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Identifies when one or more features on Microsoft Defender are disabled. Adversaries may disable or tamper with Microsoft Defender features to evade detection and conceal malicious behavior.
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Adding Hidden File Attribute via Attrib
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Persistence Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Adversaries can add the 'hidden' attribute to files to hide them from the user in an attempt to evade detection.
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AdFind Command Activity
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Discovery Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·This rule detects the Active Directory query tool, AdFind.exe. AdFind has legitimate purposes, but it is frequently leveraged by threat actors to perform post-exploitation Active Directory reconnaissance. The AdFind tool has been observed in Trickbot, Ryuk, Maze, and FIN6 campaigns. For Winlogbeat, this rule requires Sysmon.
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Identifies the creation of an Alternate Data Stream (ADS) at a volume root directory, which can indicate the attempt to hide tools and malware, as ADSs created in this directory are not displayed by system utilities.
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Attempt to Establish VScode Remote Tunnel
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects the execution of the VScode portable binary with the tunnel command line option indicating an attempt to establish a remote tunnel session to Github or a remote VScode instance.
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Attempt to Install Kali Linux via WSL
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects attempts to install or use Kali Linux via Windows Subsystem for Linux. Adversaries may enable and use WSL for Linux to avoid detection.
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Identifies the install of browser extensions. Malicious browser extensions can be installed via app store downloads masquerading as legitimate extensions, social engineering, or by an adversary that has already compromised a system.
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Bypass UAC via Event Viewer
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via eventvwr.exe. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Clearing Windows Console History
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies when a user attempts to clear console history. An adversary may clear the command history of a compromised account to conceal the actions undertaken during an intrusion.
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Clearing Windows Event Logs
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies attempts to clear or disable Windows event log stores using Windows wevetutil command. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.
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Code Signing Policy Modification Through Built-in tools
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies attempts to disable/modify the code signing policy through system native utilities. Code signing provides authenticity on a program, and grants the user with the ability to check whether the program has been tampered with. By allowing the execution of unsigned or self-signed code, threat actors can craft and execute malicious code.
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Identifies attempts to disable the code signing policy through the registry. Code signing provides authenticity on a program, and grants the user with the ability to check whether the program has been tampered with. By allowing the execution of unsigned or self-signed code, threat actors can craft and execute malicious code.
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Identifies PowerShell.exe or Cmd.exe execution spawning from Windows Script Host processes Wscript.exe.
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Command Execution via ForFiles
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects attempts to execute a command via the forfiles Windows utility. Adversaries may use this utility to proxy execution via a trusted parent process.
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Command Execution via SolarWinds Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Initial Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide · -
Command Shell Activity Started via RunDLL32
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Credential Access Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies command shell activity started via RunDLL32, which is commonly abused by attackers to host malicious code.
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Conhost Spawned By Suspicious Parent Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Privilege Escalation Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne ·Detects when the Console Window Host (conhost.exe) process is spawned by a suspicious parent process, which could be indicative of code injection.
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Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies unusual instances of Control Panel with suspicious keywords or paths in the process command line value. Adversaries may abuse control.exe to proxy execution of malicious code.
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Identifies the creation of a hidden local user account by appending the dollar sign to the account name. This is sometimes done by attackers to increase access to a system and avoid appearing in the results of accounts listing using the net users command.
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Creation or Modification of a new GPO Scheduled Task or Service
Detects the creation or modification of a new Group Policy based scheduled task or service. These methods are used for legitimate system administration, but can also be abused by an attacker with domain admin permissions to execute a malicious payload remotely on all or a subset of the domain joined machines.
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Creation or Modification of Domain Backup DPAPI private key
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the creation or modification of Domain Backup private keys. Adversaries may extract the Data Protection API (DPAPI) domain backup key from a Domain Controller (DC) to be able to decrypt any domain user master key file.
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Identifies the creation or modification of a local trusted root certificate in Windows. The install of a malicious root certificate would allow an attacker the ability to masquerade malicious files as valid signed components from any entity (for example, Microsoft). It could also allow an attacker to decrypt SSL traffic.
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Credential Acquisition via Registry Hive Dumping
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies attempts to export a registry hive which may contain credentials using the Windows reg.exe tool.
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Delete Volume USN Journal with Fsutil
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the fsutil.exe to delete the volume USNJRNL. This technique is used by attackers to eliminate evidence of files created during post-exploitation activities.
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Deleting Backup Catalogs with Wbadmin
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Impact Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the wbadmin.exe to delete the backup catalog. Ransomware and other malware may do this to prevent system recovery.
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Disable Windows Event and Security Logs Using Built-in Tools
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies attempts to disable EventLog via the logman Windows utility, PowerShell, or auditpol. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection on a system.
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Disable Windows Firewall Rules via Netsh
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the netsh.exe to disable or weaken the local firewall. Attackers will use this command line tool to disable the firewall during troubleshooting or to enable network mobility.
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User Account Control (UAC) can help mitigate the impact of malware on Windows hosts. With UAC, apps and tasks always run in the security context of a non-administrator account, unless an administrator specifically authorizes administrator-level access to the system. This rule identifies registry value changes to bypass User Access Control (UAC) protection.
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Disabling Windows Defender Security Settings via PowerShell
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the Set-MpPreference PowerShell command to disable or weaken certain Windows Defender settings.
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Identifies changes to the DNS Global Query Block List (GQBL), a security feature that prevents the resolution of certain DNS names often exploited in attacks like WPAD spoofing. Attackers with certain privileges, such as DNSAdmins, can modify or disable the GQBL, allowing exploitation of hosts running WPAD with default settings for privilege escalation and lateral movement.
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Identifies when a user enables DNS-over-HTTPS. This can be used to hide internet activity or the process of exfiltrating data. With this enabled, an organization will lose visibility into data such as query type, response, and originating IP, which are used to determine bad actors.
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Enable Host Network Discovery via Netsh
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the netsh.exe program to enable host discovery via the network. Attackers can use this command-line tool to weaken the host firewall settings.
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Identifies registry write modifications to hide an encoded portable executable. This could be indicative of adversary defense evasion by avoiding the storing of malicious content directly on disk.
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Identifies use of WinRar or 7z to create an encrypted files. Adversaries will often compress and encrypt data in preparation for exfiltration.
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Enumerating Domain Trusts via DSQUERY.EXE
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Discovery Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the use of dsquery.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate trust relationships that may be used for Lateral Movement opportunities in Windows multi-domain forest environments.
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Enumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Discovery Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon ·Identifies the use of nltest.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate domain trusts and gain insight into trust relationships, as well as the state of Domain Controller (DC) replication in a Microsoft Windows NT Domain.
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Enumeration Command Spawned via WMIPrvSE
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies native Windows host and network enumeration commands spawned by the Windows Management Instrumentation Provider Service (WMIPrvSE).
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Identifies instances of lower privilege accounts enumerating Administrator accounts or groups using built-in Windows tools.
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Masquerading can allow an adversary to evade defenses and better blend in with the environment. One way it occurs is when the name or location of a file is manipulated as a means of tricking a user into executing what they think is a benign file type but is actually executable code.
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Execution from Unusual Directory - Command Line
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne ·Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This may be abused by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.
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Execution of COM object via Xwizard
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Windows Component Object Model (COM) is an inter-process communication (IPC) component of the native Windows application programming interface (API) that enables interaction between software objects or executable code. Xwizard can be used to run a COM object created in registry to evade defensive counter measures.
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Identifies the creation, change, or deletion of a DLL module within a Windows SxS local folder. Adversaries may abuse shared modules to execute malicious payloads by instructing the Windows module loader to load DLLs from arbitrary local paths.
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Execution via MSSQL xp_cmdshell Stored Procedure
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies execution via MSSQL xp_cmdshell stored procedure. Malicious users may attempt to elevate their privileges by using xp_cmdshell, which is disabled by default, thus, it's important to review the context of it's use.
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Execution via TSClient Mountpoint
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies execution from the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) shared mountpoint tsclient on the target host. This may indicate a lateral movement attempt.
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Execution via Windows Command Debugging Utility
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Resources: Investigation Guide ·An adversary can use the Windows command line debugging utility cdb.exe to execute commands or shellcode. This rule looks for those instances and where the cdb.exe binary is outside of the normal WindowsKit installation paths.
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Execution via Windows Subsystem for Linux
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Sysmon ·Detects attempts to execute a program on the host from the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Adversaries may enable and use WSL for Linux to avoid detection.
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Exporting Exchange Mailbox via PowerShell
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Collection Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon ·Identifies the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, New-MailBoxExportRequest, to export the contents of a primary mailbox or archive to a .pst file. Adversaries may target user email to collect sensitive information.
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Identifies the creation or execution of files or processes with names containing the Right-to-Left Override (RTLO) character, which can be used to disguise the file extension and trick users into executing malicious files.
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First Time Seen Removable Device
Identifies newly seen removable devices by device friendly name using registry modification events. While this activity is not inherently malicious, analysts can use those events to aid monitoring for data exfiltration over those devices.
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Identifies the enable of the full user-mode dumps feature system-wide. This feature allows Windows Error Reporting (WER) to collect data after an application crashes. This setting is a requirement for the LSASS Shtinkering attack, which fakes the communication of a crash on LSASS, generating a dump of the process memory, which gives the attacker access to the credentials present on the system without having to bring malware to the system. This setting is not enabled by default, and applications must create their registry subkeys to hold settings that enable them to collect dumps.
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Group Policy Discovery via Microsoft GPResult Utility
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Discovery Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects the usage of gpresult.exe to query group policy objects. Attackers may query group policy objects during the reconnaissance phase after compromising a system to gain a better understanding of the active directory environment and possible methods to escalate privileges or move laterally.
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IIS HTTP Logging Disabled
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies when Internet Information Services (IIS) HTTP Logging is disabled on a server. An attacker with IIS server access via a webshell or other mechanism can disable HTTP Logging as an effective anti-forensics measure.
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Image File Execution Options Injection
The Debugger and SilentProcessExit registry keys can allow an adversary to intercept the execution of files, causing a different process to be executed. This functionality can be abused by an adversary to establish persistence.
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ImageLoad via Windows Update Auto Update Client
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies abuse of the Windows Update Auto Update Client (wuauclt.exe) to load an arbitrary DLL. This behavior is used as a defense evasion technique to blend-in malicious activity with legitimate Windows software.
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Identifies the installation of custom Application Compatibility Shim databases. This Windows functionality has been abused by attackers to stealthily gain persistence and arbitrary code execution in legitimate Windows processes.
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Installation of Security Support Provider
Identifies registry modifications related to the Windows Security Support Provider (SSP) configuration. Adversaries may abuse this to establish persistence in an environment.
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Kirbi File Creation
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the creation of .kirbi files. The creation of this kind of file is an indicator of an attacker running Kerberos ticket dump utilities, such as Mimikatz, and precedes attacks such as Pass-The-Ticket (PTT), which allows the attacker to impersonate users using Kerberos tickets.
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Identifies suspicious file creations in the startup folder of a remote system. An adversary could abuse this to move laterally by dropping a malicious script or executable that will be executed after a reboot or user logon.
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Local Account TokenFilter Policy Disabled
Identifies registry modification to the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy policy. If this value exists (which doesn't by default) and is set to 1, then remote connections from all local members of Administrators are granted full high-integrity tokens during negotiation.
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Identifies the creation of a Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (lsass.exe) default memory dump. This may indicate a credential access attempt via trusted system utilities such as Task Manager (taskmgr.exe) and SQL Dumper (sqldumper.exe) or known pentesting tools such as Dumpert and AndrewSpecial.
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Microsoft Build Engine Started by a System Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Explorer or the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) subsystem. This behavior is unusual and is sometimes used by malicious payloads.
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Microsoft Build Engine Started by an Office Application
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Excel or Word. This is unusual behavior for the Build Engine and could have been caused by an Excel or Word document executing a malicious script payload.
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An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started after being renamed. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed or undetected.
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Microsoft Exchange Server UM Spawning Suspicious Processes
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Endgame Use Case: Vulnerability Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging (UM) service. This activity has been observed exploiting CVE-2021-26857.
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Microsoft Exchange Server UM Writing Suspicious Files
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Endgame Use Case: Vulnerability Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies suspicious files being written by the Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging (UM) service. This activity has been observed exploiting CVE-2021-26858.
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Microsoft Exchange Worker Spawning Suspicious Processes
Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the Microsoft Exchange Server worker process (w3wp). This activity may indicate exploitation activity or access to an existing web shell backdoor.
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Microsoft IIS Connection Strings Decryption
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies use of aspnet_regiis to decrypt Microsoft IIS connection strings. An attacker with Microsoft IIS web server access via a webshell or alike can decrypt and dump any hardcoded connection strings, such as the MSSQL service account password using aspnet_regiis command.
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Microsoft Management Console File from Unusual Path
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Sysmon ·Identifies attempts to open a Microsoft Management Console File from untrusted paths. Adversaries may use MSC files for initial access and execution.
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Identifies modifications of the AmsiEnable registry key to 0, which disables the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI). An adversary can modify this key to disable AMSI protections.
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Modification of Boot Configuration
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Impact Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of bcdedit.exe to delete boot configuration data. This tactic is sometimes used as by malware or an attacker as a destructive technique.
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Identifies attempts to modify the WDigest security provider in the registry to force the user's password to be stored in clear text in memory. This behavior can be indicative of an adversary attempting to weaken the security configuration of an endpoint. Once the UseLogonCredential value is modified, the adversary may attempt to dump clear text passwords from memory.
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Mounting Hidden or WebDav Remote Shares
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the use of net.exe to mount a WebDav or hidden remote share. This may indicate lateral movement or preparation for data exfiltration.
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Microsoft Office Products offer options for users and developers to control the security settings for running and using Macros. Adversaries may abuse these security settings to modify the default behavior of the Office Application to trust future macros and/or disable security warnings, which could increase their chances of establishing persistence.
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Identifies the addition of a Netsh Helper DLL, netsh.exe supports the addition of these DLLs to extend its functionality. Attackers may abuse this mechanism to execute malicious payloads every time the utility is executed, which can be done by administrators or a scheduled task.
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Identifies the modification of the network logon provider registry. Adversaries may register a rogue network logon provider module for persistence and/or credential access via intercepting the authentication credentials in clear text during user logon.
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Identifies the attempt to disable Network-Level Authentication (NLA) via registry modification. Network Level Authentication (NLA) is a feature on Windows that provides an extra layer of security for Remote Desktop (RDP) connections, as it requires users to authenticate before allowing a full RDP session. Attackers can disable NLA to enable persistence methods that require access to the Windows sign-in screen without authenticating, such as Accessibility Features persistence methods, like Sticky Keys.
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New ActiveSyncAllowedDeviceID Added via PowerShell
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, Set-CASMailbox, to add a new ActiveSync allowed device. Adversaries may target user email to collect sensitive information.
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NTDS Dump via Wbadmin
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the execution of wbadmin to access the NTDS.dit file in a domain controller. Attackers with privileges from groups like Backup Operators can abuse the utility to perform credential access and compromise the domain.
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NTDS or SAM Database File Copied
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies a copy operation of the Active Directory Domain Database (ntds.dit) or Security Account Manager (SAM) files. Those files contain sensitive information including hashed domain and/or local credentials.
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NullSessionPipe Registry Modification
Identifies NullSessionPipe registry modifications that specify which pipes can be accessed anonymously. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement preparation by making the added pipe available to everyone.
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Outlook Home Page Registry Modification
Identifies modifications in registry keys associated with abuse of the Outlook Home Page functionality for command and control or persistence.
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Peripheral Device Discovery
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Discovery Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the Windows file system utility (fsutil.exe) to gather information about attached peripheral devices and components connected to a computer system.
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An adversary can use the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) SetNotifyCmdLine method to execute a program that runs after a job finishes transferring data or after a job enters a specified state in order to persist on a system.
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Detects attempts to establish persistence on an endpoint by abusing Microsoft Office add-ins.
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Detects attempts to establish persistence on an endpoint by installing a rogue Microsoft Outlook VBA Template.
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Persistence via PowerShell profile
Identifies the creation or modification of a PowerShell profile. PowerShell profile is a script that is executed when PowerShell starts to customize the user environment, which can be abused by attackers to persist in a environment where PowerShell is common.
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A job can be used to schedule programs or scripts to be executed at a specified date and time. Adversaries may abuse task scheduling functionality to facilitate initial or recurring execution of malicious code.
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Persistence via TelemetryController Scheduled Task Hijack
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Privilege Escalation Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects the successful hijack of Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser scheduled task to establish persistence with an integrity level of system.
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Persistence via Update Orchestrator Service Hijack
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Privilege Escalation Use Case: Vulnerability Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: SentinelOne ·Identifies potential hijacking of the Microsoft Update Orchestrator Service to establish persistence with an integrity level of SYSTEM.
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Persistence via WMI Event Subscription
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·An adversary can use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to install event filters, providers, consumers, and bindings that execute code when a defined event occurs. Adversaries may use the capabilities of WMI to subscribe to an event and execute arbitrary code when that event occurs, providing persistence on a system.
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Identifies script engines creating files in the Startup folder, or the creation of script files in the Startup folder. Adversaries may abuse this technique to maintain persistence in an environment.
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Port Forwarding Rule Addition
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint ·Identifies the creation of a new port forwarding rule. An adversary may abuse this technique to bypass network segmentation restrictions.
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Potential Application Shimming via Sdbinst
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·The Application Shim was created to allow for backward compatibility of software as the operating system codebase changes over time. This Windows functionality has been abused by attackers to stealthily gain persistence and arbitrary code execution in legitimate Windows processes.
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Potential Credential Access via Windows Utilities
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon ·Identifies the execution of known Windows utilities often abused to dump LSASS memory or the Active Directory database (NTDS.dit) in preparation for credential access.
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Identifies a Windows trusted program that is known to be vulnerable to DLL Search Order Hijacking starting after being renamed or from a non-standard path. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to evade defenses via side-loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of one of those processes.
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Identifies an instance of a Windows trusted program that is known to be vulnerable to DLL Search Order Hijacking starting after being renamed or from a non-standard path. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to evade defenses via side loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of one of those processes.
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Potential DNS Tunneling via NsLookup
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon ·This rule identifies a large number (15) of nslookup.exe executions with an explicit query type from the same host. This may indicate command and control activity utilizing the DNS protocol.
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Identifies when a browser process navigates to the Microsoft Help page followed by spawning an elevated process. This may indicate a successful exploitation for privilege escalation abusing a vulnerable Windows Installer repair setup.
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Potential Evasion via Filter Manager
The Filter Manager Control Program (fltMC.exe) binary may be abused by adversaries to unload a filter driver and evade defenses.
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Potential Exploitation of an Unquoted Service Path Vulnerability
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Resources: Investigation Guide ·Adversaries may leverage unquoted service path vulnerabilities to escalate privileges. By placing an executable in a higher-level directory within the path of an unquoted service executable, Windows will natively launch this executable from its defined path variable instead of the benign one in a deeper directory, thus leading to code execution.
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Potential File Download via a Headless Browser
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Windows Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the use of a browser to download a file from a remote URL and from a suspicious parent process. Adversaries may use browsers to avoid ingress tool transfer restrictions.
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Potential File Transfer via Certreq
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Exfiltration Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies Certreq making an HTTP Post request. Adversaries could abuse Certreq to download files or upload data to a remote URL.
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Potential File Transfer via Curl for Windows
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies Curl for Windows making an HTTP request. Adversaries could abuse Curl to download files or upload data to a remote URL.
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Potential Foxmail Exploitation
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the Foxmail client spawning a child process with argument pointing to the Foxmail temp directory. This may indicate the successful exploitation of a Foxmail vulnerability for initial access and execution via a malicious email.
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Potential Local NTLM Relay via HTTP
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies attempt to coerce a local NTLM authentication via HTTP using the Windows Printer Spooler service as a target. An adversary may use this primitive in combination with other techniques to elevate privileges on a compromised system.
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Windows contains accessibility features that may be launched with a key combination before a user has logged in. An adversary can modify the way these programs are launched to get a command prompt or backdoor without logging in to the system.
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Potential Persistence via Time Provider Modification
Identifies modification of the Time Provider. Adversaries may establish persistence by registering and enabling a malicious DLL as a time provider. Windows uses the time provider architecture to obtain accurate time stamps from other network devices or clients in the network. Time providers are implemented in the form of a DLL file which resides in the System32 folder. The service W32Time initiates during the startup of Windows and loads w32time.dll.
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Potential privilege escalation via CVE-2022-38028
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via exploiting CVE-2022-38028 to hijack the print spooler service execution.
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This rule identifies a high number (20) of file creation event by the System virtual process from the same host and with same file name containing keywords similar to ransomware note files and all within a short time period.
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Identifies the modification of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Shadow registry or the execution of processes indicative of an active RDP shadowing session. An adversary may abuse the RDP Shadowing feature to spy on or control other users active RDP sessions.
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Potential Remote Desktop Tunneling Detected
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Lateral Movement Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon ·Identifies potential use of an SSH utility to establish RDP over a reverse SSH Tunnel. This can be used by attackers to enable routing of network packets that would otherwise not reach their intended destination.
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Detects file name patterns generated by the use of Sysinternals SDelete utility to securely delete a file via multiple file overwrite and rename operations.
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Potential Veeam Credential Access Command
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies commands that can access and decrypt Veeam credentials stored in MSSQL databases. Attackers can use Veeam Credentials to target backups as part of destructive operations such as Ransomware attacks.
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Potential WSUS Abuse for Lateral Movement
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies a potential Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) abuse to execute psexec to enable for lateral movement. WSUS is limited to executing Microsoft signed binaries, which limits the executables that can be used to tools published by Microsoft.
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Identifies attempts to disable PowerShell Script Block Logging via registry modification. Attackers may disable this logging to conceal their activities in the host and evade detection.
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Privilege Escalation via Named Pipe Impersonation
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via named pipe impersonation. An adversary may abuse this technique by utilizing a framework such Metasploit's meterpreter getsystem command.
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Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via a rogue Windows directory (Windir) environment variable. This is a known primitive that is often combined with other vulnerabilities to elevate privileges.
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Process Activity via Compiled HTML File
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Compiled HTML files (.chm) are commonly distributed as part of the Microsoft HTML Help system. Adversaries may conceal malicious code in a CHM file and deliver it to a victim for execution. CHM content is loaded by the HTML Help executable program (hh.exe).
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Process Execution from an Unusual Directory
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This is sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.
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Program Files Directory Masquerading
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies execution from a directory masquerading as the Windows Program Files directories. These paths are trusted and usually host trusted third party programs. An adversary may leverage masquerading, along with low privileges to bypass detections allowlisting those folders.
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This rule detects rare internet network connections via the SMB protocol. SMB is commonly used to leak NTLM credentials via rogue UNC path injection.
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RDP Enabled via Registry
Identifies registry write modifications to enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement preparation.
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Registry Persistence via AppCert DLL
Detects attempts to maintain persistence by creating registry keys using AppCert DLLs. AppCert DLLs are loaded by every process using the common API functions to create processes.
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Registry Persistence via AppInit DLL
AppInit DLLs are dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that are loaded into every process that creates a user interface (loads user32.dll) on Microsoft Windows operating systems. The AppInit DLL mechanism is used to load custom code into user-mode processes, allowing for the customization of the user interface and the behavior of Windows-based applications. Attackers who add those DLLs to the registry locations can execute code with elevated privileges, similar to process injection, and provide a solid and constant persistence on the machine.
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Remote Desktop Enabled in Windows Firewall by Netsh
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of the network shell utility (netsh.exe) to enable inbound Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections in the Windows Firewall.
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Remote Desktop File Opened from Suspicious Path
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies attempts to open a remote desktop file from suspicious paths. Adversaries may abuse RDP files for initial access.
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Remote File Copy to a Hidden Share
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies a remote file copy attempt to a hidden network share. This may indicate lateral movement or data staging activity.
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Remote File Download via Desktopimgdownldr Utility
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the desktopimgdownldr utility being used to download a remote file. An adversary may use desktopimgdownldr to download arbitrary files as an alternative to certutil.
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Remote File Download via MpCmdRun
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the Windows Defender configuration utility (MpCmdRun.exe) being used to download a remote file.
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Identifies a suspicious AutoIt process execution. Malware written as an AutoIt script tends to rename the AutoIt executable to avoid detection.
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Identifies the execution of a process with a single character process name, differing from the original file name. This is often done by adversaries while staging, executing temporary utilities, or trying to bypass security detections based on the process name.
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Scheduled Tasks AT Command Enabled
Identifies attempts to enable the Windows scheduled tasks AT command via the registry. Attackers may use this method to move laterally or persist locally. The AT command has been deprecated since Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, but still exists for backwards compatibility.
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ScreenConnect Server Spawning Suspicious Processes
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the ScreenConnect server process (ScreenConnect.Service.exe). This activity may indicate exploitation activity or access to an existing web shell backdoor.
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Identifies the execution of scripts via HTML applications using Windows utilities rundll32.exe or mshta.exe. Adversaries may bypass process and/or signature-based defenses by proxying execution of malicious content with signed binaries.
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Searching for Saved Credentials via VaultCmd
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Windows Credential Manager allows you to create, view, or delete saved credentials for signing into websites, connected applications, and networks. An adversary may abuse this to list or dump credentials stored in the Credential Manager for saved usernames and passwords. This may also be performed in preparation of lateral movement.
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Service Control Spawned via Script Interpreter
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies Service Control (sc.exe) spawning from script interpreter processes to create, modify, or start services. This can potentially indicate an attempt to elevate privileges or maintain persistence.
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Service DACL Modification via sc.exe
Identifies DACL modifications to deny access to a service, making it unstoppable, or hide it from system and users.
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Signed Proxy Execution via MS Work Folders
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the use of Windows Work Folders to execute a potentially masqueraded control.exe file in the current working directory. Misuse of Windows Work Folders could indicate malicious activity.
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Identifies modifications to the registered Subject Interface Package (SIP) providers. SIP providers are used by the Windows cryptographic system to validate file signatures on the system. This may be an attempt to bypass signature validation checks or inject code into critical processes.
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SolarWinds Process Disabling Services via Registry
Identifies a SolarWinds binary modifying the start type of a service to be disabled. An adversary may abuse this technique to manipulate relevant security services.
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Identifies files written to or modified in the startup folder by commonly abused processes. Adversaries may use this technique to maintain persistence.
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Suspicious .NET Code Compilation
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies executions of .NET compilers with suspicious parent processes, which can indicate an attacker's attempt to compile code after delivery in order to bypass security mechanisms.
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Identifies the creation of the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) DLL in an unusual location. This may indicate an attempt to bypass AMSI by loading a rogue AMSI module instead of the legit one.
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Suspicious CertUtil Commands
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies suspicious commands being used with certutil.exe. CertUtil is a native Windows component which is part of Certificate Services. CertUtil is often abused by attackers to live off the land for stealthier command and control or data exfiltration.
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Suspicious Cmd Execution via WMI
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies suspicious command execution (cmd) via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.
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Suspicious Endpoint Security Parent Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·A suspicious Endpoint Security parent process was detected. This may indicate a process hollowing or other form of code injection.
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Suspicious Execution from INET Cache
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies the execution of a process with arguments pointing to the INetCache Folder. Adversaries may deliver malicious content via WININET during initial access.
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Suspicious Execution via Microsoft Office Add-Ins
Identifies execution of common Microsoft Office applications to launch an Office Add-In from a suspicious path or with an unusual parent process. This may indicate an attempt to get initial access via a malicious phishing MS Office Add-In.
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Suspicious Execution via Windows Subsystem for Linux
Detects Linux Bash commands from the the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Adversaries may enable and use WSL for Linux to avoid detection.
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Suspicious Explorer Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies a suspicious Windows explorer child process. Explorer.exe can be abused to launch malicious scripts or executables from a trusted parent process.
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Suspicious ImagePath Service Creation
Identifies the creation of a suspicious ImagePath value. This could be an indication of an adversary attempting to stealthily persist or escalate privileges through abnormal service creation.
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Suspicious JetBrains TeamCity Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Data Source: Elastic Endgame Use Case: Vulnerability Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the JetBrain TeamCity process. This activity could be related to JetBrains remote code execution vulnerabilities.
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Suspicious Managed Code Hosting Process
Identifies a suspicious managed code hosting process which could indicate code injection or other form of suspicious code execution.
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Identifies potential abuse of the Microsoft Diagnostics Troubleshooting Wizard (MSDT) to proxy malicious command or binary execution via malicious process arguments.
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Suspicious MS Office Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies suspicious child processes of frequently targeted Microsoft Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel). These child processes are often launched during exploitation of Office applications or from documents with malicious macros.
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Suspicious MS Outlook Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon ·Identifies suspicious child processes of Microsoft Outlook. These child processes are often associated with spear phishing activity.
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Suspicious PDF Reader Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Initial Access Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies suspicious child processes of PDF reader applications. These child processes are often launched via exploitation of PDF applications or social engineering.
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Suspicious Print Spooler File Deletion
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Data Source: Elastic Endgame Use Case: Vulnerability Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·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.
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Suspicious PrintSpooler Service Executable File Creation
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Data Source: Elastic Endgame Use Case: Vulnerability Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service. For more information refer to the following CVE's - CVE-2020-1048, CVE-2020-1337 and CVE-2020-1300 and verify that the impacted system is patched.
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Identifies suspicious psexec activity which is executing from the psexec service that has been renamed, possibly to evade detection.
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Suspicious ScreenConnect Client Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the ScreenConnect client processes. This activity may indicate execution abusing unauthorized access to the ScreenConnect remote access software.
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Suspicious Startup Shell Folder Modification
Identifies suspicious startup shell folder modifications to change the default Startup directory in order to bypass detections monitoring file creation in the Windows Startup folder.
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Suspicious WerFault Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Privilege Escalation Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·A suspicious WerFault child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run via the SilentProcessExit registry key manipulation. Verify process details such as command line, network connections and file writes.
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Identifies the execution of the Windows Command Shell process (cmd.exe) with suspicious argument values. This behavior is often observed during malware installation.
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Identifies the execution of PowerShell with suspicious argument values. This behavior is often observed during malware installation leveraging PowerShell.
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Suspicious Zoom Child Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon ·A suspicious Zoom child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed. Verify process details such as command line, network connections, file writes and associated file signature details as well.
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Svchost spawning Cmd
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne ·Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from svchost.exe
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Symbolic Link to Shadow Copy Created
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the creation of symbolic links to a shadow copy. Symbolic links can be used to access files in the shadow copy, including sensitive files such as ntds.dit, System Boot Key and browser offline credentials.
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System Shells via Services
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon ·Windows services typically run as SYSTEM and can be used as a privilege escalation opportunity. Malware or penetration testers may run a shell as a service to gain SYSTEM permissions.
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UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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UAC Bypass Attempt via Privileged IFileOperation COM Interface
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) via DLL side-loading. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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UAC Bypass Attempt via Windows Directory Masquerading
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies an attempt to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by masquerading as a Microsoft trusted Windows directory. Attackers may bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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UAC Bypass Attempt with IEditionUpgradeManager Elevated COM Interface
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a rogue Windows ClipUp program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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UAC Bypass via DiskCleanup Scheduled Task Hijack
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via hijacking DiskCleanup Scheduled Task. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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UAC Bypass via ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM Interface
Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts via the ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM interface. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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UAC Bypass via Windows Firewall Snap-In Hijack
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne ·Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Unusual Child Process from a System Virtual Process
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·Identifies a suspicious child process of the Windows virtual system process, which could indicate code injection.
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Unusual Child Process of dns.exe
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Lateral Movement Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Use Case: Vulnerability Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies an unexpected process spawning from dns.exe, the process responsible for Windows DNS server services, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.
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Unusual Executable File Creation by a System Critical Process
Identifies an unexpected executable file being created or modified by a Windows system critical process, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.
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Unusual Execution via Microsoft Common Console File
Identifies the execution of a child process from a Microsoft Common Console file. Adversaries may embed a malicious command in an MSC file in order to trick victims into executing malicious commands.
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Identifies suspicious creation of Alternate Data Streams on highly targeted files. This is uncommon for legitimate files and sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.
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Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from an unusual process.
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Unusual Parent-Child Relationship
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Privilege Escalation Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies Windows programs run from unexpected parent processes. This could indicate masquerading or other strange activity on a system.
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Unusual Persistence via Services Registry
Identifies processes modifying the services registry key directly, instead of through the expected Windows APIs. This could be an indication of an adversary attempting to stealthily persist through abnormal service creation or modification of an existing service.
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Unusual Process Execution Path - Alternate Data Stream
Identifies processes running from an Alternate Data Stream. This is uncommon for legitimate processes and sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.
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Unusual Service Host Child Process - Childless Service
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Privilege Escalation Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide ·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.
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User Account Creation
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies attempts to create new users. This is sometimes done by attackers to increase access or establish persistence on a system or domain.
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Volume Shadow Copy Deleted or Resized via VssAdmin
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Impact Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of vssadmin.exe for shadow copy deletion or resizing on endpoints. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.
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Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Impact Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies the use of the Win32_ShadowCopy class and related cmdlets to achieve shadow copy deletion. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.
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Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Impact Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies use of wmic.exe for shadow copy deletion on endpoints. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.
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Identifies the creation of a Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policy file by an unusual process. Adversaries may use a secially crafted WDAC policy to restrict the execution of security products.
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Web Shell Detection: Script Process Child of Common Web Processes
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Initial Access Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies suspicious commands executed via a web server, which may suggest a vulnerability and remote shell access.
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Identifies the registration of a Werfault Debugger. Attackers may abuse this mechanism to execute malicious payloads every time the utility is executed with the "-pr" parameter.
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Identifies suspicious use of whoami.exe which displays user, group, and privileges information for the user who is currently logged on to the local system.
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Identifies modifications to the Windows Defender registry settings to disable the service or set the service to be started manually.
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Windows Defender Exclusions Added via PowerShell
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies modifications to the Windows Defender configuration settings using PowerShell to add exclusions at the folder directory or process level.
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Windows Firewall Disabled via PowerShell
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies when the Windows Firewall is disabled using PowerShell cmdlets, which can help attackers evade network constraints, like internet and network lateral communication restrictions.
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Windows Script Executing PowerShell
Identifies a PowerShell process launched by either cscript.exe or wscript.exe. Observing Windows scripting processes executing a PowerShell script, may be indicative of malicious activity.
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Detects changes to the registry that indicates the install of a new Windows Subsystem for Linux distribution by name. Adversaries may enable and use WSL for Linux to avoid detection.
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Windows Subsystem for Linux Enabled via Dism Utility
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide ·Detects attempts to enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux using Microsoft Dism utility. Adversaries may enable and use WSL for Linux to avoid detection.
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Wireless Credential Dumping using Netsh Command
Mar 26, 2025 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Credential Access Tactic: Discovery Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike ·Identifies attempts to dump Wireless saved access keys in clear text using the Windows built-in utility Netsh.
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Identifies the modification of the Microsoft Office "Office Test" Registry key, a registry location that can be used to specify a DLL which will be executed every time an MS Office application is started. Attackers can abuse this to gain persistence on a compromised host.
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Managed Object Format (MOF) files can be compiled locally or remotely through mofcomp.exe. Attackers may leverage MOF files to build their own namespaces and classes into the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) repository, or establish persistence using WMI Event Subscription.
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Identifies access attempts to the LSASS handle, which may indicate an attempt to dump credentials from LSASS memory.
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Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service including CVE-2020-1048 and CVE-2020-1337.
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Adversaries can use the autostart mechanism provided by the Local Security Authority (LSA) authentication packages for privilege escalation or persistence by placing a reference to a binary in the Windows registry. The binary will then be executed by SYSTEM when the authentication packages are loaded.
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Identifies port monitor and print processor registry modifications. Adversaries may abuse port monitor and print processors to run malicious DLLs during system boot that will be executed as SYSTEM for privilege escalation and/or persistence, if permissions allow writing a fully-qualified pathname for that DLL.
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