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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsDetecting and removing a threat actor’s residual access is an evidence-led investigation, not a single malware scan or password reset. Preserve logs and volatile evidence, identify every access mechanism across endpoints, identities, networks and cloud services, contain the intrusion without destroying clues, then eradicate compromised systems and the weakness that allowed entry. Continue centralized monitoring afterward to test that the actor cannot return.
What persistent access is—and why cleanup is difficult
Persistence is any mechanism that lets an adversary retain access through restarts, changed passwords or other interruptions. MITRE ATT&CK defines it as techniques used to “keep access to systems across restarts, changed credentials, and other interruptions that could cut off their access.” The mechanism may be malware, but it can also be an ordinary account, a delegated mailbox, an SSH key, a scheduled task, a cloud role or a remote-management configuration.
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An attacker can maintain several routes at once. Removing a startup file while leaving a newly created administrator account, for example, does not remove access. Nor does blocking one IP address if the actor has another credential or uses a legitimate cloud service. An actor may also delete the persistence artifact before you collect it, so an empty search is not proof that persistence never existed.
- Host persistence: services, scheduled tasks, cron jobs, systemd units, startup folders, Registry run keys, WMI subscriptions, kernel modules, web shells and remote tools.
- Identity persistence: new local or directory accounts, altered group membership, stolen sessions, forged tickets, API keys, OAuth or cloud-application grants, email delegation and SSH authorized keys.
- Network persistence: VPN or remote-desktop accounts, modified routing or DNS, proxy settings, exposed management ports and implanted devices.
- Cloud and service persistence: added roles, access keys, device registrations, application integrations, forwarding rules and administrative tokens.
Because these mechanisms appear in different control planes, endpoint antivirus alone cannot establish that an environment is clean.
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Protect evidence before you change the environment
When there is no immediate danger to people or critical operations, collect evidence before making disruptive changes. CISA’s joint guidance warns that premature mitigation can alter volatile data, tip off the actor or leave alternate credentials active. Use a known-clean communication channel for the response team; assume that email, chat and collaboration accounts in the affected environment may be monitored.
- Declare an incident owner and record the timeline. Note the first alert, systems involved, decisions, people notified and every containment action with its time and operator.
- Preserve centralized logs. Export identity-provider, directory, endpoint, firewall, DNS, VPN, proxy, cloud-audit and email logs to storage the suspected attacker cannot modify. Record the collection time zone and retention limits.
- Capture volatile state where practical. On a live host, collect running processes, parent-child relationships, network connections, logged-on users, loaded modules and memory according to your response procedures. Photograph or export relevant console views before a reboot.
- Acquire files and metadata. Preserve suspicious executables, scripts, configuration files, scheduled-task definitions, service records, registry hives and shell histories. Hash collected files and maintain a chain-of-custody record.
- Protect the evidence set. Restrict write access, make a second copy and document who can access it. Do not run cleanup tools against the only copy of a disk or log.
If the actor is actively destructive, stealing data or moving laterally, containment may have to precede complete collection. Record what could not be collected and why; that limitation affects confidence in later eradication.
Scope the compromise across four evidence planes
Use the same time window and indicators across hosts, identities, networks and cloud services. The table is a practical scoping map based on CISA’s cross-platform checklist.
| Evidence plane | Review | Questions to answer |
|---|---|---|
| Endpoints and servers | Processes, services, parent-child trees, hashes, installed applications, autoruns, scheduled tasks, event logs, antivirus results, listening ports and recent connections | What executed, under which account, from which path and when? Does it recur after reboot? |
| Identity and directory | Account creation, password and MFA changes, group membership, logins, token use, service accounts, delegated access and ticket activity | Which identities were used, added or elevated? Are there alternate credentials or sessions? |
| Network | DNS, proxy, firewall, VPN, remote-desktop and SSH records; routes, ports, protocols, timing and traffic volume | Where did connections originate and terminate? Did an unauthorized resolver, tunnel or management path appear? |
| Cloud and hosted services | Audit trails, access keys, roles, device registrations, application integrations, mailbox rules and administrative changes | Did the actor create a durable cloud credential or grant an application access it did not need? |
Build a timeline that joins these planes. A suspicious PowerShell process, a new privileged sign-in five minutes earlier and an outbound connection to an unfamiliar host are stronger together than any single event. Compare activity with the organization’s normal patterns: time of day, source and destination, port, protocol, file location, hash, size and naming. Confirm anomalies against a second source to reduce false positives.
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Inspect endpoint and host persistence
Windows systems
- Enumerate running processes and services, including their parent process, executable path, signer, hash, start account and start time. Investigate binaries launched from user-writable or temporary directories.
- Review scheduled tasks, including hidden tasks, triggers, actions, run-as accounts and task-history events. Look for tasks created or modified near the suspected intrusion.
- Inspect Group Policy Objects, WMI permanent-event subscriptions, Registry run and run-once locations, startup folders and Autoruns entries. A benign-looking name in an unusual path can be significant.
- Compare local and domain accounts, administrators, remote-desktop groups and service accounts with an approved inventory. Check creation dates, last logon, password settings and recent privilege changes.
- Review Windows event logs, PowerShell and script-block logging, security events, Defender or other antivirus results, application-control alerts, shell history and recent file execution artifacts.
- Check listening ports, established connections, DNS settings, static routes, installed remote-access software and removable-media history.
Linux and Unix systems
- Review cron and at jobs, systemd services and timers, init scripts, shell profiles, SSH configuration and every user’s
authorized_keys. - Compare
/etc/passwd,/etc/shadowmetadata, sudoers files and group membership with the expected baseline. Investigate accounts, keys and privilege changes that lack an owner. - Inspect running processes, listening sockets, loaded kernel modules, recent package and binary changes, journal logs and authentication logs.
- Check DNS resolvers, static routes, firewall rules, proxy settings, container or orchestration credentials and web-server directories for unexpected scripts or web shells.
Preserve the records before deleting a service, task, key or account. If a persistence item has vanished, use logs, file-system timelines, endpoint telemetry and backups to determine whether it was removed by the actor or by an administrator.
Hunt identities, cloud access and valid-account abuse
Legitimate credentials are often harder to distinguish from normal work than malware. Review every authentication source for unusual geography, device, user agent, time, volume, protocol or privilege. Correlate successful and failed logins with VPN, remote-desktop, SSH, directory and cloud-audit records.
Accounts and privileges
- Inventory local, directory, service, emergency and application accounts. Identify accounts created, re-enabled or added to privileged groups during the incident window.
- Review password resets, MFA changes, recovery methods, API tokens, personal-access tokens, session cookies and long-lived refresh tokens.
- Look for forged or anomalous authentication tickets and unexplained use of service accounts. Treat a password reset as incomplete if sessions, keys or tokens remain valid.
- Check mailbox delegation, forwarding rules and shared-drive permissions for unauthorized persistence or data collection.
Cloud and SaaS controls
- Examine newly created access keys, roles, policies, service principals, OAuth grants, application integrations and device registrations.
- Review administrative actions such as logging changes, security-policy edits, network-rule changes, snapshot creation and storage sharing.
- Reconcile cloud resources and identities with an approved inventory; investigate resources that have no business owner or billing explanation.
MITRE ATT&CK’s Enterprise Persistence techniques provide a coverage checklist that includes account manipulation, added cloud credentials or roles, email delegation, SSH keys, device registration, startup execution, services, cloud application integrations, created accounts, server components such as web shells and valid-account abuse. A technique match is a lead to investigate, not proof of compromise.
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Search DNS, proxy, firewall, VPN, remote-desktop and SSH telemetry for the entire period in which the actor could have been present. Investigate unusual resolvers, unauthorized zone transfers, new ports, routing changes, unapproved remote tools, recurring beacon-like timing, unexpected traffic volume and connections to known indicators.
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- Compare source addresses, destinations, ports and protocols with normal user and server behavior.
- Check ingress and egress visibility: an absence of outbound data in one tool may simply mean that tool did not see the relevant segment.
- Review remote-access concentrators and bastion hosts for new accounts, changed policies, unusual session duration and logins outside normal support windows.
- Inspect DNS and routing on hosts and network devices for unauthorized resolvers, static routes, tunnels and modified name-resolution files.
- Search proxy and firewall records for the domains, IP addresses, URLs, hashes and user agents associated with the intrusion, while remembering that infrastructure may be shared or rapidly changed.
Block or sinkhole malicious infrastructure only after the response team has considered evidence loss and the possibility that the actor will change tactics. Preserve the relevant records first where the risk permits.
Analyze indicators without relying on indicators alone
Start with known indicators of compromise (IOCs), then expand to behavior and frequency. Search hashes, filenames, domains, IP addresses, registry paths, task names, account names and command lines across all available telemetry. Add pattern-based questions: what ran for the first time, what ran at an unusual hour, what contacted a new destination, and what changed immediately before the first alert?
Use file location, signer, parent process, user, timing and network context to separate administration from intrusion. A single matching filename is weak evidence; the same filename executing from a temporary directory under a newly elevated account and opening an external connection is materially stronger. Keep benign explanations in the case record and seek corroboration before declaring compromise.
Document each suspected persistence mechanism with its host or service, owner, first-seen and last-seen times, evidence source, confidence, containment state and eradication action. This inventory becomes the verification test later.
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Contain first, then eradicate every access route
Containment limits damage while preserving the ability to investigate. Eradication removes the actor, persistence mechanisms and enabling weaknesses. CISA advises collecting artifacts and logs, planning mitigation, and avoiding a response that corrects only the visible symptom.
Choose containment that matches the risk
| Situation | Typical action | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Active lateral movement or destructive activity | Isolate affected hosts or segments, disable exposed remote paths and restrict high-risk accounts | Fast risk reduction, but volatile evidence and business operations may be lost |
| Suspicious persistence with no observed active movement | Collect volatile evidence, then quarantine hosts and restrict the specific account, key or service | Preserves more evidence while limiting the known route |
| Cloud or directory compromise | Revoke affected tokens and keys, reduce privileges and protect logging and administration from the suspected identities | Can disrupt many users; sequencing must avoid locking out responders or leaving alternate credentials |
Do not communicate response plans through a compromised channel. Do not preemptively block every indicator before collecting logs if doing so would erase the only evidence of the actor’s infrastructure.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Remove persistence and close the initial route
- Quarantine confirmed hosts. Remove them from production networks while retaining forensic access through a controlled, trusted channel.
- Reimage or remove compromised systems. For confirmed compromise, CISA recommends rebuilding from a known-good source or taking the host out of service rather than trusting a narrow cleanup. Validate the image and restore only necessary data.
- Delete unauthorized mechanisms. Remove malicious services, tasks, cron entries, startup items, WMI subscriptions, web shells, keys, accounts, tokens, roles, forwarding rules and application grants after preserving evidence.
- Remediate credentials strategically. Reset affected accounts and devices, revoke active sessions and tokens, rotate API keys and certificates, and review privileged access. A single password reset or IP block is not eradication because an actor may hold multiple credentials, create new ones or forge tickets.
- Patch the entry point. Correct the vulnerability, exposed service, misconfiguration or stolen-secret path that enabled the intrusion. Begin with the known point of compromise and examine externally facing devices for earlier compromise.
- Investigate connected systems. Check accessible shares, removable media, management servers, backup systems and neighboring hosts for copied tools, altered files or newly created access.
- Sanitize removable media and rebuild trust. Handle USB and other removable storage according to your forensic and recovery procedures. Re-establish secure administrative workstations and protected backup credentials.
If directory services or the directory database may have been stolen, credential remediation can need to be broad and carefully sequenced. Follow incident-specific expert and vendor guidance rather than applying a generic reset script.
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Eradication is a hypothesis until monitoring fails to find the behavior that originally exposed the intrusion. Keep centralized logging and endpoint monitoring enabled throughout recovery. Search again for every indicator, account, process, task, key, destination and behavior in the eradication inventory.
- Recheck privileged-group membership, account creation, MFA and recovery changes, active sessions, tokens, keys, roles and application grants.
- Compare rebuilt hosts with a known-good baseline and confirm that unexpected services, tasks, startup entries, modules and listening ports are absent.
- Review DNS, proxy, firewall, VPN, SSH and remote-desktop telemetry for renewed connections, unusual timing or new infrastructure.
- Test that the patched or reconfigured entry point is no longer reachable and that segmentation blocks the lateral paths used in the incident.
- Maintain alerting for the discovered techniques, not only the original hashes or addresses. An actor can change tools while repeating the same behavior.
- Run a documented recovery review with system owners, security staff and incident leadership. Record residual uncertainty and the evidence needed to reduce it.
Secure, tested backups and network segmentation support recovery and limit lateral spread. Remote log collection, endpoint telemetry, access controls and alerting should remain in place after systems return to service.
When to bring in incident-response specialists
Use specialist incident-response support when the scope is uncertain, directory or cloud administration is affected, evidence may be contested, destructive activity is underway, or internal staff cannot independently validate eradication. CISA recommends third-party support to provide subject-matter expertise, ensure the actor is eradicated and avoid residual issues that could cause follow-on compromise.
Escalation is especially appropriate when you cannot answer these questions with reliable evidence:
- Which identities and devices were controlled, and for what period?
- Were privileged credentials, directory data, signing keys or cloud tokens exposed?
- Has every persistence path been removed or has the host been rebuilt?
- Is the original vulnerability closed across externally facing systems?
- Can independent monitoring detect a return using a different tool or account?
Preserve evidence and engage counsel, insurers, regulators or law enforcement according to the organization’s incident plan and applicable jurisdiction. Do not allow reporting deadlines or public statements to drive unsupported claims about scope.
Common mistakes that leave residual access
- Running one antivirus scan: misses valid-account abuse, cloud grants, keys, tasks and configuration changes.
- Resetting one password: leaves other credentials, sessions, tokens, keys, service accounts or forged tickets usable.
- Blocking one IP address: may alert the actor and does not close the vulnerability or remove a second command path.
- Rebooting before collection: destroys volatile process, memory and connection evidence and may trigger cleanup.
- Deleting artifacts immediately: removes the evidence needed to scope other systems and prove what happened.
- Trusting a clean host: an actor may have removed the artifact, or the host may have been accessed through a legitimate account.
- Restoring an old image without fixing entry: the same exposed service, secret or vulnerable device can be compromised again.
- Stopping monitoring after recovery: loses the opportunity to detect re-entry or a missed persistence path.
Operational checklist
| Phase | Completion checks |
|---|---|
| Preserve | Out-of-band coordination; centralized logs exported; volatile state and suspicious files collected; timeline and custody recorded |
| Scope | Hosts, identities, network paths and cloud services reviewed; indicators correlated across sources; affected period established |
| Contain | High-risk hosts isolated; exposed remote paths restricted; affected accounts, tokens and keys controlled without losing responder access |
| Eradicate | Compromised hosts rebuilt or removed; persistence deleted; credentials and privileges remediated; initial vulnerability patched; connected systems checked |
| Recover | Known-good data restored; backups and segmentation tested; logging and alerting active; owners approve return to service |
| Verify | Original indicators and behaviors searched again; identity, endpoint, network and cloud telemetry remains clean; residual uncertainty documented or escalated |
How the guidance fits together
CISA’s joint advisory, initially published September 1, 2020, supplies a broad cross-platform checklist and emphasizes evidence preservation, remote log collection and validation. MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Persistence was last modified April 25, 2025; its techniques are useful for coverage but do not by themselves establish compromise. MITRE’s Clear Persistence technique page was last modified May 12, 2026. NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2, published August 6, 2012 and reflected on an NIST page updated in 2021, frames incident response around rapid detection, minimizing loss, mitigating exploited weaknesses and restoring services. These are general frameworks, so confirm current platform-specific and government guidance for the technologies in the incident.
The practical standard is therefore not “the scan is clean.” It is: evidence was preserved; every relevant control plane was scoped; compromised hosts and credentials were rebuilt or remediated; the original access route was closed; and continued monitoring has found no return.
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