T1563.002

Sub-technique Windows

RDP Hijacking

Description

Adversaries may hijack a legitimate user’s remote desktop session to move laterally within an environment. Remote desktop is a common feature in operating systems.

It allows a user to log into an interactive session with a system desktop graphical user interface on a remote system. Microsoft refers to its implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) as Remote Desktop Services (RDS).

Adversaries may perform RDP session hijacking which involves stealing a legitimate user's remote session. Typically, a user is notified when someone else is trying to steal their session.

With System permissions and using Terminal Services Console, `c:\windows\system32\tscon.exe [session number to be stolen]`, an adversary can hijack a session without the need for credentials or prompts to the user. This can be done remotely or locally and with active or disconnected sessions.

It can also lead to Remote System Discovery and Privilege Escalation by stealing a Domain Admin or higher privileged account session. All of this can be done by using native Windows commands, but it has also been added as a feature in red teaming tools.

Mitigations

M1018 — User Account Management M1026 — Privileged Account Management M1028 — Operating System Configuration M1030 — Network Segmentation M1035 — Limit Access to Resource Over .. M1042 — Disable or Remove Feature or P.. M1047 — Audit