- Tactics
- Execution
- Platforms
- ESXi, Linux, macOS, Windows
- Reference
- attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059.006
Description
Adversaries may abuse Python commands and scripts for execution. Python is a very popular scripting/programming language, with capabilities to perform many functions. Python can be executed interactively from the command-line (via the python.exe interpreter) or via scripts (.py) that can be written and distributed to different systems. Python code can also be compiled into binary executables.(Citation: Zscaler APT31 Covid-19 October 2020)
Python comes with many built-in packages to interact with the underlying system, such as file operations and device I/O. Adversaries can use these libraries to download and execute commands or other scripts as well as perform various malicious behaviors.
How GTK Cyber trains on this
GTK Cyber's Threat Hunting with Data Science course teaches you to build machine-learning detections for techniques like this across the MITRE ATT&CK framework, including the Execution tactic this technique falls under. Practitioner-led, focused on real detections, not memorizing technique IDs.
Related techniques
- T1047 — Windows Management Instrumentation
- T1053 — Scheduled Task/Job
- T1059 — Command and Scripting Interpreter
- T1072 — Software Deployment Tools
- T1106 — Native API
- T1127 — Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution
- T1129 — Shared Modules
- T1197 — BITS Jobs
- T1203 — Exploitation for Client Execution
- T1204 — User Execution
- T1559 — Inter-Process Communication
- T1569 — System Services