Suspicious Print Spooler File Deletionedit

Detects deletion of print driver files by an unusual process. This may indicate a clean up attempt post successful privilege escalation via Print Spooler service related vulnerabilities.

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

References:

Tags:

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

Version: 100 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.14.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positivesedit

Uninstall or manual deletion of a legitimate printing driver files. Verify the printer file metadata such as manufacturer and signature information.

Investigation guideedit


Rule queryedit

file where event.type : "deletion" and not process.name :
("spoolsv.exe", "dllhost.exe", "explorer.exe") and file.path :
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\drivers\\x64\\3\\*.dll"

Threat mappingedit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version historyedit

Version 100 (8.5.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (8.4.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (8.3.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only