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."

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

logs-endpoint.events.*
winlogbeat-*
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: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Lateral Movement

Version: 6

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

sequence with maxspan=1s
   [network where process.name : "services.exe" and
      network.direction : ("incoming", "ingress") and network.transport == "tcp" and
      source.port >= 49152 and destination.port >= 49152 and source.ip != "127.0.0.1" and source.ip != "::1"
   ] by host.id, process.entity_id

   [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.parent.name : "services.exe" and
       not (process.name : "svchost.exe" and process.args : "tiledatamodelsvc") and
       not (process.name : "msiexec.exe" and process.args : "/V") and
       not process.executable :
               ("?:\\Windows\\ADCR_Agent\\adcrsvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\VSSVC.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\servicing\\TrustedInstaller.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe",
                "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe",
                "?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\PSEXESVC.EXE",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\sppsvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\wbem\\WmiApSrv.exe",
                "?:\\WINDOWS\\RemoteAuditService.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\VeeamVssSupport\\VeeamGuestHelper.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\VeeamLogShipper\\VeeamLogShipper.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\CAInvokerService.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\upfc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\AdminArsenal\\PDQ*.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\vds.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\Veeam\\Backup\\VeeamDeploymentSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\ProPatches\\Scheduler\\STSchedEx.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\certsrv.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\eset-remote-install-service.exe",
                "?:\\Pella Corporation\\Pella Order Management\\GPAutoSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Pella Corporation\\OSCToGPAutoService\\OSCToGPAutoSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Pella Corporation\\Pella Order Management\\GPAutoSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\NwxExeSvc\\NwxExeSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\taskhostex.exe")
   ] by host.id, process.parent.entity_id

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Lateral Movement
- ID: TA0008
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/
Technique:
- Name: Remote Services
- ID: T1021
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/

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