Threadlinqs IntelligenceStart free

ATT&CK techniqueStealth (formerly Defense Evasion)

T1480 Execution Guardrails

Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion)Enterprise

As of 2026-10-05, T1480 (Execution Guardrails) appears in 63 tracked threats, first reported 2026-02-12 and most recently 2026-10-04, with linked actors including APT38, APT28, Andariel; it most often appears alongside T1027 (Obfuscated Files or Information).

Tracked threats
6315 critical, 44 high, 4 medium
First seen
2026-02-12
Last seen
2026-10-04
Threat actors
37In the threats using it
Detection rules
37Blue tier and above

Data as of:

Activity timeline

T1480 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-07 with 14 reports, and 63 of the 63 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-10.

How adversaries use it

T1480 Execution Guardrails is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion) tactic in the Enterprise matrix. Threadlinqs maps 63 of 2623 tracked threats (2.4%) to it; by severity that is 15 critical, 44 high, 4 medium.

Threats that use T1480 most often also use T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information (54 threats), T1082 System Information Discovery (40 threats), T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter (39 threats), T1071 Application Layer Protocol (38 threats), T1005 Data from Local System (36 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.

37 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1480; the most frequent are APT38 (4), APT28 (3), Andariel (3), BlueDelta (3), Forest Blizzard (3).

Mitigations

MITRE ATT&CK lists 1 mitigation for T1480.

Data sources

Telemetry that can reveal T1480, per MITRE ATT&CK.

  • Command — Command Execution
  • Process — Process Creation

Threat actors using it

Tracked threats

The 30 most recent of 63 tracked threats that use T1480.

Detection coverage

Threadlinqs maintains 37 detection rules mapped to T1480 (SPL 11, KQL 12, Sigma 14). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.

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

Sub-techniques