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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.16] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Process Created with an Elevated Token

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Process Created with an Elevated Token

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Identifies the creation of a process running as SYSTEM and impersonating a Windows core binary privileges. Adversaries may create a new process with a different token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5 minutes

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: 1

Added (Elastic Stack release): 8.6.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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/* This rule is only compatible with Elastic Endpoint 8.4+ */ process
where event.action == "start" and /* CreateProcessWithToken and
effective parent is a privileged MS native binary used as a target for
token theft */ user.id : "S-1-5-18" and /* Token Theft target
process usually running as service are located in one of the following
paths */ process.Ext.effective_parent.executable :
("?:\\Windows\\*.exe", "?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
"?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe",
"?:\\ProgramData\\*") and not
(process.Ext.effective_parent.executable :
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\Utilman.exe" and
process.parent.executable : "?:\\Windows\\System32\\Utilman.exe" and
process.parent.args : "/debug") and not process.executable :
("?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFault.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\WerFault.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFaultSecure.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\WerFaultSecure.exe",
"?:\\windows\\system32\\WerMgr.exe", "?:\\W
indows\\SoftwareDistribution\\Download\\Install\\securityhealthsetup.e
xe") and not process.parent.executable :
("?:\\Windows\\System32\\AtBroker.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\system32\\svchost.exe", "?:\\Program Files
(x86)\\*.exe", "?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\DriverStore\\*") and not
(process.code_signature.trusted == true and
process.code_signature.subject_name in ("philandro Software GmbH",
"Freedom Scientific Inc.", "TeamViewer Germany GmbH", "Projector.is,
Inc.", "TeamViewer GmbH", "Cisco WebEx LLC", "Dell Inc"))

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

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