Service Execution

Adversaries may abuse the Windows service control manager to execute malicious commands or payloads. The Windows service control manager (<code>services.exe</code>) is an interface to manage and manipulate services.¹ The service control manager is accessible to users via GUI components as well as system utilities such as <code>sc.exe</code> and Net. PsExec can also be used to execute commands or payloads via a temporary Windows service created through the service control manager API.² Tools such as PsExec and <code>sc.exe</code> can accept remote servers as arguments and may be used to conduct remote execution. Adversaries may leverage these mechanisms to execute malicious content. This can be done by either executing a new or modified service. This technique is the execution used in conjunction with Windows Service during service persistence or privilege escalation.

1. Microsoft Service Control Manager
2. Russinovich Sysinternals

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