Unusual Windows User Privilege Elevation Activity

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Unusual Windows User Privilege Elevation Activity

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A machine learning job detected an unusual user context switch, using the runas command or similar techniques, which can indicate account takeover or privilege escalation using compromised accounts. Privilege elevation using tools like runas are more commonly used by domain and network administrators than by regular Windows users.

Rule type: machine_learning

Machine learning job: v3_windows_rare_user_runas_event

Machine learning anomaly threshold: 50

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 15 minutes

Searches indices from: now-45m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • ML
  • Privilege Escalation

Version: 6 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.7.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Uncommon user privilege elevation activity can be due to an administrator, help desk technician, or a user performing manual troubleshooting or reconfiguration. ==== Threat mapping

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 6 (8.4.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (8.3.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.10.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (7.9.0 release)
  • Formatting only