CyberStack

MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1197

BITS Jobs

ID
T1197
Tactics
TA0002 Execution, TA0003 Persistence, TA0005 Stealth
Platforms
Windows
Data sources
Process Creation, Network Connection Creation, Command Execution, Service Creation
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
12 May 2026

Adversaries may abuse BITS jobs to persistently execute code and perform various background tasks. Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is a low-bandwidth, asynchronous file transfer mechanism exposed through Component Object Model (COM).[3][2] BITS is commonly used by updaters, messengers, and other applications preferred to operate in the background (using available idle bandwidth) without interrupting other networked applications. File transfer tasks are implemented as BITS jobs, which contain a queue of one or more file operations.

The interface to create and manage BITS jobs is accessible through PowerShell and the BITSAdmin tool.[2][4]

Adversaries may abuse BITS to download (e.g. Ingress Tool Transfer), execute, and even clean up after running malicious code (e.g. Indicator Removal). BITS tasks are self-contained in the BITS job database, without new files or registry modifications, and often permitted by host firewalls.[5][6][1] BITS enabled execution may also enable persistence by creating long-standing jobs (the default maximum lifetime is 90 days and extendable) or invoking an arbitrary program when a job completes or errors (including after system reboots).[7][5]

BITS upload functionalities can also be used to perform Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol.[5]

Detection

Mitigations (3)

M1018 User Account Management

Consider limiting access to the BITS interface to specific users or groups.[1]

M1028 Operating System Configuration

Consider reducing the default BITS job lifetime in Group Policy or by editing the JobInactivityTimeout and MaxDownloadTime Registry values in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\BITS.[2]

M1037 Filter Network Traffic

Modify network and/or host firewall rules, as well as other network controls, to only allow legitimate BITS traffic.

Groups (5)

Software (8)

References

  1. Symantec BITS May 2007
  2. Microsoft BITS
  3. Microsoft COM
  4. Microsoft BITSAdmin
  5. CTU BITS Malware June 2016
  6. Mondok Windows PiggyBack BITS May 2007
  7. PaloAlto UBoatRAT Nov 2017