions, Author, Date, Description...}
CimSystemProperties   : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties


PS C:\> Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName lochemoot | % { $_.Triggers }

Enabled            : True
EndBoundary        :
ExecutionTimeLimit :
Id                 :
Repetition         : MSFT_TaskRepetitionPattern
StartBoundary      :
Delay              :
Subscription       : <QueryList><Query Id="0" Path="Security"><Select Path="Security">*[System[EventID=4732]]</Select><Query><QueryList>
ValueQueries       :
PSComputerName     :

What does this do? This Scheduled Task is set to run a script based on the appearance of Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing Event Id 4732.

What does that event correspond to?


PS C:\> (Get-WinEvent -ListProvider Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing).Events | ? { $_.Id -eq 4732 }

Id          : 4732
Version     : 0
LogLink     : System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogLink
Level       : System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLevel
Opcode      : System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventOpcode
Task        : System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventTask
Keywords    : {}
Template    : <template xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events">
                <data name="MemberName" inType="win:UnicodeString" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="MemberSid" inType="win:SID" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="TargetUserName" inType="win:UnicodeString" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="TargetDomainName" inType="win:UnicodeString" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="TargetSid" inType="win:SID" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="SubjectUserSid" inType="win:SID" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="SubjectUserName" inType="win:UnicodeString" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="SubjectDomainName" inType="win:UnicodeString" outType="xs:string"/>
                <data name="SubjectLogonId" inType="win:HexInt64" outType="win:HexInt64"/>
                <data name="PrivilegeList" inType="win:UnicodeString" outType="xs:string"/>
              </template>

Description : A member was added to a security-enabled local group.

              Subject:
                  Security ID:        %6
                  Account Name:        %7
                  Account Domain:        %8
                  Logon ID:        %9

              Member:
                  Security ID:        %2
                  Account Name:        %1

              Group:
                  Security ID:        %5
                  Group Name:        %3
                  Group Domain:        %4

              Additional Information:
                  Privileges:        %10