CyberStack

MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1204.001

User Execution: Malicious Link

ID
T1204.001
Tactics
TA0002 Execution
Sub-technique of
T1204 User Execution
Platforms
Linux, macOS, Windows
Data sources
Process Creation, Network Connection Creation, File Creation, Network Traffic Content
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
12 Sep 2026

An adversary may rely upon a user clicking a malicious link in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to click on a link that will lead to code execution. This user action will typically be observed as follow-on behavior from Spearphishing Link. Clicking on a link may also lead to other execution techniques such as exploitation of a browser or application vulnerability via Exploitation for Client Execution. Links may also lead users to download files that require execution via Malicious File.

Detection

Mitigations (3)

M1017 User Training

Use user training as a way to bring awareness to common phishing and spearphishing techniques and how to raise suspicion for potentially malicious events.

M1021 Restrict Web-Based Content

If a link is being visited by a user, block unknown or unused files in transit by default that should not be downloaded or by policy from suspicious sites as a best practice to prevent some vectors, such as .scr, .exe, .pif, .cpl, etc. Some download scanning devices can open and analyze compressed and encrypted formats, such as zip and rar that may be used to conceal malicious files.

M1031 Network Intrusion Prevention

If a link is being visited by a user, network intrusion prevention systems and systems designed to scan and remove malicious downloads can be used to block activity.

Groups (50)

Software (31)