- Tactics
- Persistence, Privilege Escalation
- Platforms
- Linux
- Reference
- attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547.013
Description
Adversaries may add or modify XDG Autostart Entries to execute malicious programs or commands when a user’s desktop environment is loaded at login. XDG Autostart entries are available for any XDG-compliant Linux system. XDG Autostart entries use Desktop Entry files (.desktop) to configure the user’s desktop environment upon user login. These configuration files determine what applications launch upon user login, define associated applications to open specific file types, and define applications used to open removable media.(Citation: Free Desktop Application Autostart Feb 2006)(Citation: Free Desktop Entry Keys)
Adversaries may abuse this feature to establish persistence by adding a path to a malicious binary or command to the Exec directive in the .desktop configuration file. When the user’s desktop environment is loaded at user login, the .desktop files located in the XDG Autostart directories are automatically executed. System-wide Autostart entries are located in the /etc/xdg/autostart directory while the user entries are located in the ~/.config/autostart directory.
Adversaries may combine this technique with Masquerading to blend malicious Autostart entries with legitimate programs.(Citation: Red Canary Netwire Linux 2022)
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 Persistence, Privilege Escalation tactic this technique falls under. Practitioner-led, focused on real detections, not memorizing technique IDs.
Related techniques
- T1037 — Boot or Logon Initialization Scripts
- T1053 — Scheduled Task/Job
- T1055 — Process Injection
- T1068 — Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
- T1078 — Valid Accounts
- T1098 — Account Manipulation
- T1112 — Modify Registry
- T1133 — External Remote Services
- T1134 — Access Token Manipulation
- T1136 — Create Account
- T1137 — Office Application Startup
- T1176 — Software Extensions