Service DACL Abuse To Hide Services Via Sc.EXE

calendar Apr 28, 2026 · attack.persistence attack.privilege-escalation attack.execution attack.stealth attack.t1574.011  ·
Share on: linkedin copy

Detects usage of the "sc.exe" utility adding a new service with special permission seen used by threat actors which makes the service hidden and unremovable.

Sigma rule (View on GitHub)

 1title: Service DACL Abuse To Hide Services Via Sc.EXE
 2id: a537cfc3-4297-4789-92b5-345bfd845ad0
 3related:
 4    - id: 99cf1e02-00fb-4c0d-8375-563f978dfd37 # Deny Service Access
 5      type: similar
 6    - id: 98c5aeef-32d5-492f-b174-64a691896d25 # Generic SD tampering
 7      type: similar
 8status: test
 9description: Detects usage of the "sc.exe" utility adding a new service with special permission seen used by threat actors which makes the service hidden and unremovable.
10references:
11    - https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2021/10/threat-hunting-in-large-datasets-by.html
12    - https://www.sans.org/blog/red-team-tactics-hiding-windows-services/
13    - https://twitter.com/Alh4zr3d/status/1580925761996828672
14    - https://itconnect.uw.edu/tools-services-support/it-systems-infrastructure/msinf/other-help/understanding-sddl-syntax/
15author: Andreas Hunkeler (@Karneades)
16date: 2021-12-20
17modified: 2022-08-08
18tags:
19    - attack.persistence
20    - attack.privilege-escalation
21    - attack.execution
22    - attack.stealth
23    - attack.t1574.011
24logsource:
25    category: process_creation
26    product: windows
27detection:
28    selection_img:
29        - Image|endswith: '\sc.exe'
30        - OriginalFileName: 'sc.exe'
31    selection_cli:
32        CommandLine|contains|all:
33            - 'sdset'
34            # Summary of permissions
35            #   DC: Delete All Child Objects
36            #   LC: List Contents
37            #   WP: Write All Properties
38            #   DT: Delete Subtree
39            #   SD: Delete
40            - 'DCLCWPDTSD'
41    condition: all of selection_*
42falsepositives:
43    - Unknown
44level: high

References

Related rules

to-top