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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.x] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Unusual Child Process from a System Virtual Process

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Unusual Child Process from a System Virtual Process

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Identifies a suspicious child process of the Windows virtual system process, which could indicate code injection.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • logs-windows.*
  • endgame-*

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

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Defense Evasion
  • Elastic Endgame

Version: 102 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.6.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Rule query
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process where event.type == "start" and process.parent.pid == 4 and
not process.executable : ("Registry", "MemCompression",
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\smss.exe")











Threat mapping
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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM














Rule version history
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Version 102 (8.6.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 101 (8.5.0 release)








    

  • 

    Updated query, changed from:
    

    

    

    process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.parent.pid == 4 and not process.executable : ("Registry",
"MemCompression", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\smss.exe")
    

    

    • 









Version 7 (8.4.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 5 (8.2.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 4 (7.13.0 release)








    

  • 

    Updated query, changed from:
    

    

    

    event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.parent.pid:4 and not process.executable:(Registry or
MemCompression or "C:\Windows\System32\smss.exe")
    

    

    • 









Version 3 (7.12.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 2 (7.11.2 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 




















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