SeDebugPrivilege Enabled by a Suspicious Process

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:

winlogbeat-*
logs-windows.*
logs-system.security*

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:

Domain: Endpoint
OS: Windows
Use Case: Threat Detection
Tactic: Privilege Escalation
Data Source: System

Version: 108

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Setup

edit

Setup

Windows Event 4703 logs Token Privileges changes and need to be configured (Enable).

Steps to implement the logging policy with Advanced Audit Configuration:

Computer Configuration >
Policies >
Windows Settings >
Security Settings >
Advanced Audit Policies Configuration >
Audit Policies >
Detailed Tracking >
Token Right Adjusted Events (Success)

Rule query

edit

any where host.os.type == "windows" and event.provider: "Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" and
 event.action : "Token Right Adjusted Events" and

 winlog.event_data.EnabledPrivilegeList : "SeDebugPrivilege" and

 /* exclude processes with System Integrity  */
 not winlog.event_data.SubjectUserSid : ("S-1-5-18", "S-1-5-19", "S-1-5-20") and

 not winlog.event_data.ProcessName :
         ("?:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\msiexec.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\lsass.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\WinSxS\\*",
          "?:\\Program Files\\*",
          "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\MRT.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\cleanmgr.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\taskhostw.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\mmc.exe",
          "?:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\*-*\\DismHost.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\auditpol.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\wbem\\WmiPrvSe.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\wbem\\WmiPrvSe.exe")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Privilege Escalation
- ID: TA0004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/
Technique:
- Name: Access Token Manipulation
- ID: T1134
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1134/

« Script Execution via Microsoft HTML Application Searching for Saved Credentials via VaultCmd »