T1086

Official Description

PowerShell is a powerful interactive command-line interface and scripting environment included in the Windows operating system. (Citation: TechNet PowerShell) 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.

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.

Administrator permissions are required to use PowerShell to connect to remote systems.

A number of PowerShell-based offensive testing tools are available, including [Empire](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0363), PowerSploit, (Citation: Powersploit) and PSAttack. (Citation: Github PSAttack)

PowerShell commands/scripts can also be executed without directly invoking the powershell.exe binary through interfaces to PowerShell's underlying System.Management.Automation assembly exposed through the .NET framework and Windows Common Language Interface (CLI). (Citation: Sixdub PowerPick Jan 2016)(Citation: SilentBreak Offensive PS Dec 2015) (Citation: Microsoft PSfromCsharp APR 2014)

Tactics: Execution
Platforms: Windows
MITRE Version: 1.2
Last Modified: Oct 24, 2025

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Reported Context (1)

The appendix also lists this ID for PowerShell activity, including commands used for discovery and event-log clearing. Cisco Talos Details Qilin Ransomware Tactics, from VPN Access to Network Encryption

Malware (3)

People (4)

Threat Actors (1)

MITRE ATT&CK (30)

Vendors (1)

Products (5)

Tools (18)

Industries (10)

Countries (5)

Note: Related entities, including threat actors, malware, CVEs, MITRE ATT&CK techniques, vendors, products, tools, countries, and industries, are shown when they appear in the same reporting. Their presence does not necessarily mean they were targeted, compromised, vulnerable, responsible for the activity, or directly involved in the incident.