IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.2] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Service Control Spawned via Script Interpreter

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Service Control Spawned via Script Interpreter

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Identifies Service Control (sc.exe) spawning from script interpreter processes to create, modify, or start services. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement but will be noisy if commonly done by admins.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

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
  • Lateral Movement

Version: 11 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

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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/* This rule is not compatible with Sysmon due to user.id issues */
process where event.type == "start" and (process.name : "sc.exe" or
process.pe.original_file_name == "sc.exe") and process.parent.name :
("cmd.exe", "wscript.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe",
"wmic.exe", "mshta.exe","powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe") and
process.args:("config", "create", "start", "delete", "stop", "pause")
and /* exclude SYSTEM SID - look for service creations by non-SYSTEM
user */ not user.id : "S-1-5-18"

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 11 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 10 (8.1.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    process where event.type == "start" and (process.name : "sc.exe" or
process.pe.original_file_name == "sc.exe") and process.parent.name :
("cmd.exe", "wscript.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe",
"wmic.exe", "mshta.exe","powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe") and
process.args:("config", "create", "start", "delete", "stop", "pause")
and /* exclude SYSTEM SID - look for service creations by non-SYSTEM
user */ not user.id : "S-1-5-18"
Version 9 (7.13.0 release)
  • Rule name changed from: Local Service Commands

  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.name:sc.exe and process.args:(config or create or failure or
start)
Version 8 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 7 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 6 (7.11.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (7.10.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.9.1 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.9.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
process.name:sc.exe and process.args:(config or create or failure or
start)
Version 2 (7.7.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
process.name:sc.exe and process.args:("create" or "config" or
"failure" or "start")
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