Adversaries may abuse components of Terminal Services to enable persistent access to systems. Microsoft Terminal Services, renamed to Remote Desktop Services in some Windows Server OSs as of 2022, enable remote terminal connections to hosts. Terminal Services allows servers to transmit a full, interactive, graphical user interface to clients via RDP.(Citation: Microsoft Remote Desktop Services) [Windows Service](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/003)s that are run as a "generic" process (ex: svchost.exe) load the service's DLL file, the location of which is stored in a Registry entry named ServiceDll.(Citation: Microsoft System Services Fundamentals) The termsrv.dll file, typically stored in `%SystemRoot%\System32\`, is the default ServiceDll value for Terminal Services in `HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\TermService\Parameters\`. Adversaries may modify and/or replace the Terminal Services DLL to enable persistent access to victimized hosts.(Citation: James TermServ DLL) Modifications to this DLL could be done to execute arbitrary payloads (while also potentially preserving normal termsrv.dll functionality) as well as to simply enable abusable features of Terminal Services. For example, an adversary may enable features such as concurrent [Remote Desktop Protocol](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/001) sessions by either patching the termsrv.dll file or modifying the ServiceDll value to point to a DLL that provides increased RDP functionality.(Citation: Windows OS Hub RDP)(Citation: RDPWrap Github) On a non-server Windows OS this increased functionality may also enable an adversary to avoid Terminal Services prompts that warn/log out users of a system when a new RDP session is created.

Linked Issues

Issuelinks
Linktyp Issue
is related to Techniques
is blocked by Audit
is blocked by Detection Strategy for T1505.005 – Terminal Services DLL Modification (Windows)
is blocked by Restrict Registry Permissions
is blocked by Secure Baseline Configurations
is blocked by Continuous Monitoring
is blocked by Use of External Technology Assets, Applications and/or Services (TAAS)
is blocked by Separation of Duties (SoD)
is blocked by Account Management
is blocked by Access Enforcement
is blocked by Least Privilege
is blocked by Session Termination
is blocked by Remote Access
is blocked by Vulnerability Scanning
Impressum Deutsch Englisch