Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution. PowerShell is a powerful interactive command-line interface and scripting environment included in the Windows operating system.^[1] Adversaries can use PowerShell to perform a number of actions, including discovery of information and execution of code. Examples include the Start-Process cmdlet which can be used to run an executable and the Invoke-Command cmdlet which runs a command locally or on a remote computer (though administrator permissions are required to use PowerShell to connect to remote systems).

PowerShell may also be used to download and run executables from the Internet, which can be executed from disk or in memory without touching disk.

PowerShell commands/scripts can also be executed without directly invoking the powershell.exe binary through interfaces to PowerShell's underlying System.Management.Automation assembly DLL exposed through the .NET framework and Windows Common Language Interface (CLI).^[2],[3],[4]

Within industrial control system networks, adversaries may abuse the use of PowerShell on overlap assets that run on Microsoft Windows operating systems (Workstations, Data Historians, Human Machine Interfaces, Application Servers, Jump Hosts, etc.).

References

1. Microsoft. (n.d.). Windows PowerShell Scripting. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
2. Warner, J.. (2015, January 6). Inexorable PowerShell – A Red Teamer’s Tale of Overcoming Simple AppLocker Policies. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
3. Christensen, L.. (2015, December 28). The Evolution of Offensive PowerShell Invocation. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
4. Babinec, K. (2014, April 28). Executing PowerShell scripts from C#. Retrieved April 22, 2019.

Свързани задачи

• MITREATTACK -

  EN: MITRE ATT&CK®, https://attack.mitre.org/. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. License: The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use ATT&CK® for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE's copyright designation and this license in any such copy. See the Terms of Use for the disclaimers. ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. Converted into the GRCA format.

  DE: MITRE ATT&CK®, https://attack.mitre.org/. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE erlaubt die Nutzung für Forschung, Entwicklung und kommerzielle Zwecke, wenn jede Kopie den Urheberrechtsvermerk und die Lizenz enthält; maßgeblich ist der englische Wortlaut der Lizenz oben und die Terms of Use mit den Haftungsausschlüssen. ATT&CK® ist eine eingetragene Marke der MITRE Corporation. In das GRCA-Format umgewandelt.