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T0843: Program Download

View on MITRE ATT&CK The MITRE Corporation · Published 21/05/2020 19:43 · Modified 27/03/2026 01:44

Essential information

MITRE technique ID
T0843
Confidence
100/100
Revoked
No
Published
21/05/2020 19:43
Modified
27/03/2026 01:44
Author / Source
The MITRE Corporation

Description

Adversaries may perform a program download to transfer a user program to a controller. Variations of program download, such as online edit and program append, allow a controller to continue running during the transfer and reconfiguration process without interruption to process control. However, before starting a full program download (i.e., download all) a controller may need to go into a stop state. This can have negative consequences on the physical process, especially if the controller is not able to fulfill a time-sensitive action. Adversaries may choose to avoid a download all in favor of an online edit or program append to avoid disrupting the physical process. An adversary may need to use the technique Detect Operating Mode or Change Operating Mode to make sure the controller is in the proper mode to accept a program download. The granularity of control to transfer a user program in whole or parts is dictated by the management protocol (e.g., S7CommPlus, TriStation) and underlying controller API. Thus, program download is a high-level term for the suite of vendor-specific API calls used to configure a controllers user program memory space. [Modify Controller Tasking](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T0821) and [Modify Program](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T0889) represent the configuration changes that are transferred to a controller via a program download.

Kill chain phases

Kill chainPhase
mitre-ics-attack lateral-movement

Marking (TLP)

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External references