Unusual Print Spooler Child Process
editUnusual Print Spooler Child Process
editDetects unusual Print Spooler service (spoolsv.exe) child processes. This may indicate an attempt to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Printing Service on Windows.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-endpoint.events.*
- logs-windows.*
Severity: medium
Risk score: 47
Runs every: 5m
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
- Privilege Escalation
Version: 6
Rule authors:
- Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Investigation guide
edit## 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
editprocess where event.type == "start" and
process.parent.name : "spoolsv.exe" and
(?process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name : "System" or
?winlog.event_data.IntegrityLevel : "System") and
/* exclusions for FP control below */
not process.name : ("splwow64.exe", "PDFCreator.exe", "acrodist.exe", "spoolsv.exe", "msiexec.exe", "route.exe", "WerFault.exe") and
not process.command_line : "*\\WINDOWS\\system32\\spool\\DRIVERS*" and
not (process.name : "net.exe" and process.command_line : ("*stop*", "*start*")) and
not (process.name : ("cmd.exe", "powershell.exe") and process.command_line : ("*.spl*", "*\\program files*", "*route add*")) and
not (process.name : "netsh.exe" and process.command_line : ("*add portopening*", "*rule name*")) and
not (process.name : "regsvr32.exe" and process.command_line : "*PrintConfig.dll*")
Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Privilege Escalation
- ID: TA0004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/
-
Technique:
- Name: Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
- ID: T1068
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1068/