Unusual Service Host Child Process - Childless Serviceedit
Identifies unusual child processes of Service Host (svchost.exe) that traditionally do not spawn any child processes. This may indicate a code injection or an equivalent form of exploitation.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- logs-endpoint.events.*
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-windows.*
Severity: medium
Risk score: 47
Runs every: 5m
Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References: None
Tags:
- Elastic
- Host
- Windows
- Threat Detection
- Defense Evasion
- Privilege Escalation
Version: 4
Rule authors:
- Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Investigation guideedit
## Config If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.
Rule queryedit
process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.parent.name : "svchost.exe" and
/* based on svchost service arguments -s svcname where the service is known to be childless */
process.parent.args : ("WdiSystemHost","LicenseManager",
"StorSvc","CDPSvc","cdbhsvc","BthAvctpSvc","SstpSvc","WdiServiceHost",
"imgsvc","TrkWks","WpnService","IKEEXT","PolicyAgent","CryptSvc",
"netprofm","ProfSvc","StateRepository","camsvc","LanmanWorkstation",
"NlaSvc","EventLog","hidserv","DisplayEnhancementService","ShellHWDetection",
"AppHostSvc","fhsvc","CscService","PushToInstall") and
/* unknown FPs can be added here */
not process.name : ("WerFault.exe","WerFaultSecure.exe","wermgr.exe")
Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Privilege Escalation
- ID: TA0004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/
-
Technique:
- Name: Process Injection
- ID: T1055
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1055/
-
Sub-technique:
- Name: Process Hollowing
- ID: T1055.012
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1055/012/
-
Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
-
Technique:
- Name: Process Injection
- ID: T1055
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1055/