T1037 Boot or Logon Initialization Scripts

Enterprise

Adversaries may use scripts automatically executed at boot or logon initialization to establish persistence. Initialization scripts can be used to perform administrative functions, which may often execute other programs or send information to an internal logging server. These scripts can vary based on operating system and whether applied locally or remotely. Adversaries may use these scripts to maintain persistence on a single system. Depending on the access configuration of the logon scripts, either local credentials or an administrator account may be necessary. An adversary may also be able to escalate their privileges since some boot or logon initialization scripts run with higher privileges.

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platforms

Platforms this applies to.

ESXiLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows
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tactics

ATT&CK tactics this technique serves.

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mitigations

ATT&CK mitigations that reduce this.

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NIST CSF 2.0 — areas of relevance (Protect / Detect)

NIST CSF 2.0 areas this most relates to (evidence-ranked).

Derived from MITRE CTID (Apache-2.0) and the NIST 800-53 ↔ CSF crosswalk (public domain). Indicative relevance along the Protect/Detect axis — not a compliance assessment or coverage claim.

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mitigating controls (9)

Security controls that mitigate this.

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known-exploited CVEs (3)

Related CVEs.

IDseverity exploitable
CVE-2024-20359USmedium6.0OT criticalKEV
A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN clients and plug-ins and that has been available in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software a…
CVE-2024-20353UShigh8.6OT criticalKEV
A vulnerability in the management and VPN web servers for Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthen…
CVE-2022-41328UShigh7.1OT criticalKEV
A improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory vulnerability ('path traversal') [CWE-22] in Fortinet FortiOS version 7.2.0 through 7.2.3, 7.0.0 through 7.0.9 and bef…
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attack patterns (1)

CAPEC attack patterns that exploit this.

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groups (4)

Threat groups associated with this.

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software (3)

Malware and tools associated with this.

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campaigns (1)

Campaigns that use this.

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source

Where this definition is published.