Update v8.3.2

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This section lists all updates associated with version 8.3.2 of the Fleet integration Prebuilt Security Detection Rules.

Rule Description Status Version

Google Drive Ownership Transferred via Google Workspace

Drive and Docs is a Google Workspace service that allows users to leverage Google Drive and Google Docs. Access to files is based on inherited permissions from the child organizational unit the user belongs to which is scoped by administrators. Typically if a user is removed, their files can be transferred to another user by the administrator. This service can also be abused by adversaries to transfer files to an adversary account for potential exfiltration.

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Google Workspace Custom Gmail Route Created or Modified

Detects when a custom Gmail route is added or modified in Google Workspace. Adversaries can add a custom e-mail route for outbound mail to route these e-mails to their own inbox of choice for data gathering. This allows adversaries to capture sensitive information from e-mail and potential attachments, such as invoices or payment documents. By default, all email from current Google Workspace users with accounts are routed through a domain’s mail server for inbound and outbound mail.

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Application Removed from Blocklist in Google Workspace

Google Workspace administrators may be aware of malicious applications within the Google marketplace and block these applications for user security purposes. An adversary, with administrative privileges, may remove this application from the explicit block list to allow distribution of the application amongst users. This may also indicate the unauthorized use of an application that had been previously blocked before by a user with admin privileges.

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Google Workspace Bitlocker Setting Disabled

Google Workspace administrators whom manage Windows devices and have Windows device management enabled may also enable BitLocker drive encryption to mitigate unauthorized data access on lost or stolen computers. Adversaries with valid account access may disable BitLocker to access sensitive data on an endpoint added to Google Workspace device management.

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Google Workspace Restrictions for Google Marketplace Modified to Allow Any App

Detects when the Google Marketplace restrictions are changed to allow any application for users in Google Workspace. Malicious APKs created by adversaries may be uploaded to the Google marketplace but not installed on devices managed within Google Workspace. Administrators should set restrictions to not allow any application from the marketplace for security reasons. Adversaries may enable any app to be installed and executed on mobile devices within a Google Workspace environment prior to distributing the malicious APK to the end user.

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Google Workspace 2SV Policy Disabled

Google Workspace admins may setup 2-step verification (2SV) to add an extra layer of security to user accounts by asking users to verify their identity when they use login credentials. Admins have the ability to enforce 2SV from the admin console as well as the methods acceptable for verification and enrollment period. 2SV requires enablement on admin accounts prior to it being enabled for users within organization units. Adversaries may disable 2SV to lower the security requirements to access a valid account.

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Google Workspace User Group Access Modified to Allow External Access

User groups in Google Workspace are created to help manage users permissions and access to various resources and applications. The security label is only applied to a group when users within that group are expected to access sensitive data and/or resources so administrators add this label to easily manage security groups better. Adversaries with administrator access may modify a security group to allow external access from members outside the organization. This detection does not capture all modifications to security groups, but only those that could increase the risk associated with them.

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Google Workspace User Organizational Unit Changed

Users in Google Workspace are typically assigned a specific organizational unit that grants them permissions to certain services and roles that are inherited from this organizational unit. Adversaries may compromise a valid account and change which organizational account the user belongs to which then could allow them to inherit permissions to applications and resources inaccessible prior to.

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Potential SSH Password Guessing

Identifies multiple SSH login failures followed by a successful one from the same source address. Adversaries can attempt to login into multiple users with a common or known password to gain access to accounts.

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Potential Linux SSH Brute Force Detected

Identifies multiple consecutive login failures targeting an user account from the same source address and within a short time interval. Adversaries will often brute force login attempts across multiple users with a common or known password, in an attempt to gain access to accounts.

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Potential SSH Brute Force Detected on Privileged Account

Identifies multiple consecutive login failures targeting a root user account from the same source address and within a short time interval. Adversaries will often brute force login attempts on privileged accounts with a common or known password, in an attempt to gain privileged access to systems.

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Shadow File Read via Command Line Utilities

Identifies the manual reading of the /etc/shadow file via the commandline using standard system utilities. Threat actors will attempt to read this file, after elevating their privileges to root, in order to gain valid credentials they can utilize to move laterally undetected and access additional resources.

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Namespace Manipulation Using Unshare

Identifies suspicious usage of unshare to manipulate system namespaces. Unshare can be utilized to escalate privileges or escape container security boundaries. Threat actors have utilized this binary to allow themselves to escape to the host and access other resources or escalate privileges.

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Privileged Account Brute Force

Identifies multiple consecutive logon failures targeting an Admin account from the same source address and within a short time interval. Adversaries will often brute force login attempts across multiple users with a common or known password, in an attempt to gain access to accounts.

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Multiple Logon Failure Followed by Logon Success

Identifies multiple logon failures followed by a successful one from the same source address. Adversaries will often brute force login attempts across multiple users with a common or known password, in an attempt to gain access to accounts.

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Multiple Logon Failure from the same Source Address

Identifies multiple consecutive logon failures from the same source address and within a short time interval. Adversaries will often brute force login attempts across multiple users with a common or known password, in an attempt to gain access to accounts.

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Full User-Mode Dumps Enabled System-Wide

Identifies the enable of the full user-mode dumps feature system-wide. This feature allows Windows Error Reporting (WER) to collect data after an application crashes. This setting is a requirement for the LSASS Shtinkering attack, which fakes the communication of a crash on LSASS, generating a dump of the process memory, which gives the attacker access to the credentials present on the system without having to bring malware to the system. This setting is not enabled by default, and applications must create their registry subkeys to hold settings that enable them to collect dumps.

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Multiple Vault Web Credentials Read

Windows Credential Manager allows you to create, view, or delete saved credentials for signing into websites, connected applications, and networks. An adversary may abuse this to list or dump credentials stored in the Credential Manager for saved usernames and passwords. This may also be performed in preparation of lateral movement.

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Temporarily Scheduled Task Creation

Indicates the creation and deletion of a scheduled task within a short time interval. Adversaries can use these to proxy malicious execution via the schedule service and perform clean up.

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PowerShell Share Enumeration Script

Detects scripts that contain PowerShell functions, structures, or Windows API functions related to windows share enumeration activities. Attackers, mainly ransomware groups, commonly identify and inspect network shares, looking for critical information for encryption and/or exfiltration.

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Remote Logon followed by Scheduled Task Creation

Identifies a remote logon followed by a scheduled task creation on the target host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.

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A scheduled task was created

Indicates the creation of a scheduled task using Windows event logs. Adversaries can use these to establish persistence, move laterally, and/or escalate privileges.

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A scheduled task was updated

Indicates the update of a scheduled task using Windows event logs. Adversaries can use these to establish persistence, by changing the configuration of a legit scheduled task. Some changes such as disabling or enabling a scheduled task are common and may may generate noise.

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Process Creation via Secondary Logon

Identifies process creation with alternate credentials. Adversaries may create a new process with a different token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.

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PowerShell Script with Token Impersonation Capabilities

Detects scripts that contain PowerShell functions, structures, or Windows API functions related to token impersonation/theft. Attackers may duplicate then impersonate another user’s token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.

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Security Software Discovery via Grep

Identifies the use of the grep command to discover known third-party macOS and Linux security tools, such as Antivirus or Host Firewall details.

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Potential Reverse Shell Activity via Terminal

Identifies the execution of a shell process with suspicious arguments which may be indicative of reverse shell activity.

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Suspicious JAVA Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of the Java interpreter process. This may indicate an attempt to execute a malicious JAR file or an exploitation attempt via a JAVA specific vulnerability.

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Hosts File Modified

The hosts file on endpoints is used to control manual IP address to hostname resolutions. The hosts file is the first point of lookup for DNS hostname resolution so if adversaries can modify the endpoint hosts file, they can route traffic to malicious infrastructure. This rule detects modifications to the hosts file on Microsoft Windows, Linux (Ubuntu or RHEL) and macOS systems.

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Threat Intel Filebeat Module (v8.x) Indicator Match

This rule is triggered when indicators from the Threat Intel Filebeat module (v8.x) has a match against local file or network observations.

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Threat Intel Indicator Match

This rule is triggered when indicators from the Threat Intel integrations have a match against local file or network observations.

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AWS IAM Brute Force of Assume Role Policy

Identifies a high number of failed attempts to assume an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role. IAM roles are used to delegate access to users or services. An adversary may attempt to enumerate IAM roles in order to determine if a role exists before attempting to assume or hijack the discovered role.

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AWS IAM User Addition to Group

Identifies the addition of a user to a specified group in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

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AWS Access Secret in Secrets Manager

An adversary may attempt to access the secrets in secrets manager to steal certificates, credentials, or other sensitive material

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102

AWS CloudTrail Log Deleted

Identifies the deletion of an AWS log trail. An adversary may delete trails in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS CloudTrail Log Suspended

Identifies suspending the recording of AWS API calls and log file delivery for the specified trail. An adversary may suspend trails in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS CloudWatch Alarm Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an AWS CloudWatch alarm. An adversary may delete alarms in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS Config Resource Deletion

Identifies attempts to delete an AWS Config Service resource. An adversary may tamper with Config services in order to reduce visibility into the security posture of an account and / or its workload instances.

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AWS VPC Flow Logs Deletion

Identifies the deletion of one or more flow logs in AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). An adversary may delete flow logs in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS EC2 Snapshot Activity

An attempt was made to modify AWS EC2 snapshot attributes. Snapshots are sometimes shared by threat actors in order to exfiltrate bulk data from an EC2 fleet. If the permissions were modified, verify the snapshot was not shared with an unauthorized or unexpected AWS account.

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AWS CloudTrail Log Updated

Identifies an update to an AWS log trail setting that specifies the delivery of log files.

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AWS CloudWatch Log Group Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a specified AWS CloudWatch log group. When a log group is deleted, all the archived log events associated with the log group are also permanently deleted.

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AWS CloudWatch Log Stream Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an AWS CloudWatch log stream, which permanently deletes all associated archived log events with the stream.

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AWS IAM Deactivation of MFA Device

Identifies the deactivation of a specified multi-factor authentication (MFA) device and removes it from association with the user name for which it was originally enabled. In AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), a device must be deactivated before it can be deleted.

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AWS Management Console Root Login

Identifies a successful login to the AWS Management Console by the Root user.

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AWS Execution via System Manager

Identifies the execution of commands and scripts via System Manager. Execution methods such as RunShellScript, RunPowerShellScript, and alike can be abused by an authenticated attacker to install a backdoor or to interact with a compromised instance via reverse-shell using system only commands.

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Spike in AWS Error Messages

A machine learning job detected a significant spike in the rate of a particular error in the CloudTrail messages. Spikes in error messages may accompany attempts at privilege escalation, lateral movement, or discovery.

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Rare AWS Error Code

A machine learning job detected an unusual error in a CloudTrail message. These can be byproducts of attempted or successful persistence, privilege escalation, defense evasion, discovery, lateral movement, or collection.

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Unusual City For an AWS Command

A machine learning job detected AWS command activity that, while not inherently suspicious or abnormal, is sourcing from a geolocation (city) that is unusual for the command. This can be the result of compromised credentials or keys being used by a threat actor in a different geography than the authorized user(s).

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Unusual Country For an AWS Command

A machine learning job detected AWS command activity that, while not inherently suspicious or abnormal, is sourcing from a geolocation (country) that is unusual for the command. This can be the result of compromised credentials or keys being used by a threat actor in a different geography than the authorized user(s).

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Unusual AWS Command for a User

A machine learning job detected an AWS API command that, while not inherently suspicious or abnormal, is being made by a user context that does not normally use the command. This can be the result of compromised credentials or keys as someone uses a valid account to persist, move laterally, or exfiltrate data.

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AWS Root Login Without MFA

Identifies attempts to login to AWS as the root user without using multi-factor authentication (MFA). Amazon AWS best practices indicate that the root user should be protected by MFA.

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AWS IAM Assume Role Policy Update

Identifies attempts to modify an AWS IAM Assume Role Policy. An adversary may attempt to modify the AssumeRolePolicy of a misconfigured role in order to gain the privileges of that role.

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Azure Service Principal Addition

Identifies when a new service principal is added in Azure. An application, hosted service, or automated tool that accesses or modifies resources needs an identity created. This identity is known as a service principal. For security reasons, it’s always recommended to use service principals with automated tools rather than allowing them to log in with a user identity.

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Azure Active Directory High Risk Sign-in

Identifies high risk Azure Active Directory (AD) sign-ins by leveraging Microsoft’s Identity Protection machine learning and heuristics. Identity Protection categorizes risk into three tiers: low, medium, and high. While Microsoft does not provide specific details about how risk is calculated, each level brings higher confidence that the user or sign-in is compromised.

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Azure Active Directory High Risk User Sign-in Heuristic

Identifies high risk Azure Active Directory (AD) sign-ins by leveraging Microsoft Identity Protection machine learning and heuristics.

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Azure Active Directory PowerShell Sign-in

Identifies a sign-in using the Azure Active Directory PowerShell module. PowerShell for Azure Active Directory allows for managing settings from the command line, which is intended for users who are members of an admin role.

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Possible Consent Grant Attack via Azure-Registered Application

Detects when a user grants permissions to an Azure-registered application or when an administrator grants tenant-wide permissions to an application. An adversary may create an Azure-registered application that requests access to data such as contact information, email, or documents.

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Azure Privilege Identity Management Role Modified

Azure Active Directory (AD) Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service that enables you to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources in an organization. PIM can be used to manage the built-in Azure resource roles such as Global Administrator and Application Administrator. An adversary may add a user to a PIM role in order to maintain persistence in their target’s environment or modify a PIM role to weaken their target’s security controls.

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Multi-Factor Authentication Disabled for an Azure User

Identifies when multi-factor authentication (MFA) is disabled for an Azure user account. An adversary may disable MFA for a user account in order to weaken the authentication requirements for the account.

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Google Workspace MFA Enforcement Disabled

Detects when multi-factor authentication (MFA) enforcement is disabled for Google Workspace users. An adversary may disable MFA enforcement in order to weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Google Workspace Admin Role Assigned to a User

Assigning the administrative role to a user will grant them access to the Google Admin console and grant them administrator privileges which allow them to access and manage various resources and applications. An adversary may create a new administrator account for persistence or apply the admin role to an existing user to carry out further intrusion efforts. Users with super-admin privileges can bypass single-sign on if enabled in Google Workspace.

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Abnormal Process ID or Lock File Created

Identifies the creation of a Process ID (PID), lock or reboot file created in temporary file storage paradigm (tmpfs) directory /var/run. On Linux, the PID files typically hold the process ID to track previous copies running and manage other tasks. Certain Linux malware use the /var/run directory for holding data, executables and other tasks, disguising itself or these files as legitimate PID files.

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Netcat Network Activity

A netcat process is engaging in network activity on a Linux host. Netcat is often used as a persistence mechanism by exporting a reverse shell or by serving a shell on a listening port. Netcat is also sometimes used for data exfiltration.

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High Number of Process Terminations

This rule identifies a high number (10) of process terminations via pkill from the same host within a short time period.

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Potential Shell via Web Server

Identifies suspicious commands executed via a web server, which may suggest a vulnerability and remote shell access.

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Potential macOS SSH Brute Force Detected

Identifies a high number (20) of macOS SSH KeyGen process executions from the same host. An adversary may attempt a brute force attack to obtain unauthorized access to user accounts.

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Unusual Process For a Windows Host

Identifies rare processes that do not usually run on individual hosts, which can indicate execution of unauthorized services, malware, or persistence mechanisms. Processes are considered rare when they only run occasionally as compared with other processes running on the host.

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Exporting Exchange Mailbox via PowerShell

Identifies the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, New-MailBoxExportRequest, to export the contents of a primary mailbox or archive to a .pst file. Adversaries may target user email to collect sensitive information.

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PowerShell Suspicious Script with Audio Capture Capabilities

Detects PowerShell scripts that can record audio, a common feature in popular post-exploitation tooling.

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PowerShell Keylogging Script

Detects the use of Win32 API Functions that can be used to capture user keystrokes in PowerShell scripts. Attackers use this technique to capture user input, looking for credentials and/or other valuable data.

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PowerShell Suspicious Script with Screenshot Capabilities

Detects PowerShell scripts that can take screenshots, which is a common feature in post-exploitation kits and remote access tools (RATs).

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Encrypting Files with WinRar or 7z

Identifies use of WinRar or 7z to create an encrypted files. Adversaries will often compress and encrypt data in preparation for exfiltration.

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Network Connection via Certutil

Identifies certutil.exe making a network connection. Adversaries could abuse certutil.exe to download a certificate, or malware, from a remote URL.

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Connection to Commonly Abused Web Services

Adversaries may implement command and control (C2) communications that use common web services to hide their activity. This attack technique is typically targeted at an organization and uses web services common to the victim network, which allows the adversary to blend into legitimate traffic activity. These popular services are typically targeted since they have most likely been used before compromise, which helps malicious traffic blend in.

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Potential DNS Tunneling via NsLookup

This rule identifies a large number (15) of nslookup.exe executions with an explicit query type from the same host. This may indicate command and control activity utilizing the DNS protocol.

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Port Forwarding Rule Addition

Identifies the creation of a new port forwarding rule. An adversary may abuse this technique to bypass network segmentation restrictions.

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Potential Remote Desktop Tunneling Detected

Identifies potential use of an SSH utility to establish RDP over a reverse SSH Tunnel. This can be used by attackers to enable routing of network packets that would otherwise not reach their intended destination.

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Remote File Download via Desktopimgdownldr Utility

Identifies the desktopimgdownldr utility being used to download a remote file. An adversary may use desktopimgdownldr to download arbitrary files as an alternative to certutil.

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Remote File Download via MpCmdRun

Identifies the Windows Defender configuration utility (MpCmdRun.exe) being used to download a remote file.

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Remote File Download via PowerShell

Identifies powershell.exe being used to download an executable file from an untrusted remote destination.

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Remote File Download via Script Interpreter

Identifies built-in Windows script interpreters (cscript.exe or wscript.exe) being used to download an executable file from a remote destination.

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SUNBURST Command and Control Activity

The malware known as SUNBURST targets the SolarWind’s Orion business software for command and control. This rule detects post-exploitation command and control activity of the SUNBURST backdoor.

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Remote File Copy via TeamViewer

Identifies an executable or script file remotely downloaded via a TeamViewer transfer session.

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Potential Credential Access via Windows Utilities

Identifies the execution of known Windows utilities often abused to dump LSASS memory or the Active Directory database (NTDS.dit) in preparation for credential access.

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NTDS or SAM Database File Copied

Identifies a copy operation of the Active Directory Domain Database (ntds.dit) or Security Account Manager (SAM) files. Those files contain sensitive information including hashed domain and/or local credentials.

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Potential Credential Access via Trusted Developer Utility

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, loaded DLLs (dynamically linked libraries) responsible for Windows credential management. This technique is sometimes used for credential dumping.

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Potential Credential Access via DCSync

This rule identifies when a User Account starts the Active Directory Replication Process. Attackers can use the DCSync technique to get credential information of individual accounts or the entire domain, thus compromising the entire domain.

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Kerberos Pre-authentication Disabled for User

Identifies the modification of an account’s Kerberos pre-authentication options. An adversary with GenericWrite/GenericAll rights over the account can maliciously modify these settings to perform offline password cracking attacks such as AS-REP roasting.

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Credential Acquisition via Registry Hive Dumping

Identifies attempts to export a registry hive which may contain credentials using the Windows reg.exe tool.

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Microsoft IIS Service Account Password Dumped

Identifies the Internet Information Services (IIS) command-line tool, AppCmd, being used to list passwords. An attacker with IIS web server access via a web shell can decrypt and dump the IIS AppPool service account password using AppCmd.

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Microsoft IIS Connection Strings Decryption

Identifies use of aspnet_regiis to decrypt Microsoft IIS connection strings. An attacker with Microsoft IIS web server access via a webshell or alike can decrypt and dump any hardcoded connection strings, such as the MSSQL service account password using aspnet_regiis command.

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Kerberos Traffic from Unusual Process

Identifies network connections to the standard Kerberos port from an unusual process. On Windows, the only process that normally performs Kerberos traffic from a domain joined host is lsass.exe.

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LSASS Memory Dump Handle Access

Identifies handle requests for the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) object access with specific access masks that many tools with a capability to dump memory to disk use (0x1fffff, 0x1010, 0x120089). This rule is tool agnostic as it has been validated against a host of various LSASS dump tools such as SharpDump, Procdump, Mimikatz, Comsvcs etc. It detects this behavior at a low level and does not depend on a specific tool or dump file name.

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Mimikatz Memssp Log File Detected

Identifies the password log file from the default Mimikatz memssp module.

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Potential Invoke-Mimikatz PowerShell Script

Mimikatz is a credential dumper capable of obtaining plaintext Windows account logins and passwords, along with many other features that make it useful for testing the security of networks. This rule detects Invoke-Mimikatz PowerShell script and alike.

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Modification of WDigest Security Provider

Identifies attempts to modify the WDigest security provider in the registry to force the user’s password to be stored in clear text in memory. This behavior can be indicative of an adversary attempting to weaken the security configuration of an endpoint. Once the UseLogonCredential value is modified, the adversary may attempt to dump clear text passwords from memory.

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Windows Registry File Creation in SMB Share

Identifies the creation or modification of a medium-size registry hive file on a Server Message Block (SMB) share, which may indicate an exfiltration attempt of a previously dumped Security Account Manager (SAM) registry hive for credential extraction on an attacker-controlled system.

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PowerShell MiniDump Script

This rule detects PowerShell scripts capable of dumping process memory using WindowsErrorReporting or Dbghelp.dll MiniDumpWriteDump. Attackers can use this tooling to dump LSASS and get access to credentials.

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PowerShell Kerberos Ticket Request

Detects PowerShell scripts that have the capability of requesting kerberos tickets, which is a common step in Kerberoasting toolkits to crack service accounts.

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Potential Local NTLM Relay via HTTP

Identifies attempt to coerce a local NTLM authentication via HTTP using the Windows Printer Spooler service as a target. An adversary may use this primitive in combination with other techniques to elevate privileges on a compromised system.

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Potential Remote Credential Access via Registry

Identifies remote access to the registry to potentially dump credential data from the Security Account Manager (SAM) registry hive in preparation for credential access and privileges elevation.

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Searching for Saved Credentials via VaultCmd

Windows Credential Manager allows you to create, view, or delete saved credentials for signing into websites, connected applications, and networks. An adversary may abuse this to list or dump credentials stored in the Credential Manager for saved usernames and passwords. This may also be performed in preparation of lateral movement.

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Sensitive Privilege SeEnableDelegationPrivilege assigned to a User

Identifies the assignment of the SeEnableDelegationPrivilege sensitive "user right" to a user. The SeEnableDelegationPrivilege "user right" enables computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation. Attackers can abuse this right to compromise Active Directory accounts and elevate their privileges.

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User account exposed to Kerberoasting

Detects when a user account has the servicePrincipalName attribute modified. Attackers can abuse write privileges over a user to configure Service Principle Names (SPNs) so that they can perform Kerberoasting. Administrators can also configure this for legitimate purposes, exposing the account to Kerberoasting.

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Suspicious Remote Registry Access via SeBackupPrivilege

Identifies remote access to the registry using an account with Backup Operators group membership. This may indicate an attempt to exfiltrate credentials by dumping the Security Account Manager (SAM) registry hive in preparation for credential access and privileges elevation.

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Symbolic Link to Shadow Copy Created

Identifies the creation of symbolic links to a shadow copy. Symbolic links can be used to access files in the shadow copy, including sensitive files such as ntds.dit, System Boot Key and browser offline credentials.

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Adding Hidden File Attribute via Attrib

Adversaries can add the hidden attribute to files to hide them from the user in an attempt to evade detection.

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Modification of AmsiEnable Registry Key

Identifies modifications of the AmsiEnable registry key to 0, which disables the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI). An adversary can modify this key to disable AMSI protections.

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Clearing Windows Console History

Identifies when a user attempts to clear console history. An adversary may clear the command history of a compromised account to conceal the actions undertaken during an intrusion.

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Clearing Windows Event Logs

Identifies attempts to clear or disable Windows event log stores using Windows wevetutil command. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

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Windows Event Logs Cleared

Identifies attempts to clear Windows event log stores. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

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Creation or Modification of Root Certificate

Identifies the creation or modification of a local trusted root certificate in Windows. The install of a malicious root certificate would allow an attacker the ability to masquerade malicious files as valid signed components from any entity (for example, Microsoft). It could also allow an attacker to decrypt SSL traffic.

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Windows Defender Disabled via Registry Modification

Identifies modifications to the Windows Defender registry settings to disable the service or set the service to be started manually.

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Windows Defender Exclusions Added via PowerShell

Identifies modifications to the Windows Defender configuration settings using PowerShell to add exclusions at the folder directory or process level.

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Delete Volume USN Journal with Fsutil

Identifies use of the fsutil.exe to delete the volume USNJRNL. This technique is used by attackers to eliminate evidence of files created during post-exploitation activities.

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PowerShell Script Block Logging Disabled

Identifies attempts to disable PowerShell Script Block Logging via registry modification. Attackers may disable this logging to conceal their activities in the host and evade detection.

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Disable Windows Firewall Rules via Netsh

Identifies use of the netsh.exe to disable or weaken the local firewall. Attackers will use this command line tool to disable the firewall during troubleshooting or to enable network mobility.

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Disabling Windows Defender Security Settings via PowerShell

Identifies use of the Set-MpPreference PowerShell command to disable or weaken certain Windows Defender settings.

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Disable Windows Event and Security Logs Using Built-in Tools

Identifies attempts to disable EventLog via the logman Windows utility, PowerShell, or auditpol. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection on a system.

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Suspicious .NET Code Compilation

Identifies suspicious .NET code execution. connections.

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Remote Desktop Enabled in Windows Firewall by Netsh

Identifies use of the network shell utility (netsh.exe) to enable inbound Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections in the Windows Firewall.

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Enable Host Network Discovery via Netsh

Identifies use of the netsh.exe program to enable host discovery via the network. Attackers can use this command-line tool to weaken the host firewall settings.

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Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments

Identifies unusual instances of Control Panel with suspicious keywords or paths in the process command line value. Adversaries may abuse control.exe to proxy execution of malicious code.

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ImageLoad via Windows Update Auto Update Client

Identifies abuse of the Windows Update Auto Update Client (wuauclt.exe) to load an arbitrary DLL. This behavior is used as a defense evasion technique to blend-in malicious activity with legitimate Windows software.

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Microsoft Build Engine Started by an Office Application

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Excel or Word. This is unusual behavior for the Build Engine and could have been caused by an Excel or Word document executing a malicious script payload.

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Microsoft Build Engine Started by a System Process

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Explorer or the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) subsystem. This behavior is unusual and is sometimes used by malicious payloads.

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Microsoft Build Engine Using an Alternate Name

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started after being renamed. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed or undetected.

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Microsoft Build Engine Started an Unusual Process

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, started a PowerShell script or the Visual C# Command Line Compiler. This technique is sometimes used to deploy a malicious payload using the Build Engine.

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Process Execution from an Unusual Directory

Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This is sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.

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IIS HTTP Logging Disabled

Identifies when Internet Information Services (IIS) HTTP Logging is disabled on a server. An attacker with IIS server access via a webshell or other mechanism can disable HTTP Logging as an effective anti-forensics measure.

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InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections

Identifies InstallUtil.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity as InstallUtil is often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

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Suspicious Endpoint Security Parent Process

A suspicious Endpoint Security parent process was detected. This may indicate a process hollowing or other form of code injection.

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Renamed AutoIt Scripts Interpreter

Identifies a suspicious AutoIt process execution. Malware written as an AutoIt script tends to rename the AutoIt executable to avoid detection.

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Suspicious WerFault Child Process

A suspicious WerFault child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed. Verify process details such as command line, network connections, file writes and parent process details as well.

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Microsoft Windows Defender Tampering

Identifies when one or more features on Microsoft Defender are disabled. Adversaries may disable or tamper with Microsoft Defender features to evade detection and conceal malicious behavior.

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MS Office Macro Security Registry Modifications

Microsoft Office Products offer options for users and developers to control the security settings for running and using Macros. Adversaries may abuse these security settings to modify the default behavior of the Office Application to trust future macros and/or disable security warnings, which could increase their chances of establishing persistence.

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Mshta Making Network Connections

Identifies Mshta.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity, as Mshta is often leveraged by adversaries to execute malicious scripts and evade detection.

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Unusual Network Activity from a Windows System Binary

Identifies network activity from unexpected system applications. This may indicate adversarial activity as these applications are often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

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Suspicious .NET Reflection via PowerShell

Detects the use of Reflection.Assembly to load PEs and DLLs in memory in PowerShell scripts. Attackers use this method to load executables and DLLs without writing to the disk, bypassing security solutions.

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PowerShell Suspicious Payload Encoded and Compressed

Identifies the use of .NET functionality for decompression and base64 decoding combined in PowerShell scripts, which malware and security tools heavily use to deobfuscate payloads and load them directly in memory to bypass defenses.

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Potential Process Injection via PowerShell

Detects the use of Windows API functions that are commonly abused by malware and security tools to load malicious code or inject it into remote processes.

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Windows Firewall Disabled via PowerShell

Identifies when the Windows Firewall is disabled using PowerShell cmdlets, which can help attackers evade network constraints, like internet and network lateral communication restrictions.

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Suspicious Microsoft Diagnostics Wizard Execution

Identifies potential abuse of the Microsoft Diagnostics Troubleshooting Wizard (MSDT) to proxy malicious command or binary execution via malicious process arguments.

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Unusual Child Processes of RunDLL32

Identifies child processes of unusual instances of RunDLL32 where the command line parameters were suspicious. Misuse of RunDLL32 could indicate malicious activity.

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Suspicious Process Access via Direct System Call

Identifies suspicious process access events from an unknown memory region. Endpoint security solutions usually hook userland Windows APIs in order to decide if the code that is being executed is malicious or not. It’s possible to bypass hooked functions by writing malicious functions that call syscalls directly.

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Suspicious Process Creation CallTrace

Identifies when a process is created and immediately accessed from an unknown memory code region and by the same parent process. This may indicate a code injection attempt.

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Suspicious Execution - Short Program Name

Identifies process execution with a single character process name. This is often done by adversaries while staging or executing temporary utilities.

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Suspicious WMIC XSL Script Execution

Identifies WMIC allowlist bypass techniques by alerting on suspicious execution of scripts. When WMIC loads scripting libraries it may be indicative of an allowlist bypass.

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Suspicious Zoom Child Process

A suspicious Zoom child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed. Verify process details such as command line, network connections, file writes and associated file signature details as well.

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Unusual Executable File Creation by a System Critical Process

Identifies an unexpected executable file being created or modified by a Windows system critical process, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.

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Unusual File Creation - Alternate Data Stream

Identifies suspicious creation of Alternate Data Streams on highly targeted files. This is uncommon for legitimate files and sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.

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Unusual Network Connection via DllHost

Identifies unusual instances of dllhost.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial Command and Control activity.

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Unusual Network Connection via RunDLL32

Identifies unusual instances of rundll32.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial Command and Control activity.

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Unusual Process Network Connection

Identifies network activity from unexpected system applications. This may indicate adversarial activity as these applications are often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

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Unusual Child Process from a System Virtual Process

Identifies a suspicious child process of the Windows virtual system process, which could indicate code injection.

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Potential Evasion via Filter Manager

The Filter Manager Control Program (fltMC.exe) binary may be abused by adversaries to unload a filter driver and evade defenses.

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Signed Proxy Execution via MS Work Folders

Identifies the use of Windows Work Folders to execute a potentially masqueraded control.exe file in the current working directory. Misuse of Windows Work Folders could indicate malicious activity.

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AdFind Command Activity

This rule detects the Active Directory query tool, AdFind.exe. AdFind has legitimate purposes, but it is frequently leveraged by threat actors to perform post-exploitation Active Directory reconnaissance. The AdFind tool has been observed in Trickbot, Ryuk, Maze, and FIN6 campaigns. For Winlogbeat, this rule requires Sysmon.

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Enumeration of Administrator Accounts

Identifies instances of lower privilege accounts enumerating Administrator accounts or groups using built-in Windows tools.

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Account Discovery Command via SYSTEM Account

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.

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Enumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE

Identifies the use of nltest.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate domain trusts and gain insight into trust relationships, as well as the state of Domain Controller (DC) replication in a Microsoft Windows NT Domain.

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Windows Network Enumeration

Identifies attempts to enumerate hosts in a network using the built-in Windows net.exe tool.

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Peripheral Device Discovery

Identifies use of the Windows file system utility (fsutil.exe) to gather information about attached peripheral devices and components connected to a computer system.

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PowerShell Suspicious Discovery Related Windows API Functions

This rule detects the use of discovery-related Windows API functions in PowerShell Scripts. Attackers can use these functions to perform various situational awareness related activities, like enumerating users, shares, sessions, domain trusts, groups, etc.

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External IP Lookup from Non-Browser Process

Identifies domains commonly used by adversaries for post-exploitation IP lookups. It is common for adversaries to test for Internet access and acquire their external IP address after they have gained access to a system. Among others, this has been observed in campaigns leveraging the information stealer, Trickbot.

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Enumeration of Privileged Local Groups Membership

Identifies instances of an unusual process enumerating built-in Windows privileged local groups membership like Administrators or Remote Desktop users.

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Remote System Discovery Commands

Discovery of remote system information using built-in commands, which may be used to move laterally.

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Security Software Discovery using WMIC

Identifies the use of Windows Management Instrumentation Command (WMIC) to discover certain System Security Settings such as AntiVirus or Host Firewall details.

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Whoami Process Activity

Identifies suspicious use of whoami.exe which displays user, group, and privileges information for the user who is currently logged on to the local system.

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Command Execution via SolarWinds Process

A suspicious SolarWinds child process (Cmd.exe or Powershell.exe) was detected.

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Suspicious SolarWinds Child Process

A suspicious SolarWinds child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to execute malicious programs.

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Execution of COM object via Xwizard

Windows Component Object Model (COM) is an inter-process communication (IPC) component of the native Windows application programming interface (API) that enables interaction between software objects or executable code. Xwizard can be used to run a COM object created in registry to evade defensive counter measures.

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Svchost spawning Cmd

Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from svchost.exe

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Unusual Parent Process for cmd.exe

Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from an unusual process.

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Enumeration Command Spawned via WMIPrvSE

Identifies native Windows host and network enumeration commands spawned by the Windows Management Instrumentation Provider Service (WMIPrvSE).

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Execution from Unusual Directory - Command Line

Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This may be abused by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.

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Execution of File Written or Modified by Microsoft Office

Identifies an executable created by a Microsoft Office application and subsequently executed. These processes are often launched via scripts inside documents or during exploitation of Microsoft Office applications.

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Execution of File Written or Modified by PDF Reader

Identifies a suspicious file that was written by a PDF reader application and subsequently executed. These processes are often launched via exploitation of PDF applications.

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Suspicious Portable Executable Encoded in Powershell Script

Detects the presence of a portable executable (PE) in a PowerShell script by looking for its encoded header. Attackers embed PEs into PowerShell scripts to inject them into memory, avoiding defences by not writing to disk.

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PowerShell PSReflect Script

Detects the use of PSReflect in PowerShell scripts. Attackers leverage PSReflect as a library that enables PowerShell to access win32 API functions.

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PsExec Network Connection

Identifies use of the SysInternals tool PsExec.exe making a network connection. This could be an indication of lateral movement.

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Suspicious Cmd Execution via WMI

Identifies suspicious command execution (cmd) via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.

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Suspicious PDF Reader Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of PDF reader applications. These child processes are often launched via exploitation of PDF applications or social engineering.

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Suspicious PowerShell Engine ImageLoad

Identifies the PowerShell engine being invoked by unexpected processes. Rather than executing PowerShell functionality with powershell.exe, some attackers do this to operate more stealthily.

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Suspicious Process Execution via Renamed PsExec Executable

Identifies suspicious psexec activity which is executing from the psexec service that has been renamed, possibly to evade detection.

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Process Activity via Compiled HTML File

Compiled HTML files (.chm) are commonly distributed as part of the Microsoft HTML Help system. Adversaries may conceal malicious code in a CHM file and deliver it to a victim for execution. CHM content is loaded by the HTML Help executable program (hh.exe).

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Conhost Spawned By Suspicious Parent Process

Detects when the Console Window Host (conhost.exe) process is spawned by a suspicious parent process, which could be indicative of code injection.

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Execution via MSSQL xp_cmdshell Stored Procedure

Identifies execution via MSSQL xp_cmdshell stored procedure. Malicious users may attempt to elevate their privileges by using xp_cmdshell, which is disabled by default, thus, it’s important to review the context of it’s use.

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Third-party Backup Files Deleted via Unexpected Process

Identifies the deletion of backup files, saved using third-party software, by a process outside of the backup suite. Adversaries may delete Backup files to ensure that recovery from a ransomware attack is less likely.

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Deleting Backup Catalogs with Wbadmin

Identifies use of the wbadmin.exe to delete the backup catalog. Ransomware and other malware may do this to prevent system recovery.

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Modification of Boot Configuration

Identifies use of bcdedit.exe to delete boot configuration data. This tactic is sometimes used as by malware or an attacker as a destructive technique.

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High Number of Process and/or Service Terminations

This rule identifies a high number (10) of process terminations (stop, delete, or suspend) from the same host within a short time period.

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Volume Shadow Copy Deleted or Resized via VssAdmin

Identifies use of vssadmin.exe for shadow copy deletion or resizing on endpoints. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.

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Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell

Identifies the use of the Win32_ShadowCopy class and related cmdlets to achieve shadow copy deletion. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.

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Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC

Identifies use of wmic.exe for shadow copy deletion on endpoints. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.

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Windows Script Executing PowerShell

Identifies a PowerShell process launched by either cscript.exe or wscript.exe. Observing Windows scripting processes executing a PowerShell script, may be indicative of malicious activity.

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Windows Script Interpreter Executing Process via WMI

Identifies use of the built-in Windows script interpreters (cscript.exe or wscript.exe) being used to execute a process via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This may be indicative of malicious activity.

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Suspicious MS Office Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of frequently targeted Microsoft Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel). These child processes are often launched during exploitation of Office applications or from documents with malicious macros.

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Suspicious MS Outlook Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of Microsoft Outlook. These child processes are often associated with spear phishing activity.

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Unusual Child Process of dns.exe

Identifies an unexpected process spawning from dns.exe, the process responsible for Windows DNS server services, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.

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Suspicious Explorer Child Process

Identifies a suspicious Windows explorer child process. Explorer.exe can be abused to launch malicious scripts or executables from a trusted parent process.

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Service Command Lateral Movement

Identifies use of sc.exe to create, modify, or start services on remote hosts. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement but will be noisy if commonly done by admins.

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Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement via MSHTA

Identifies the use of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to execute commands from a remote host, which are launched via the HTA Application COM Object. This behavior may indicate an attacker abusing a DCOM application to move laterally while attempting to evade detection.

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Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement with MMC

Identifies the use of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to run commands from a remote host, which are launched via the MMC20 Application COM Object. This behavior may indicate an attacker abusing a DCOM application to move laterally.

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Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement with ShellBrowserWindow or ShellWindows

Identifies use of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to run commands from a remote host, which are launched via the ShellBrowserWindow or ShellWindows Application COM Object. This behavior may indicate an attacker abusing a DCOM application to stealthily move laterally.

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Direct Outbound SMB Connection

Identifies unexpected processes making network connections over port 445. Windows File Sharing is typically implemented over Server Message Block (SMB), which communicates between hosts using port 445. When legitimate, these network connections are established by the kernel. Processes making 445/tcp connections may be port scanners, exploits, or suspicious user-level processes moving laterally.

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Abnormally Large DNS Response

Specially crafted DNS requests can manipulate a known overflow vulnerability in some Windows DNS servers, resulting in Remote Code Execution (RCE) or a Denial of Service (DoS) from crashing the service.

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Potential Lateral Tool Transfer via SMB Share

Identifies the creation or change of a Windows executable file over network shares. Adversaries may transfer tools or other files between systems in a compromised environment.

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Execution via TSClient Mountpoint

Identifies execution from the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) shared mountpoint tsclient on the target host. This may indicate a lateral movement attempt.

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Remote Execution via File Shares

Identifies the execution of a file that was created by the virtual system process. This may indicate lateral movement via network file shares.

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WMI Incoming Lateral Movement

Identifies processes executed via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement, but could be noisy if administrators use WMI to remotely manage hosts.

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Mounting Hidden or WebDav Remote Shares

Identifies the use of net.exe to mount a WebDav or hidden remote share. This may indicate lateral movement or preparation for data exfiltration.

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RDP Enabled via Registry

Identifies registry write modifications to enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement preparation.

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Potential SharpRDP Behavior

Identifies potential behavior of SharpRDP, which is a tool that can be used to perform authenticated command execution against a remote target via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for the purposes of lateral movement.

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Remote File Copy to a Hidden Share

Identifies a remote file copy attempt to a hidden network share. This may indicate lateral movement or data staging activity.

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Remotely Started Services via RPC

Identifies remote execution of Windows services over remote procedure call (RPC). This could be indicative of lateral movement, but will be noisy if commonly done by administrators."

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Remote Scheduled Task Creation

Identifies remote scheduled task creations on a target host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.

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Adobe Hijack Persistence

Detects writing executable files that will be automatically launched by Adobe on launch.

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Installation of Custom Shim Databases

Identifies the installation of custom Application Compatibility Shim databases. This Windows functionality has been abused by attackers to stealthily gain persistence and arbitrary code execution in legitimate Windows processes.

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Account Configured with Never-Expiring Password

Detects the creation and modification of an account with the "Don’t Expire Password" option Enabled. Attackers can abuse this misconfiguration to persist in the domain and maintain long-term access using compromised accounts with this property.

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Creation of a Hidden Local User Account

Identifies the creation of a hidden local user account by appending the dollar sign to the account name. This is sometimes done by attackers to increase access to a system and avoid appearing in the results of accounts listing using the net users command.

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Suspicious Startup Shell Folder Modification

Identifies suspicious startup shell folder modifications to change the default Startup directory in order to bypass detections monitoring file creation in the Windows Startup folder.

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Creation or Modification of a new GPO Scheduled Task or Service

Detects the creation or modification of a new Group Policy based scheduled task or service. These methods are used for legitimate system administration, but can also be abused by an attacker with domain admin permissions to execute a malicious payload remotely on all or a subset of the domain joined machines.

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New ActiveSyncAllowedDeviceID Added via PowerShell

Identifies the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, Set-CASMailbox, to add a new ActiveSync allowed device. Adversaries may target user email to collect sensitive information.

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Potential Modification of Accessibility Binaries

Windows contains accessibility features that may be launched with a key combination before a user has logged in. An adversary can modify the way these programs are launched to get a command prompt or backdoor without logging in to the system.

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Startup or Run Key Registry Modification

Identifies run key or startup key registry modifications. In order to survive reboots and other system interrupts, attackers will modify run keys within the registry or leverage startup folder items as a form of persistence.

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Execution of Persistent Suspicious Program

Identifies execution of suspicious persistent programs (scripts, rundll32, etc.) by looking at process lineage and command line usage.

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AdminSDHolder SDProp Exclusion Added

Identifies a modification on the dsHeuristics attribute on the bit that holds the configuration of groups excluded from the SDProp process. The SDProp compares the permissions on protected objects with those defined on the AdminSDHolder object. If the permissions on any of the protected accounts and groups do not match, the permissions on the protected accounts and groups are reset to match those of the domain’s AdminSDHolder object, meaning that groups excluded will remain unchanged. Attackers can abuse this misconfiguration to maintain long-term access to privileged accounts in these groups.

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Startup Persistence by a Suspicious Process

Identifies files written to or modified in the startup folder by commonly abused processes. Adversaries may use this technique to maintain persistence.

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Startup Folder Persistence via Unsigned Process

Identifies files written or modified in the startup folder by unsigned processes. Adversaries may abuse this technique to maintain persistence in an environment.

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Persistent Scripts in the Startup Directory

Identifies script engines creating files in the Startup folder, or the creation of script files in the Startup folder. Adversaries may abuse this technique to maintain persistence in an environment.

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Component Object Model Hijacking

Identifies Component Object Model (COM) hijacking via registry modification. Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by hijacked references to COM objects.

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System Shells via Services

Windows services typically run as SYSTEM and can be used as a privilege escalation opportunity. Malware or penetration testers may run a shell as a service to gain SYSTEM permissions.

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User Added to Privileged Group in Active Directory

Identifies a user being added to a privileged group in Active Directory. Privileged accounts and groups in Active Directory are those to which powerful rights, privileges, and permissions are granted that allow them to perform nearly any action in Active Directory and on domain-joined systems.

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User Account Creation

Identifies attempts to create new users. This is sometimes done by attackers to increase access or establish persistence on a system or domain.

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Potential Application Shimming via Sdbinst

The Application Shim was created to allow for backward compatibility of software as the operating system codebase changes over time. This Windows functionality has been abused by attackers to stealthily gain persistence and arbitrary code execution in legitimate Windows processes.

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Persistence via TelemetryController Scheduled Task Hijack

Detects the successful hijack of Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser scheduled task to establish persistence with an integrity level of system.

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Persistence via Update Orchestrator Service Hijack

Identifies potential hijacking of the Microsoft Update Orchestrator Service to establish persistence with an integrity level of SYSTEM.

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Persistence via WMI Event Subscription

An adversary can use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to install event filters, providers, consumers, and bindings that execute code when a defined event occurs. Adversaries may use the capabilities of WMI to subscribe to an event and execute arbitrary code when that event occurs, providing persistence on a system.

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Web Shell Detection: Script Process Child of Common Web Processes

Identifies suspicious commands executed via a web server, which may suggest a vulnerability and remote shell access.

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Disabling User Account Control via Registry Modification

User Account Control (UAC) can help mitigate the impact of malware on Windows hosts. With UAC, apps and tasks always run in the security context of a non-administrator account, unless an administrator specifically authorizes administrator-level access to the system. This rule identifies registry value changes to bypass User Access Control (UAC) protection.

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Startup/Logon Script added to Group Policy Object

Detects the modification of Group Policy Objects (GPO) to add a startup/logon script to users or computer objects.

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Group Policy Abuse for Privilege Addition

Detects the first occurrence of a modification to Group Policy Object Attributes to add privileges to user accounts or use them to add users as local admins.

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Scheduled Task Execution at Scale via GPO

Detects the modification of Group Policy Object attributes to execute a scheduled task in the objects controlled by the GPO.

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Potential Privilege Escalation via InstallerFileTakeOver

Identifies a potential exploitation of InstallerTakeOver (CVE-2021-41379) default PoC execution. Successful exploitation allows an unprivileged user to escalate privileges to SYSTEM.

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Privilege Escalation via Named Pipe Impersonation

Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via named pipe impersonation. An adversary may abuse this technique by utilizing a framework such Metasploit’s meterpreter getsystem command.

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Suspicious DLL Loaded for Persistence or Privilege Escalation

Identifies the loading of a non Microsoft signed DLL that is missing on a default Windows install (phantom DLL) or one that can be loaded from a different location by a native Windows process. This may be abused to persist or elevate privileges via privileged file write vulnerabilities.

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Suspicious Print Spooler SPL File Created

Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service including CVE-2020-1048 and CVE-2020-1337.

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UAC Bypass Attempt with IEditionUpgradeManager Elevated COM Interface

Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a rogue Windows ClipUp program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass via ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM Interface

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts via the ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM interface. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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Bypass UAC via Event Viewer

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via eventvwr.exe. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass Attempt via Windows Directory Masquerading

Identifies an attempt to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by masquerading as a Microsoft trusted Windows directory. Attackers may bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass via Windows Firewall Snap-In Hijack

Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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101

Unusual Parent-Child Relationship

Identifies Windows programs run from unexpected parent processes. This could indicate masquerading or other strange activity on a system.

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Unusual Service Host Child Process - Childless Service

Identifies unusual child processes of Service Host (svchost.exe) that traditionally do not spawn any child processes. This may indicate a code injection or an equivalent form of exploitation.

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