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ATT&CK techniqueStealth (formerly Defense Evasion)

T1036.004 Masquerade Task or Service

Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion)EnterpriseSub-technique

As of 2026-10-05, T1036.004 (Masquerade Task or Service) appears in 25 tracked threats, first reported 2026-02-16 and most recently 2026-10-03, with linked actors including APT36, APT38, APT44; it most often appears alongside T1082 (System Information Discovery).

Tracked threats
256 critical, 19 high
First seen
2026-02-16
Last seen
2026-10-03
Threat actors
14In the threats using it
Detection rules
56Blue tier and above

Data as of:

Activity timeline

T1036.004 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-07 with 9 reports, and 25 of the 25 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-10.

How adversaries use it

T1036.004 Masquerade Task or Service is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion) tactic in the Enterprise matrix, as a sub-technique of T1036 Masquerading. Threadlinqs maps 25 of 2623 tracked threats (1%) to it; by severity that is 6 critical, 19 high.

Threats that use T1036.004 most often also use T1082 System Information Discovery (20 threats), T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer (19 threats), T1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (18 threats), T1071.001 Web Protocols (18 threats), T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information (17 threats). These are the techniques an intrusion set tends to chain with it, so they are the natural next places to look when it is observed.

14 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1036.004; the most frequent are APT36 (1), APT38 (1), APT44 (1), Andariel (1), Gamaredon (1).

Data sources

Telemetry that can reveal T1036.004, per MITRE ATT&CK.

  • Command — Command Execution
  • Scheduled Job — Scheduled Job Metadata, Scheduled Job Modification
  • Service — Service Creation, Service Metadata

Threat actors using it

Tracked threats

25 tracked threats use T1036.004.

Detection coverage

Threadlinqs maintains 56 detection rules mapped to T1036.004 (SPL 22, KQL 20, Sigma 14). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.

56 detection rules (SPL/KQL/Sigma) · Blue and above. Compare plans

Parent technique

T1036 Masquerading — 845 tracked threats at the technique level.