powercfg.exe
Sources: 300M+ executions observed in the wild.
Summary
Power Configuration (powercfg.exe) is a command-line tool for managing Windows power settings, power plans, sleep/hibernate configuration, and energy reporting.
powercfg.exe is the 121st most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 177,200 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Windows\System32 and it is most often launched by LTSVC.exe.
Get this in your tools
The same record for powercfg.exe, by REST or as an MCP tool. Free key, no card.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ECHOTRAIL_KEY" \
https://api.echotrail.io/v1/process/powercfg.exeFree returns the summary. Team returns the full record you see on this page. Endpoint docs
Behavior
Top Paths
- C:\Windows\System3299.62%
- C:\Windows\SysWOW640.38%
Top Hashes (SHA256)
- 54b792595c594899cc17f466bb8ca9d40ff4389d54be698aab3ffe079cb7d79367.38%
- 11bba9a1dce1d749e4ff289935eb3966d9b95bd5737d65f8a256ac01494ed44415.69%
- 4c1b9be18f15309fb1686d4d8e680543a4aabeb7b8e4583218f370f2cd8b776c7.43%
- 34808b32dae08fb92de643f86931c3f06c39bf3ddcf1a88eb0fe2daf7f112cb03.91%
- 12279d4d2d7f80562f79d4dbcb7b63428e924c30a5e95f45cb0d08001a9cbddc2.48%
- 47aff914c23aec95c5bbf174a88d9880c2e9ff3c0492676a3aba41ad022bc28f2.44%
- a78cf2dc3296c773ee5ae9a4114e9bfde6135a33245c28e6bef384b4f2b797110.26%
- cb2459971a56cee45a30346281ff3b0eccea0c2bee1ae6b8477712404d2e6ae10.16%
- da5de3cdfe698b4d8d37ff10ec4826274010df8839e31aa294a0fa87230c9efd0.12%
- 383184676e88b18307a343c1bbdeff938aede45ab8acb5dfc4c8259153d452f30.11%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- services.exe84.33%
- remsh.exe13.55%
- sedlauncher.exe1.56%
- cmd.exe0.33%
- sedsvc.exe0.06%
- wininit.exe0.02%
- explorer.exe<0.01%
- firefox.exe<0.01%
- svchost.exe<0.01%
Top Parents
- LTSVC.exe86.76%
- cmd.exe12.75%
- DiskTrace.exe0.26%
- WmiPrvSE.exe0.09%
- powershell.exe0.07%
- services.exe0.04%
- AvastSvc.exe0.01%
- OLicenseHeartbeat.exe<0.01%
Top Children
- conhost.exe100%
Security Analysis
What does powercfg.exe normally do?
Located in C:\Windows\System32. In this dataset, predominantly launched by LTSVC.exe (LabTech agent querying power configuration) and cmd.exe. Spawns conhost.exe.
When is powercfg.exe suspicious?
Generally not suspicious. Disabling hibernate (powercfg /h off) or sleep can be part of persistence mechanisms. In context with other system configuration changes, may indicate an attacker establishing a foothold.
How do attackers abuse powercfg.exe?
Minimal direct abuse. Attackers may disable sleep/hibernate to prevent a compromised system from going idle. Part of some ransomware preparation sequences that disable sleep before encryption.
Detection guidance
Low priority. powercfg /h off in combination with other suspicious activity may be a supporting indicator.
False positive notes
Management agents (LabTech) query power settings routinely. IT administrators configure power plans via powercfg. Very common in enterprise environments.
MITRE ATT&CK techniques
Related Processes
Ask Rocky about powercfg.exe
Rocky is the free chat demo. It answers from this same dataset, no account needed.
This page is the Team-tier API record for powercfg.exe. The free tier returns the summary, 500 lookups a month. Or ask Rocky.