T1546

Event Triggered Execution

Linux · macOS · Windows · SaaS · IaaS · Office Suite6 pieces on this siteT1546 on attack.mitre.org

Adversaries may establish persistence and/or elevate privileges using system mechanisms that trigger execution based on specific events. Various operating systems have means to monitor and subscribe to events such as logons or other user activity such as running specific applications/binaries. Cloud environments may also support various functions and services that monitor and can be invoked in response to specific cloud events.
MITRE ATT&CK 19.2, retrieved 2026-09-12

If this is happening now

Checklists and playbooks to open while the alert is still live.

First-hour playbookMembers

How to find what an operator left behind

You have evicted somebody, or believe you have, and need to be sure there is no way back in.

T1546.003

Detect it

Hunts and rules you can run, each stating what it needs and what else it returns.

Rule packCONSTRUCTED

Sigma endpoint pack: seven rules for the Windows techniques that keep working

Shadow copy deletion, LSASS dumping through comsvcs, long encoded PowerShell, scheduled tasks and services in user-writable paths, WMI subscriptions and a cleared Security log. Each rule ships with the false positives it was written expecting.

T1546.003

Query Vault

Enumerate permanent WMI event subscriptions, the persistence that survives a rebuild of everything else.

T1546.003

The evidence it leaves

Where the traces live, and what each source proves and does not.

Artifact reference

WMI event subscriptions

T1546.003

Practise it

Labs, timelines, evidence packs and tabletop scenarios to work before you need to.

Guided labMembers

Guided lab: the persistence that leaves almost no log

WMI event subscriptions run code on a condition you choose, survive reboots, live nowhere in the filesystem, and log nothing by default. The last of the persistence series, and the one that changes how you think about the other three.

T1546.003

Read

Analyses, case studies, guides, references and interview questions.

Analysis

Gitea's diffpatch endpoint plants a Git hook, and the hook does the rest

CVE-2026-60004 turns repository write access into shell execution as the Gitea service account. The interesting part is not the injection. It is that Git hooks are executable files sitting inside a directory your developers write to all day.

T1546

how MITRE says to see it

Behavioral Detection of Event Triggered Execution Across Platforms

Correlates unexpected modifications to WMI event filters, scheduled task triggers, or registry autorun keys with subsequent execution of non-standard binaries by SYSTEM-level processes.
Detects inotify or auditd configuration changes that monitor system files coupled with execution of script interpreters or binaries by cron or systemd timers.
Correlates launchd plist modifications with subsequent unauthorized script execution or anomalous parent-child process trees involving user agents.
Monitors cloud function creation triggered by specific audit log events (e.g., IAM changes, object creation), followed by anomalous behavior from new service accounts.

what reduces it

M1026 Privileged Account Management. Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to privileged accounts, including SYSTEM and root.
M1051 Update Software. Perform regular software updates to mitigate exploitation risk.

sub-techniques

T1546.001 Change Default File Association · not covered yet
T1546.002 Screensaver · not covered yet
T1546.003 Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription · 5 on this site
T1546.004 Unix Shell Configuration Modification · not covered yet
T1546.005 Trap · not covered yet
T1546.006 LC_LOAD_DYLIB Addition · not covered yet
T1546.007 Netsh Helper DLL · not covered yet
T1546.008 Accessibility Features · not covered yet
T1546.009 AppCert DLLs · not covered yet
T1546.010 AppInit DLLs · not covered yet
T1546.011 Application Shimming · not covered yet
T1546.012 Image File Execution Options Injection · not covered yet
T1546.013 PowerShell Profile · not covered yet
T1546.014 Emond · not covered yet
T1546.015 Component Object Model Hijacking · not covered yet
T1546.016 Installer Packages · not covered yet
T1546.017 Udev Rules · not covered yet
T1546.018 Python Startup Hooks · not covered yet

The description, detection analytics and mitigations are reproduced from MITRE ATT&CK, version 19.2, under its terms of use. The checklists, hunts, labs and everything else linked here are this site’s.