T1547.012: Print Processors
Essential information
- MITRE technique ID
T1547.012- Confidence
- 100/100
- Revoked
- No
- Published
- 05/10/2020 15:24
- Modified
- 27/03/2026 01:09
- Author / Source
- The MITRE Corporation
Platforms
windows
Description
Adversaries may abuse print processors to run malicious DLLs during system boot for persistence and/or privilege escalation. Print processors are DLLs that are loaded by the print spooler service, `spoolsv.exe`, during boot.(Citation: Microsoft Intro Print Processors)
Adversaries may abuse the print spooler service by adding print processors that load malicious DLLs at startup. A print processor can be installed through the `AddPrintProcessor` API call with an account that has `SeLoadDriverPrivilege` enabled. Alternatively, a print processor can be registered to the print spooler service by adding the `HKLM\SYSTEM\\[CurrentControlSet or ControlSet001]\Control\Print\Environments\\[Windows architecture: e.g., Windows x64]\Print Processors\\[user defined]\Driver` Registry key that points to the DLL.
For the malicious print processor to be correctly installed, the payload must be located in the dedicated system print-processor directory, that can be found with the `GetPrintProcessorDirectory` API call, or referenced via a relative path from this directory.(Citation: Microsoft AddPrintProcessor May 2018) After the print processors are installed, the print spooler service, which starts during boot, must be restarted in order for them to run.(Citation: ESET PipeMon May 2020)
The print spooler service runs under SYSTEM level permissions, therefore print processors installed by an adversary may run under elevated privileges.
Kill chain phases
| Kill chain | Phase |
|---|---|
| mitre-attack | persistence |
| mitre-attack | privilege-escalation |
Marking (TLP)
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