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Process Created with an Elevated Token

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

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: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[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

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

/* 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",
                           "?:\\Windows\\SoftwareDistribution\\Download\\Install\\securityhealthsetup.exe")  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"))

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM