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System Shells via Services

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System Shells via Services

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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.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

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
Windows

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.9.1

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License

Rule query

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event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.parent.name:services.exe and process.name:(cmd.exe or
powershell.exe)

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
Technique:
- Name: New Service
- ID: T1050
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1050/

Rule version history

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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.parent.name:services.exe and process.name:(cmd.exe or
powershell.exe)

Version 2 (7.7.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
process.parent.name:"services.exe" and process.name:("cmd.exe" or
"powershell.exe")

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