MITRE ATT&CK Technique
Lateral Movement T1563
Description

Adversaries may take control of preexisting sessions with remote services to move laterally in an environment. Users may use valid credentials to log into a service specifically designed to accept remote connections, such as telnet, SSH, and RDP. When a user logs into a service, a session will be established that will allow them to maintain a continuous interaction with that service. Adversaries may commandeer these sessions to carry out actions on remote systems. [Remote Service Session Hijacking](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1563) differs from use of [Remote Services](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021) because it hijacks an existing session rather than creating a new session using [Valid Accounts](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078).(Citation: RDP Hijacking Medium)(Citation: Breach Post-mortem SSH Hijack)

Supported Platforms
Linux macOS Windows
Created

April 29, 2026

Last Updated

April 29, 2026

STIX Data
{'created': '2020-02-25T18:26:16.994Z',
 'created_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
 'description': 'Adversaries may take control of preexisting sessions with '
                'remote services to move laterally in an environment. Users '
                'may use valid credentials to log into a service specifically '
                'designed to accept remote connections, such as telnet, SSH, '
                'and RDP. When a user logs into a service, a session will be '
                'established that will allow them to maintain a continuous '
                'interaction with that service.\n'
                '\n'
                'Adversaries may commandeer these sessions to carry out '
                'actions on remote systems. [Remote Service Session '
                'Hijacking](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1563) differs '
                'from use of [Remote '
                'Services](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021) because '
                'it hijacks an existing session rather than creating a new '
                'session using [Valid '
                'Accounts](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078).(Citation: '
                'RDP Hijacking Medium)(Citation: Breach Post-mortem SSH '
                'Hijack)',
 'external_references': [{'external_id': 'T1563',
                          'source_name': 'mitre-attack',
                          'url': 'https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1563'},
                         {'description': 'Beaumont, K. (2017, March 19). RDP '
                                         'hijacking\u200a—\u200ahow to hijack '
                                         'RDS and RemoteApp sessions '
                                         'transparently to move through an '
                                         'organisation. Retrieved December 11, '
                                         '2017.',
                          'source_name': 'RDP Hijacking Medium',
                          'url': 'https://medium.com/@networksecurity/rdp-hijacking-how-to-hijack-rds-and-remoteapp-sessions-transparently-to-move-through-an-da2a1e73a5f6'},
                         {'description': 'Hodgson, M. (2019, May 8). '
                                         'Post-mortem and remediations for Apr '
                                         '11 security incident. Retrieved '
                                         'November 17, 2024.',
                          'source_name': 'Breach Post-mortem SSH Hijack',
                          'url': 'https://matrix.org/blog/2019/05/08/post-mortem-and-remediations-for-apr-11-security-incident/'}],
 'id': 'attack-pattern--5b0ad6f8-6a16-4966-a4ef-d09ea6e2a9f5',
 'kill_chain_phases': [{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
                        'phase_name': 'lateral-movement'}],
 'modified': '2025-10-24T17:48:50.118Z',
 'name': 'Remote Service Session Hijacking',
 'object_marking_refs': ['marking-definition--fa42a846-8d90-4e51-bc29-71d5b4802168'],
 'revoked': False,
 'spec_version': '2.1',
 'type': 'attack-pattern',
 'x_mitre_attack_spec_version': '3.2.0',
 'x_mitre_deprecated': False,
 'x_mitre_detection': '',
 'x_mitre_domains': ['enterprise-attack'],
 'x_mitre_is_subtechnique': False,
 'x_mitre_modified_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
 'x_mitre_platforms': ['Linux', 'macOS', 'Windows'],
 'x_mitre_version': '1.1'}
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