Service Control Spawned via Script Interpreter

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-*
logs-windows.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

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: 101

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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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"

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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