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T1542.005: TFTP Boot

View on MITRE ATT&CK The MITRE Corporation · Published 16/12/2025 19:37 · Modified 27/03/2026 01:08

Essential information

MITRE technique ID
T1542.005
Confidence
100/100
Revoked
No
Published
16/12/2025 19:37
Modified
27/03/2026 01:08
Author / Source
The MITRE Corporation

Platforms

Network Devices

Description

Adversaries may abuse netbooting to load an unauthorized network device operating system from a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server. TFTP boot (netbooting) is commonly used by network administrators to load configuration-controlled network device images from a centralized management server. Netbooting is one option in the boot sequence and can be used to centralize, manage, and control device images. Adversaries may manipulate the configuration on the network device specifying use of a malicious TFTP server, which may be used in conjunction with [Modify System Image](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1601) to load a modified image on device startup or reset. The unauthorized image allows adversaries to modify device configuration, add malicious capabilities to the device, and introduce backdoors to maintain control of the network device while minimizing detection through use of a standard functionality. This technique is similar to [ROMMONkit](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1542/004) and may result in the network device running a modified image. (Citation: Cisco Blog Legacy Device Attacks)

Kill chain phases

Kill chainPhase
mitre-attack defense-evasion
mitre-attack persistence

Marking (TLP)

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External references