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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.16] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Parent Process PID Spoofing

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Parent Process PID Spoofing

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Identifies parent process spoofing used to thwart detection. Adversaries may spoof the parent process identifier (PPID) of a new process to evade process-monitoring defenses or to elevate privileges.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Defense Evasion

Version: 100 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.14.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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/* This rule is compatible with Elastic Endpoint only */ sequence by
host.id, user.id with maxspan=5m [process where event.type == "start"
and process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name != "system" and (
process.pe.original_file_name : ("winword.exe", "excel.exe",
"outlook.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "eqnedt32.exe",
"fltldr.exe", "mspub.exe", "msaccess.exe", "powershell.exe",
"pwsh.exe", "cscript.exe",
"wscript.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe", "msbuild.exe",
"mshta.exe", "wmic.exe", "cmstp.exe", "msxsl.exe") or
process.executable : ("?:\\Users\\*.exe",
"?:\\ProgramData\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\Temp\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\Tasks\\*") or process.code_signature.trusted != true
) ] by process.pid [process where event.type == "start" and
process.parent.Ext.real.pid > 0 and /* process.parent.Ext.real.pid
is only populated if the parent process pid doesn't match */ not
(process.name : "msedge.exe" and process.parent.name : "sihost.exe")
] by process.parent.Ext.real.pid

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 100 (8.5.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    /* This rule is compatible with Elastic Endpoint only */ sequence by
host.id, user.id with maxspan=5m [process where event.type == "start"
and process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name != "system" and (
process.pe.original_file_name : ("winword.exe", "excel.exe",
"outlook.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "eqnedt32.exe",
"fltldr.exe", "mspub.exe", "msaccess.exe", "powershell.exe",
"pwsh.exe", "cscript.exe",
"wscript.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe", "msbuild.exe",
"mshta.exe", "wmic.exe", "cmstp.exe", "msxsl.exe") or
process.executable : ("?:\\Users\\*.exe",
"?:\\ProgramData\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\Temp\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\Tasks\\*") or process.code_signature.trusted != true
) ] by process.pid [process where event.type == "start" and
process.parent.Ext.real.pid > 0 and /* process.parent.Ext.real.pid
is only populated if the parent process pid doesn't match */ not
(process.name : "msedge.exe" and process.parent.name : "sihost.exe")
] by process.parent.Ext.real.pid
Version 2 (8.4.0 release)
  • Formatting only
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