MITRE ATT&CKsub-technique

T1547.012 Print Processors

Published 2020-10-05 Modified 2025-10-24 Official page ↗
Domain
enterprise
Tactics
Persistence, Privilege Escalation
Platforms
Windows
Version
1.2
Created
2020-10-05

Description

Adversaries may abuse print processors to run malicious DLLs during system boot for persistence and/or privilege escalation. Print processors are DLLs that are loaded by the print spooler service, `spoolsv.exe`, during boot. Adversaries may abuse the print spooler service by adding print processors that load malicious DLLs at startup. A print processor can be installed through the AddPrintProcessor API call with an account that has SeLoadDriverPrivilege enabled. Alternatively, a print processor can be registered to the print spooler service by adding the HKLM\SYSTEM\\[CurrentControlSet or ControlSet001]\Control\Print\Environments\\[Windows architecture: e.g., Windows x64]\Print Processors\\[user defined]\Driver Registry key that points to the DLL. For the malicious print processor to be correctly installed, the payload must be located in the dedicated system print-processor directory, that can be found with the GetPrintProcessorDirectory API call, or referenced via a relative path from this directory. After the print processors are installed, the print spooler service, which starts during boot, must be restarted in order for them to run. The print spooler service runs under SYSTEM level permissions, therefore print processors installed by an adversary may run under elevated privileges.

Related

Subtechnique of · MITRE ATT&CK (1)

  • T1547 Boot or Logon Autostart Execution technique

Tactic · MITRE ATT&CK (2)

  • TA0003 Persistence tactic
  • TA0004 Privilege Escalation tactic

Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · mitigates (1)

  • M1018 User Account Management mitigation

Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · uses (3)

  • G1006 Earth Lusca group
  • S0666 Gelsemium software (malware)
  • S0501 PipeMon software (malware)

Referenced by Compliance · mitigates (9)

  • CIS-6.8 Define and Maintain Role-Based Access Control CIS Safeguard v8.1
  • NIST-AC-17 Remote Access NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-AC-2 Account Management NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-AC-3 Access Enforcement NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-AC-5 Separation of Duties NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-AC-6 Least Privilege NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-CM-5 Access Restrictions for Change NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-4 System Monitoring NIST 800-53 control

References