Account Discovery Command via SYSTEM Account

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Identifies when the SYSTEM account uses an account discovery utility. This could be a sign of discovery activity after an adversary has achieved privilege escalation.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • logs-windows.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Discovery

Version: 11 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.7.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.2.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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## Config

If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.

Rule query

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process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
(?process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name : "System" or
?winlog.event_data.IntegrityLevel : "System") and (process.name :
"whoami.exe" or (process.name : "net1.exe" and not
process.parent.name : "net.exe"))

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 11 (8.2.0 release)
  • Rule name changed from: Net command via SYSTEM account
  • Updated query, changed from:

    process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
    (process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name : "System" or
    winlog.event_data.IntegrityLevel : "System") and process.name :
    "whoami.exe" or (process.name : "net1.exe" and not
    process.parent.name : "net.exe")
Version 9 (8.1.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
    user.id in ("S-1-5-18", "S-1-5-19", "S-1-5-20") and process.name :
    "whoami.exe" or (process.name : "net1.exe" and not
    process.parent.name : "net.exe")
Version 8 (7.16.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 7 (7.13.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
    (process.name:(whoami.exe or net.exe) or process.name:net1.exe and not
    process.parent.name:net.exe) and user.name:SYSTEM
Version 6 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.10.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
    (process.name:net.exe or process.name:net1.exe and not
    process.parent.name:net.exe) and user.name:SYSTEM
Version 3 (7.9.1 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (7.9.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    (process.name:net.exe or process.name:net1.exe and not
    process.parent.name:net.exe) and user.name:SYSTEM and
    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)"