TA0008 · LATERAL MOVEMENT
Lateral Tool Transfer
Copying tooling between internal hosts over SMB or a remote management channel.
Detect it with
Executables written to C$ or ADMIN$ followed within seconds by a service creation on the same host.
Why it matters on shift
Lateral Tool Transfer is one of the concrete ways adversaries achieve lateral movement. 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 lateral movement, the next tactic is usually Collection. Search your telemetry for the transition before closing the ticket.
Kill-chain context