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ATT&CK techniquePersistenceStealth (formerly Defense Evasion)

T1542.003 Bootkit

PersistenceStealth (formerly Defense Evasion)EnterpriseSub-technique

As of 2026-10-28, T1542.003 (Bootkit) appears in 10 tracked threats, first reported 2026-03-02 and most recently 2026-10-27, with linked actors including APT28, Earth Lusca, Mustang Panda; it most often appears alongside T1685 (Disable or Modify Tools).

Tracked threats
104 critical, 4 high, 2 medium
First seen
2026-03-02
Last seen
2026-10-27
Threat actors
21In the threats using it
Detection rules
30Blue tier and above

Data as of:

Activity timeline

T1542.003 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-06 with 3 reports, and 10 of the 10 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-10.

How adversaries use it

T1542.003 Bootkit is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Persistence and Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion) tactics in the Enterprise matrix, as a sub-technique of T1542 Pre-OS Boot. Threadlinqs maps 10 of 3287 tracked threats (0.3%) to it; by severity that is 4 critical, 4 high, 2 medium.

Threats that use T1542.003 most often also use T1685 Disable or Modify Tools (7 threats), T1014 Rootkit (6 threats), T1082 System Information Discovery (6 threats), T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application (4 threats), T1495 Firmware Corruption (4 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.

21 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1542.003; the most frequent are APT28 (2), Earth Lusca (2), Mustang Panda (2), APT10 (1), APT32 (1).

Mitigations

MITRE ATT&CK lists 2 mitigations for T1542.003.

Data sources

Telemetry that can reveal T1542.003, per MITRE ATT&CK.

  • Drive — Drive Modification
  • File — File Creation, File Modification

Threat actors using it

Tracked threats

10 tracked threats use T1542.003.

Detection coverage

Threadlinqs maintains 30 detection rules mapped to T1542.003 (SPL 10, KQL 8, Sigma 12). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.

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

Parent technique

T1542 Pre-OS Boot — 25 tracked threats at the technique level.