UAC Bypass via DiskCleanup Scheduled Task Hijackedit

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via hijacking DiskCleanup Scheduled Task. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

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
  • Privilege Escalation

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule queryedit

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.args:"/autoclean" and process.args:"/d" and not
process.executable : ("C:\\Windows\\System32\\cleanmgr.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\cleanmgr.exe")

Threat mappingedit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version historyedit

Version 4 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (7.11.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
    process.args:(/autoclean or /AUTOCLEAN) and
    process.parent.name:svchost.exe and not
    process.executable:("C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe" or
    "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cleanmgr.exe")