tfMITRE ATT&CK sub-technique

Netsh Helper DLL T1546.007

sub-technique of T1546 Event Triggered Execution

Tactics: Persistence, Privilege Escalation
Platform: Windows
Version: 1.1
Created: 24 January 2020
Last modified: 24 October 2025
Contributor: Matthew Demaske, Adaptforward

Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by Netsh Helper DLLs. Netsh.exe (also referred to as Netshell) is a command-line scripting utility used to interact with the network configuration of a system. It contains functionality to add helper DLLs for extending functionality of the utility.[1] The paths to registered netsh.exe helper DLLs are entered into the Windows Registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Netsh.

ReconResource DevInitial AccessExecutionPersistencePriv EscStealthDef ImpairmentCred AccessDiscoveryLateral MoveCollectionC2ExfiltrationImpact

Threat groupsNone recorded

Threat groupsNone recorded · 29% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

CampaignsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded · 54% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Tools & malware44th pct

Tools & malware44th percentile · 56% of ATT&CK techniques have more tools implementing them.

Detection rules60th pct

Detection rules60th percentile · 60% of ATT&CK techniques have this many detection rules written or fewer.

Netsh Helper DLL MITRE reference T1546.007

44th pctamong all ATT&CK techniques for number of tools

1 software entry is documented implementing this technique. MITRE files each as a tool or as malware; newest first, then by how many groups carry them.

netshS0108 ↗

Can be used as a persistence proxy technique to execute a helper DLL when netsh.exe is executed.1

created 2017-05-31TOOLcarried by 7 groups

All 1 software entries for this technique

Offense vs defense T1546.007

Is defensive coverage keeping up with adversary use? Eight counts, each ranked against all 697 ATT&CK techniques. Attack sits left, defense right, so a shape leaning left means adversaries are better documented here than defenders are equipped. Hover any spoke for its percentile and the share of techniques that have more. The timeline below shows when each side arrived.

How it got here

Range

Adversary activity (campaign spans) over cumulative rule output. Each source is plotted independently from zero, so neither line includes the other. Campaign dates are year-granularity.

Campaigns · 0Sigma rules (cumulative) · 4Splunk ESCU (cumulative) · 0

first rule: 2019 Q4

Netsh Helper DLL detection strategy DET0575

MITRE names one behaviour worth catching for this technique and breaks it into 1 analytic, one per platform. Each carries the log sources it needs and the fields you tune per environment.

Detection Strategy for Netsh Helper DLL Persistence via Registry and Child Process Monitoring (Windows)

Enterprise

1 platform

AN1588 · Windows

Detection focuses on monitoring registry modifications under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Netsh that indicate the addition of helper DLLs, followed by anomalous child process activity or module load behavior initiated by netsh.exe. These behaviors are rarely legitimate and may represent an adversary establishing persistence.

Log sources

The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.

Data component	Name	Channel
Module LoadDC0016	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=7
Process CreationDC0032	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=1
Windows Registry Key ModificationDC0063	WinEventLog:Security	EventCode=4657

Tunable fields

MITRE calls these the analytic’s mutable elements: the thresholds and filters you set for your own environment.

Field	What you tune
TimeWindow	Defines the time window in which correlated registry and execution events are considered suspicious (e.g., within 10 minutes)
NetshChildProcessWhitelist	List of expected or approved child processes spawned by netsh.exe in the enterprise environment
DLLLoadPath	Directory or filename heuristics to distinguish benign DLLs from malicious helper DLLs

Tests1Executorscmd 1Need elevation1 of 1Have prerequisites1Have cleanup1Platformswindows

Test

Platform

Executor

Elevation

Prereqs

Cleanup

Ref

Netsh Helper DLL Registration

windows

cmd

Required

Yes

You can register a "helper dll" with Netsh as a persistance mechanism. The code in the dll is executed every time netsh.exe is called. The NetshHelper.dll provided with the atomic will simply launch notepad when netsh.exe is run. Blog Sample DLL code

Input arguments

Name	Type	Default	Description
helper_file	path	PathToAtomicsFolder\T1546.007\bin\NetshHelper.dll	Path to DLL

Attack command

netsh.exe add helper "#{helper_file}"
taskkill /im notepad.exe /t /f > NUL 2>&1

Cleanup command

netsh.exe delete helper "#{helper_file}"

Prerequisite

Helper DLL must exist on disk at specified location (#{helper_file})

Check

if (Test-Path "#{helper_file}") { exit 0} else { exit 1}

Satisfy

New-Item -Type Directory (split-path "#{helper_file}") -ErrorAction ignore | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/raw/master/atomics/T1546.007/bin/NetshHelper.dll" -OutFile "#{helper_file}"

GUID70c0c1f6-0680-459f-98a1-083fbc65b7be

Tests from Atomic Red Team (MIT licence) · technique definition

Netsh Helper DLL detections T1546.007

4 rules are mapped to this technique. Parent techniques also include their sub-techniques’ rules. Click a slice or key entry to filter the table.

60th pctamong all ATT&CK techniques for number of rules

Product

Severity

Library

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