Unusual Windows User Privilege Elevation Activity

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Unusual Windows User Privilege Elevation Activity

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A machine learning job detected an unusual user context switch, using the runas command or similar techniques, which can indicate account takeover or privilege escalation using compromised accounts. Privilege elevation using tools like runas are more commonly used by domain and network administrators than by regular Windows users.

Rule type: machine_learning

Machine learning job: windows_rare_user_runas_event

Machine learning anomaly threshold: 50

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 15 minutes

Searches indices from: now-45m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum signals per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • ML
  • Windows

Version: 1

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.7.0

Potential false positives

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Uncommon user privilege elevation activity can be due to an administrator, help desk technician, or a user performing manual troubleshooting or reconfiguration.