TA0005 · DEFENSE EVASION
Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution
Adversaries may take advantage of trusted developer utilities to proxy execution of malicious payloads.
Detect it with
Monitor for abnormal presence of these or other utilities that enable proxy execution that are typically used for development, debugging, and reverse engineering on a system that is not used for these purposes may be suspicious.
Why it matters on shift
Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution is one of the concrete ways adversaries achieve defense evasion. Recognising it in telemetry lets you name the technique in your ticket and pivot to what came before and after.
What to look for next
After defense evasion, the next tactic is usually Credential Access. Search your telemetry for the transition before closing the ticket.
3 sub-techniques
How it shows up in practice
- T1127.001
MSBuild
Adversaries may use MSBuild to proxy execution of code through a trusted Windows utility. MSBuild.exe (Microsoft Build Engine) is a software build platform used by Visual Studio.
- T1127.002
ClickOnce
Adversaries may use ClickOnce applications (.appref-ms and .application files) to proxy execution of code through a trusted Windows utility.
- T1127.003
JamPlus
Adversaries may use JamPlus to proxy the execution of a malicious script. JamPlus is a build utility tool for code and data build systems.
Kill-chain context