Privilege Escalation via Windir Environment Variable

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Privilege Escalation via Windir Environment Variable

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Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via a rogue Windows directory (Windir) environment variable. This is a known primitive that is often combined with other vulnerabilities to elevate privileges.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

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: 100

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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registry where registry.path : ("HKEY_USERS\\*\\Environment\\windir", "HKEY_USERS\\*\\Environment\\systemroot") and
 not registry.data.strings : ("C:\\windows", "%SystemRoot%")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM