Elastic Defend

This detection brief monitors Linux hosts for the use of standard system utilities and scripting interpreters to decode Base64 data, a common technique employed by adversaries to obfuscate malicious payloads and command-and-control traffic.

Adversaries frequently abuse the legitimate curl command-line utility to exfiltrate collected sensitive data to external Command and Control (C2) servers via network protocols.

Elastic's machine learning rule identifies rare and anomalous web user agents originating from local systems, indicating potential command-and-control, data exfiltration, or persistence activities by malware or specialized tools, enabling detection engineers to investigate unusual web browsing from non-browser processes.

Elastic's machine learning job, utilizing the ProblemChild supervised model and unsupervised techniques, detects Windows hosts exhibiting clusters of suspicious processes with unusually high malicious probability scores, often indicative of defense evasion through Living Off The Land Binaries (LOLbins) and masquerading techniques.

A machine learning job from Elastic's ProblemChild integration detects suspicious Windows processes, classified as malicious by a supervised ML model and anomalous due to unusual user contexts identified by an unsupervised ML model, indicating potential misuse of LOLbins or masquerading tactics for defense evasion.

Elastic's machine learning rule identifies anomalous execution of privileged commands by a user on Linux systems, indicative of potential privilege escalation or misuse of valid accounts.

Elastic's Data Exfiltration Detection integration leverages machine learning to identify rare processes writing data to external devices, indicating potential data exfiltration by adversaries using benign-looking processes.

Elastic's machine learning job identifies potential data exfiltration activity to unusual geo-locations by detecting anomalies in network traffic patterns, indicating adversaries leveraging command and control channels to transfer data outside normal organizational patterns.

Elastic's machine learning rule detects potential data exfiltration by identifying anomalous network traffic, specifically large data transfers to unusual geo-locations via IP addresses, indicating possible exfiltration over command and control channels.

This Elastic machine learning rule detects anomalous network activity originating from Linux processes that typically do not engage in network communication, signifying potential command-and-control, lateral movement, persistence, or data exfiltration activity, often via process exploitation or injection.

An Elastic machine learning rule detects unusual user logon times, which can indicate credential compromise or unauthorized access, particularly when attackers operate from different time zones or during non-business hours, prompting investigation into the affected user account and related activities.

Elastic Security's statistical model identifies command-and-control (C2) beaconing activity in network logs on Windows and Linux systems by analyzing network traffic patterns and excluding known benign processes, enabling defenders to detect and respond to stealthy adversary communications for persistence and data exfiltration.

This detection rule identifies suspicious child process executions originating from web server processes on Linux systems, indicating that attackers may have exploited web application vulnerabilities such as command injection or remote file inclusion to establish persistence or execute malicious commands.

An Elastic detection rule identifies when an unusual process creates files within world-writable directories on Linux systems, a tactic employed by attackers for defense evasion and lateral movement by staging payloads and hiding malicious activities.

Elastic has released a detection rule to identify the creation of ransomware note files by the Windows System process (PID 4) via the SMB protocol, indicating a remote ransomware attack often leveraging lateral movement to perform data encryption, destruction, or inhibit system recovery.

This brief details the detection of shell command execution initiated by the Elastic Endpoint agent on Linux systems, indicating potential post-exploitation activity such as remote access or command and control via misuse of the endpoint's response capabilities.

This brief details the detection of a defense evasion technique where adversaries leverage Busybox on Linux systems to execute commands capable of spawning shells or establishing network connections, thereby attempting to bypass endpoint security controls.

Malware and threat actors on Linux systems utilize the `curl` command to query public web services for external IP address discovery, a reconnaissance technique (T1016) that can precede further C2 establishment or targeted attacks.

Roundup of Microsoft security advisories published in July 2026.

Identifies suspicious command executions via a web server on Linux systems, which may suggest a vulnerability and remote shell access.

This rule detects unusual child process executions originating from web server processes on Linux systems, potentially indicating attackers exploiting web servers for persistence.

Identifies suspicious command executions via a web server on Linux systems, potentially indicating a vulnerability exploitation or remote shell access for persistence.

This rule identifies unusual destination port network activity originating from a web server process on Linux systems, indicating potential web shell activity or unauthorized communication from a web server process to external systems by detecting egress connections from web server processes to non-standard ports while excluding common local IP ranges.

This rule detects potential command execution from a web server parent process on a Linux host, indicating a possible web shell attack where adversaries exploit web server vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary commands.

This rule detects unusual processes spawned from a web server parent process on Linux systems, potentially indicating an attacker attempting to establish persistence, execute malicious commands, or establish command and control channels.

This rule detects the abuse of Azure Virtual Machine Run Command to execute scripts remotely, correlating Azure Activity Log events with endpoint process starts, identifying instances where adversaries use Run Command to run scripts as SYSTEM or root.

The rule detects attempts to clear the kernel ring buffer on Linux systems using the `dmesg` command with options like `-c`, `-C`, `--clear`, or `--read-clear` to evade detection.

This rule detects Linux process executions that reference /etc/kubernetes/manifests in process arguments, which may indicate tampering with static pod manifests for persistence or privilege escalation in Kubernetes environments.

This rule detects potential privilege escalation attempts on Linux systems by monitoring the use of `unshare` with user namespace-related arguments followed by a UID change to root, indicating a transition to root and a potential local privilege escalation.

The rule identifies command-line executions that attempt to access cloud service provider's Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) API endpoints, potentially retrieving sensitive instance information and temporary security credentials, ultimately leading to credential access and privilege escalation within the cloud environment.

This rule detects the execution of macOS built-in commands such as `defaults`, `mkpassdb`, and `dscl` used by adversaries to dump user account hashes for credential access and lateral movement.

This rule identifies rare connection attempts to a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) resource, where attackers may inject WebDAV paths in files or features opened by a victim user to leak their NTLM credentials via forced authentication using rundll32.exe.

This rule detects passwordless sudo probing activity on Linux systems, which can indicate an attacker attempting to enumerate allowed commands and potential privilege escalation.

The rule detects the use of the 'kubectl get secrets --all-namespaces' command, which enumerates secret resources across the entire Kubernetes cluster, potentially aiding credential discovery, privilege escalation, or lateral movement by attackers.

This rule identifies a high number of inbound SSH login attempts on a macOS host within a short time window by monitoring the `sshd-keygen-wrapper` process, indicating potential brute-force attacks against exposed SSH services.

A machine learning job combination has identified a user with one or more suspicious Windows processes exhibiting unusually high malicious probability scores, potentially involving LOLbins for defense evasion.

A machine learning job has identified a parent process spawning one or more suspicious Windows processes exhibiting unusually high malicious probability scores, indicating potential defense evasion tactics like masquerading and LOLBins usage.

A machine learning job combination has identified a host with one or more suspicious Windows processes that exhibit unusually high malicious probability scores, indicating potential masquerading tactics for defense evasion.

A machine learning job has detected a suspicious Windows process, predicted to be malicious by the ProblemChild supervised ML model and found to be suspicious given its user context by an unsupervised ML model, indicating potential defense evasion activity involving LOLbins.

This rule detects unusual process spawned by a parent process, potentially indicating malicious activity involving LOLbins by leveraging machine learning to identify anomalous process creation patterns that evade conventional search rules.

A machine learning job detects unusual Windows processes, potentially Living off the Land binaries, on hosts not commonly associated with malicious activity, indicating possible defense evasion attempts.

This rule detects the creation of files in world-writable directories on Linux systems by an unusual process, which is a common defense evasion tactic for potential lateral movement or malicious payload staging.

This rule identifies access attempts to the LSASS handle, which may indicate an attempt to dump credentials from LSASS memory by detecting specific API calls (OpenProcess, OpenThread, ReadProcessMemory) targeting the 'lsass.exe' process.

Detects attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by masquerading as a trusted Microsoft Windows directory, abusing a trailing-space in the path to execute code with elevated privileges.

Detects User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts using eventvwr.exe to execute code with elevated permissions by identifying child processes of eventvwr.exe, excluding mmc.exe and WerFault.exe, which may indicate unauthorized privilege escalation.

Detects User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts via the ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM interface, where attackers may attempt to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions, potentially leading to privilege escalation.

A privilege escalation attempt is detected through modification of the Windows directory (Windir) environment variable, a technique often combined with other vulnerabilities to elevate privileges by redirecting system processes.

Adversaries may escalate privileges by abusing named pipe impersonation, a technique often used with tools like Metasploit's meterpreter getsystem command, where a process writes to a named pipe to facilitate a SYSTEM-token handoff.

The rule detects the hijack of the Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser scheduled task to establish persistence with system integrity level, by monitoring CompatTelRunner.exe process execution and detecting unexpected child processes.

This rule detects a persistence mechanism that utilizes the NtSetValueKey native API to create a hidden (null terminated) registry key, evading detection from system utilities.

Detection of suspicious ImagePath values written to the registry, indicating potential persistence or privilege escalation via abnormal service creation involving command interpreters or named pipes.

This rule detects attempts to establish persistence on Windows endpoints by abusing Microsoft Office add-ins through the creation of malicious files in Office startup directories.

Detects suspicious modifications to the Windows Startup shell folder, a technique used to bypass detections monitoring file creation in the Windows Startup folder.

Detects the creation of a hidden local user account by appending a dollar sign ($) to the account name, a technique used by attackers to persist on a system and evade standard account listing methods.

Adversaries may achieve lateral movement by creating malicious files in remote Windows startup folders via RDP or SMB, leading to code execution upon system reboot or user logon.

This rule detects potential SharpRDP behavior, a tool used for authenticated command execution against a remote target via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for lateral movement by identifying incoming RDP connections followed by RunMRU registry value modifications and subsequent process execution.

The rule detects execution of processes from the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) shared mountpoint tsclient on Windows hosts, which may indicate a lateral movement attempt.

This brief detects potential remote desktop shadowing activity by identifying modifications to the RDP Shadow registry or the execution of processes indicative of an active RDP shadowing session, which adversaries may abuse to spy on or control other users' RDP sessions.

Detection of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) abuse to execute commands remotely via the MMC20 Application COM object, potentially indicating lateral movement.

This rule detects suspicious Kerberos authentication ticket requests by correlating network connections to the standard Kerberos port (88) from a source machine with a Kerberos authentication ticket request from the target domain controller, which could indicate lateral movement or credential access attempts within a Windows domain.

The rule identifies the creation of files resembling ransomware notes via SMB, potentially indicating a remote ransomware attack on Windows systems.

Detection of a suspicious file rename operation following an incoming SMB connection, potentially indicating a remote ransomware attack via the SMB protocol, targeting Windows hosts.

Detection of attempts to delete or modify critical Windows boot files indicating a potential destructive attack to prevent system startup.

This rule identifies suspicious child processes of Microsoft Office applications on macOS, which often result from exploitation or malicious macros, by detecting unexpected processes like curl, bash, osascript, and python spawned by Office apps, while filtering out false positives related to product version discovery, error reporting, and legitimate software.

Adversaries may abuse Curl for Windows to download files or upload data to a remote URL for command and control or exfiltration purposes.

Adversaries may abuse Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) on Windows systems to proxy command and control traffic or exfiltrate data through Cloudflare's edge, evading direct connection blocking.

An adversary may abuse port forwarding to bypass network segmentation restrictions by creating a new port forwarding rule through modification of the Windows registry.

A suspicious Zoom child process was detected, indicating a potential attempt to run unnoticed by masquerading as Zoom.exe or exploiting a vulnerability, resulting in the execution of cmd.exe, powershell.exe, pwsh.exe, or powershell_ise.exe.

This rule identifies the execution of PowerShell with suspicious argument values, often observed during malware installation, by detecting unusual PowerShell arguments indicative of abuse, focusing on patterns like encoded commands, suspicious downloads, and obfuscation techniques.

Adversaries can abuse the Windows command line debugging utility cdb.exe to execute commands or shellcode from non-standard paths, evading traditional security measures.

This rule detects modifications to the registered Subject Interface Package (SIP) providers, which are used by the Windows cryptographic system to validate file signatures, potentially indicating an attempt to bypass signature validation or inject code for defense evasion.

Detection of service DACL modifications via `sc.exe` using the `sdset` command, potentially leading to defense evasion by denying service access to legitimate users or system accounts.

Adversaries may abuse RDP files delivered via phishing from suspicious locations to gain unauthorized access to systems.

This rule detects file name patterns generated by the use of Sysinternals SDelete utility, potentially used by attackers to delete forensic indicators and hinder data recovery efforts.

This brief details a registry modification attack that downgrades the system to NTLMv1 authentication, enabling NetNTLMv1 downgrade attacks, typically performed with local administrator privileges on Windows systems.

Attackers are abusing the legitimate file synchronization tool rclone, often renamed to masquerade as legitimate software, to exfiltrate data to cloud storage or remote endpoints.

Adversaries may modify the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy registry key to bypass User Account Control (UAC) and gain elevated privileges remotely by granting high-integrity tokens to remote connections from local administrators, facilitating lateral movement and defense evasion.

This rule detects command shell activity, such as cmd.exe or powershell.exe, initiated by RunDLL32, a technique commonly abused by attackers to execute malicious code and bypass security controls.

The rule detects a potential chroot container escape via mount, which involves a user within a container mounting the host's root file system and using chroot to escape the containerized environment, indicating a privilege escalation attempt.

Detects suspicious chroot execution within a Linux container context, potentially indicating a container escape attempt by pivoting to an alternate root filesystem.

Detects suspicious DNS queries containing a base64-encoded blob, indicating potential Kerberos coercion attacks and SPN spoofing via DNS to coerce authentication to attacker-controlled hosts, enabling Kerberos or NTLM relay attacks.

Attackers may leverage misconfigured SUID/SGID permissions on Linux systems to escalate privileges to root or establish persistence by executing processes with root privileges initiated by non-root users.

Detection of MsiExec spawning child processes that initiate network connections, potentially indicating abuse of Windows Installers for malware delivery and defense evasion.

Detection of Alternate Data Stream (ADS) creation at a volume root directory, a technique used to hide malware and tools by exploiting how ADSs in root directories are not readily visible to standard system utilities, indicating a defense evasion attempt.

The rule identifies the loading of unusual or unsigned DLLs by the DNS Server process, which can indicate exploitation of the ServerLevelPluginDll functionality, potentially leading to privilege escalation and remote code execution with SYSTEM privileges.

Attackers with Backup Operator privileges may abuse wbadmin.exe to access the NTDS.dit file, enabling credential dumping and domain compromise.

Adversaries may use Microsoft Management Console (MMC) files from untrusted paths to bypass security controls for initial access and execution on Windows systems.

Attackers with DNSAdmin privileges can modify or disable the DNS Global Query Block List (GQBL) in Windows, allowing exploitation of hosts running WPAD with default settings for privilege escalation and lateral movement.

This rule identifies suspicious child processes spawned by ScreenConnect client processes, potentially indicating unauthorized access and command execution abusing ScreenConnect remote access software to perform malicious activities such as data exfiltration or establishing persistence.

Adversaries use parent process PID spoofing to evade detection by creating processes with mismatched parent-child relationships, hindering process monitoring and potentially elevating privileges on Windows systems.

The detection rule identifies suspicious child processes spawned from communication applications on Windows systems, potentially indicating masquerading or exploitation of vulnerabilities within these applications.

Adversaries use the Windows built-in utility Netsh to dump Wireless saved access keys in clear text, potentially leading to credential compromise.

Adversaries may clear the command history of a compromised account to conceal the actions undertaken during an intrusion on a Windows system.

Attackers may abuse the Netsh Helper DLL functionality by adding malicious DLLs to execute payloads every time the netsh utility is executed via administrators or scheduled tasks, achieving persistence.

An expired or revoked driver being loaded on a Windows system may indicate an attempt to gain code execution in kernel mode or abuse revoked certificates for malicious purposes, potentially leading to privilege escalation or defense evasion.

Msxsl.exe, a legitimate Windows utility, is being abused by adversaries to make network connections to non-local IPs for command and control or data exfiltration, potentially bypassing security measures.

Adversaries may use vaultcmd.exe to list credentials stored in the Windows Credential Manager to gain unauthorized access to saved usernames and passwords, potentially in preparation for lateral movement.

This rule detects suspicious managed code hosting processes on Windows systems, potentially indicating code injection or defense evasion tactics by monitoring file events associated with processes commonly used to host managed code, such as wscript.exe, cscript.exe, and mshta.exe.

Adversaries may masquerade malicious executables within directories mimicking the legitimate Windows Program Files directory to evade defenses and execute untrusted code.

This rule detects attempts to install a file from a remote server using MsiExec, which adversaries may abuse to deliver malware, by identifying msiexec.exe processes running with arguments indicative of remote installations and executed from suspicious parent processes.

This rule detects potential exploitation of unquoted service path vulnerabilities, where adversaries may escalate privileges by placing a malicious executable in a higher-level directory within the path of an unquoted service executable.

Attackers can enable full user-mode dumps system-wide via registry modification to facilitate LSASS credential dumping, allowing extraction of credentials from process memory without deploying malware.

This rule identifies the installation of potentially malicious browser extensions, which adversaries can leverage for persistence and unauthorized activity by monitoring file creation events in common browser extension directories on Windows systems.

The rule detects unusual outbound network connections made by rundll32.exe, specifically when executed with minimal arguments, which may indicate command and control activity or defense evasion tactics on Windows systems.

Adversaries can achieve persistence by abusing the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) SetNotifyCmdLine method to execute a program after a job finishes, leading to arbitrary code execution and system compromise.

This rule detects when an Elastic Defend endpoint alert is generated and is not followed by subsequent endpoint telemetry events, potentially indicating endpoint security evasion, agent tampering, or sensor disablement.

This rule detects potential abuse of the Microsoft Diagnostics Troubleshooting Wizard (MSDT) to proxy malicious command or binary execution via malicious process arguments on Windows systems.

The rule identifies unexpected executable file creation or modification by critical Windows processes, potentially indicating remote code execution or exploitation attempts.

This rule detects potential privilege escalation attempts on Linux systems by identifying processes running with root privileges but initiated by non-root users, indicative of SUID/SGID abuse.

Detects the execution of previously unseen remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools or remote access software on compromised Windows endpoints, often leveraged for command-and-control, persistence, and execution of malicious commands.

Detection of executable files created with multiple extensions, a masquerading technique to evade defenses.

Detects attempts to export sensitive Windows registry hives (SAM/SECURITY) using reg.exe, potentially leading to credential compromise.

This rule detects suspicious execution of scripts via WMIC, potentially used for allowlist bypass, by identifying WMIC executions with atypical arguments and the loading of specific libraries like jscript.dll or vbscript.dll for defense evasion and execution.

This rule detects potential ransomware behavior by identifying the creation of multiple files with the same name over SMB by the SYSTEM account, potentially indicating remote execution of ransomware dropping note files.

This rule detects the abuse of Windows Sandbox with sensitive configurations to evade detection, where malware may abuse the sandbox feature to gain write access to the host file system, enable network connections, and automatically execute commands via logon, identifying the start of a new container with these sensitive configurations.

Adversaries may load unsigned DLLs into svchost.exe to establish persistence or escalate privileges, leveraging a shared Windows service to execute malicious code with elevated permissions.

The rule identifies unusual outbound network connections on non-standard ports originating from web server processes on Linux systems, indicative of potential web shell activity or unauthorized communication.

The rule identifies when the SYSTEM account uses an account discovery utility, potentially indicating discovery activity after privilege escalation, focusing on utilities like whoami.exe and net1.exe executed under the SYSTEM account.

An untrusted driver loaded by the Windows kernel may indicate an attempt to bypass code signing policies and execute unsigned or self-signed kernel code, potentially leading to defense evasion.

The execution of a Linux shell process from a Java JAR application following an incoming network connection may indicate reverse shell activity.

This detection rule identifies attempts to establish persistence on Windows systems by creating scheduled jobs in the Windows Tasks directory, excluding known legitimate jobs.

This rule detects suspicious child processes of WerFault.exe, a Windows error reporting tool, indicating potential abuse of the SilentProcessExit registry key to execute malicious processes stealthily for defense evasion, persistence, and privilege escalation.

Attackers abuse the Application Compatibility Shim functionality in Windows to establish persistence and achieve arbitrary code execution by installing malicious shim databases, which this detection identifies through monitoring registry changes.

This detection rule identifies downloaded .url shortcut files on Windows systems, often used in phishing campaigns, by monitoring their creation events and flagging those from non-local sources, enabling early threat detection.

Attackers attempt to disable Windows Event and Security Logs using logman, PowerShell, or auditpol to evade detection and cover their tracks.

This rule identifies remote execution via Windows PowerShell remoting, which allows a user to run any Windows PowerShell command on one or more remote computers, potentially indicating lateral movement.

Detection of suspicious Windows processes using DNS queries to determine the external IP address, potentially indicating reconnaissance or preparation for command and control activity.

This rule detects potentially malicious .lnk shortcut files downloaded from outside the local network on Windows systems, which are commonly used in phishing campaigns.

Detection of InstallUtil.exe making outbound network connections, which can indicate adversaries leveraging it to execute code and evade detection by proxying execution through a trusted system binary.

Attackers may attempt credential theft by launching browsers (Chrome, Edge) with remote debugging, headless automation, or minimal arguments from an unusual parent process on Windows systems.

This detection identifies the deletion of backup files by processes outside of the backup suite, specifically targeting Veritas and Veeam backups, which may indicate an attempt to prevent recovery from ransomware.

Detects execution of JavaScript via Deno with suspicious command-line patterns (base64, eval, http, or import in a JavaScript context), which adversaries may abuse to run malicious JavaScript for execution or staging.

Adversaries may execute the `net.exe` or `wmic.exe` commands to enumerate administrator accounts or groups, both locally and within the domain, to gather information for follow-on actions.

This rule detects the creation of the default Mimikatz MemSSP credential log file, mimilsa.log, which is created after the misc::memssp module injects a malicious Security Support Provider into LSASS, potentially capturing credentials from subsequent logons.

This rule detects registry modifications indicative of a new Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distribution installation, a technique adversaries may leverage to evade detection by utilizing Linux environments within Windows.

Adversaries may exploit MSBuild to execute malicious scripts or compile code, bypassing security controls; this rule detects unusual processes initiated by MSBuild, such as PowerShell or C# compiler, signaling potential misuse for executing unauthorized or harmful actions.

This rule identifies the use of bcdedit.exe to modify boot configuration data, which may be indicative of a destructive attack or ransomware activity aimed at inhibiting system recovery by disabling error recovery or ignoring boot failures.

Detects suspicious command execution via WMI on a Windows host, potentially indicating lateral movement by an adversary using cmd.exe to execute commands remotely.

This rule detects attempts to execute content from remote WebDAV shares, where attackers may abuse WebDAV paths, public tunnels, or host@port UNC paths to execute tools or scripts, reducing local staging on the victim's file system.

An adversary may attempt to bypass AMSI by creating a rogue AMSI DLL in an unusual location to evade detection.

Detects the execution of scripts via HTML applications using Windows utilities rundll32.exe or mshta.exe to bypass defenses by proxying execution of malicious content with signed binaries.

Detects remote access to the registry, potentially dumping credential data from the Security Account Manager (SAM) registry hive, indicating preparation for credential access and privilege elevation.

This analytic identifies suspicious programs such as script interpreters, rundll32, or MSBuild being executed shortly after user logon, indicating potential persistence mechanisms abusing the registry run keys.

This rule detects command and control (C2) communications that use common web services to hide malicious activity on Windows hosts by identifying network connections to commonly abused web services from processes outside of known legitimate program locations, indicating potential exfiltration or C2 activity blended with legitimate traffic.

Adversaries abuse the Console Window Host (conhost.exe) with the `--headless` argument to proxy execution of malicious commands, evading detection by blending in with legitimate Windows software.

Detection of adversaries disabling Windows Firewall rules using the `netsh.exe` command-line tool to weaken defenses and facilitate unauthorized network activity.

Detection of PowerShell processes launched by cscript.exe or wscript.exe, indicative of potential malicious initial access or execution attempts.

The rule detects network connection attempts to the Kubernetes Kubelet API ports 10250 and 10255 on internal IP ranges from Linux hosts, indicating potential lateral movement within container and cluster environments.

Detects execution of container runtime CLI tools (ctr, crictl, nerdctl) with arguments indicating container creation, command execution inside existing containers, image manipulation, or host filesystem mounting, potentially leading to privileged container creation and unauthorized access to sensitive data.

This rule identifies attempts to create new users on Windows systems using net.exe, a common tactic used by attackers to increase access or establish persistence.

The rule identifies unusual instances of dllhost.exe making outbound network connections to non-local IPs, which may indicate adversarial Command and Control activity and defense evasion.

This detection identifies a Windows trusted program running from locations often abused by adversaries to masquerade as a trusted program and loading a recently dropped unsigned DLL, which indicates an attempt to evade defenses via side-loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of a signed process.

This rule identifies instances where the PowerShell engine is loaded by processes other than powershell.exe, potentially indicating attackers attempting to use PowerShell functionality stealthily by using the underlying System.Management.Automation namespace and bypassing PowerShell security features.

Detects network connections to the standard Kerberos port from an unusual process other than lsass.exe, potentially indicating Kerberoasting or Pass-the-Ticket activity on Windows systems.

The modification of root certificates on Windows systems by unauthorized processes can allow attackers to masquerade malicious files as valid signed components and intercept/decrypt SSL traffic, leading to defense evasion and data collection.

Attackers can enable host network discovery via netsh.exe to weaken host firewall settings, facilitating lateral movement by identifying other systems on the network.

Attackers may disable the Windows firewall or its rules using the `Set-NetFirewallProfile` PowerShell cmdlet to enable lateral movement and command and control activity.

Adversaries may attempt to bypass Windows Defender's capabilities by using PowerShell to add exclusions for folders or processes, and this activity can be detected by monitoring PowerShell command lines that use `Add-MpPreference` or `Set-MpPreference` with exclusion parameters.

Attackers may establish persistence by modifying the ReflectDebugger registry key associated with Windows Error Reporting to execute arbitrary code when Werfault is invoked with the '-pr' parameter.

Adversaries may leverage unusual system utilities such as Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe, bginfo.exe, cdb.exe, cmstp.exe, csi.exe, dnx.exe, fsi.exe, ieexec.exe, iexpress.exe, odbcconf.exe, rcsi.exe and xwizard.exe to execute code and evade detection, as identified by network connections originating from these processes.

Detection of processes modifying the Windows services registry key directly, potentially indicating stealthy persistence attempts via abnormal service creation or modification.

This threat brief details a UAC bypass technique leveraging the Internet Explorer Add-On Installer (ieinstal.exe) and Component Object Model (COM) to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

The rule identifies the use of sc.exe to create, modify, or start services on remote hosts, potentially indicating lateral movement by adversaries.

Detection of unusual child processes spawned by SolarWinds processes may indicate malicious program execution, potentially bypassing security controls.

This rule identifies potentially suspicious processes, excluding those signed by Microsoft, making Server Message Block (SMB) network connections over port 445, which could indicate lateral movement attempts.

Detection of scrobj.dll loaded into unusual Microsoft processes indicates potential malicious scriptlet execution for defense evasion and execution by abusing legitimate system binaries.

Adversaries may modify the Windows Security Support Provider (SSP) configuration in the registry to establish persistence or evade defenses.

Detects suspicious execution of the Microsoft Antimalware Service Executable (MsMpEng.exe) from non-standard paths or renamed instances, which may indicate an attempt to evade defenses through DLL side-loading or masquerading.

This detection identifies the creation of HTML files with high entropy and large size, followed by execution via a browser process, indicating potential HTML smuggling and malicious payload delivery on Windows systems.

This rule detects suspicious Node.js execution patterns on Windows systems, including user-writable runtimes, preload arguments, and inline eval, decode, or child-process usage, indicating potential malicious activity.

Adversaries may leverage the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to execute malicious Linux commands, bypassing traditional Windows security measures, detected by monitoring process execution and command-line arguments.

This rule detects suspicious parent processes of endpoint security solutions such as Elastic Defend, Microsoft Defender, and SentinelOne, indicating potential process hollowing or code injection attempts to evade detection.

Attackers modify registry run keys or startup keys to achieve persistence by referencing a program that executes when a user logs in or the system boots.

A SolarWinds binary is modifying the start type of a service to be disabled via registry modification, potentially to disable or impair security services.

Detection of scheduled task creation by Windows scripting engines like cscript.exe, wscript.exe, or powershell.exe, used by adversaries to establish persistence on compromised systems.

Detects DNS queries to commonly abused remote monitoring and management (RMM) or remote access software domains from non-browser processes, potentially indicating unauthorized remote access or command and control activity.

This rule detects the execution of renamed utilities with a single-character process name, differing from the original filename, a common technique used by adversaries for staging, executing temporary utilities, or bypassing security detections.

The desktopimgdownldr utility can be abused to download remote files, potentially bypassing standard download restrictions and acting as an alternative to certutil for malware or tool deployment.

This rule detects remote file copy attempts to hidden network shares, which may indicate lateral movement or data staging activity, by identifying suspicious file copy operations using command-line tools like cmd.exe and powershell.exe focused on hidden share patterns.

Modification of the AppInit DLLs registry keys on Windows systems allows attackers to execute code in every process that loads user32.dll, establishing persistence and potentially escalating privileges.

An adversary may enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access by modifying the `fDenyTSConnections` registry key, potentially indicating lateral movement preparation or defense evasion.

The rule identifies the use of PsExec.exe making a network connection, indicative of potential lateral movement by adversaries executing commands with SYSTEM privileges on Windows systems to disable defenses.

Adversaries may abuse Windows mandatory profiles by dropping a malicious NTUSER.MAN file containing pre-populated persistence-related registry keys to establish persistence, which can evade traditional registry-based monitoring.

Adversaries can abuse the Local Security Authority (LSA) authentication packages by modifying the Windows registry to achieve privilege escalation or persistence by executing binaries with SYSTEM privileges.

Detection of multiple nslookup.exe executions with explicit query types from a single host, potentially indicating command and control activity via DNS tunneling, where attackers abuse DNS for data infiltration or exfiltration.

This rule detects the execution of known Windows utilities often abused to dump LSASS memory or the Active Directory database (NTDS.dit) in preparation for credential access by identifying specific command-line arguments and process names associated with credential dumping activities.

The rule identifies potential attempts to execute a reverse shell using the netcat utility to execute Windows commands via Cmd.exe or Powershell.

Attackers modify the NullSessionPipe registry setting in Windows to enable anonymous access to named pipes, potentially facilitating lateral movement and unauthorized access to network resources.

The rule detects the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, Set-CASMailbox, to add a new ActiveSync allowed device, potentially allowing attackers to gain persistent access to sensitive email data by adding unauthorized devices.

Mshta.exe making outbound network connections may indicate adversarial activity, as it is often used to execute malicious scripts and evade detection by proxying execution of untrusted code.

Adversaries may disable or tamper with Microsoft Defender features via registry modifications to evade detection and conceal malicious behavior on Windows systems.

Adversaries can use Living-Off-The-Land Binaries (LOLBINs) such as expand.exe, extrac32.exe, ieexec.exe, and makecab.exe to establish network connections, potentially bypassing security controls and facilitating malicious activities on Windows systems.

This rule detects Linux process executions that access sensitive Kubernetes, cloud, and SSH credential files via common utilities, potentially indicating credential theft.

This rule detects incoming execution via Windows Remote Management (WinRM) remote shell on a target host, which could be an indication of lateral movement by monitoring network traffic on ports 5985 or 5986 and processes initiated by WinRM.

This rule detects file creation and modification on the host system from the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), potentially indicating defense evasion by adversaries.

Detection of the creation or modification of new Group Policy based scheduled tasks or services, which can be abused by attackers with domain admin permissions to execute malicious payloads remotely on domain-joined machines, leading to privilege escalation and persistence.

The rule identifies the load of previously unseen drivers, which may indicate attackers exploiting vulnerable drivers for privilege escalation and persistence.

This detection identifies attempts to execute programs from the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to evade detection by flagging suspicious executions initiated by WSL processes and excluding known safe executables.

This rule detects the creation, modification, or deletion of DLL files within Windows SxS local folders, which could indicate an attempt to execute malicious payloads by abusing shared module loading.

Detects process execution from removable media by an unusual process with untrusted code signature followed by network connection attempts, potentially indicating malware introduced via removable media for initial access.

Adversaries may use the New-MailboxExportRequest PowerShell cmdlet to export mailboxes in Exchange, potentially leading to sensitive information theft.

This rule detects registry write modifications hiding encoded portable executables, indicative of adversary defense evasion by avoiding storing malicious content directly on disk.

Adversaries may modify the RunAsPPL registry key to disable LSA protection, which prevents nonprotected processes from reading memory and injecting code, potentially leading to credential access.

This threat brief details the detection of malicious Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) event subscriptions, a technique used by attackers for persistence and privilege escalation on Windows systems.

Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by hijacked references to COM objects through Component Object Model (COM) hijacking via registry modification on Windows systems.

Adversaries may use the Windows forfiles utility to proxy command execution via a trusted parent process, potentially evading detection.

Detects the execution of ADExplorer, a tool used for Active Directory viewing and editing, which can be abused by adversaries for domain reconnaissance and creating offline snapshots of the AD database.

This rule identifies Windows programs run from unexpected parent processes, which could indicate masquerading or other strange activity on a system, potentially indicating process injection, masquerading, access token manipulation, or parent PID spoofing.

The execution of `rundll32.exe` without arguments, followed by a child process execution, indicates potential abuse of Rundll32 for proxy execution or payload handoff, often employed for defense evasion on Windows systems.

Detects suspicious PsExec activity where the PsExec service component is executed using a custom name, indicating an attempt to evade detections that look for the default PsExec service component name.

Attackers may abuse legitimate utilities such as TeamViewer to deploy malware interactively by remotely copying executable or script files during a TeamViewer session.

Detects the creation of .kirbi files, a suspicious Kerberos ticket artifact often produced by ticket export or dumping tools such as Rubeus or Mimikatz, indicating preparation for Kerberos ticket theft or Pass-The-Ticket (PTT) attacks.

This rule identifies remote scheduled task creations on a target Windows host, potentially indicating lateral movement by adversaries, by monitoring network connections and registry modifications related to task scheduling.

Adversaries can use attrib.exe to add the 'hidden' attribute to files to hide them from users and evade detection, which can be detected by monitoring process executions related to attrib.exe.

Attackers may use compression utilities like zip, tar, and gzip on Linux systems to collect and archive sensitive files containing credentials and system configurations for credential access and data exfiltration.

The `unshare` command is used to create new namespaces in Linux, which can be exploited to break out of containers or elevate privileges by creating namespaces that bypass security controls.

This rule detects the creation of scheduled tasks on Windows systems by non-system accounts, a common technique used by adversaries for persistence, lateral movement, and privilege escalation.

Adversaries abuse the trusted status of explorer.exe to launch malicious scripts or executables, often using DCOM to start processes like PowerShell or cmd.exe, achieving initial access, defense evasion, and execution.

This alert identifies suspicious network connections initiated by the command prompt (cmd.exe) when executed with arguments indicative of script execution, remote resource access, or originating from Microsoft Office applications, which is a common tactic for downloading payloads or establishing command and control.

Adversaries may use unusual parent processes to execute .NET compilers for compiling malicious code after delivery, evading security mechanisms, and this activity is detected by monitoring compiler executions initiated by scripting engines or system utilities.

Detection of medium-sized registry hive files being created or modified on Server Message Block (SMB) shares, potentially indicating exfiltration of Security Account Manager (SAM) data for credential extraction.

Detection of Service Control (sc.exe) being spawned from script interpreter processes, such as PowerShell or cmd.exe, to create, modify, or start services, which may indicate privilege escalation or persistence attempts by an attacker.

The detection rule identifies a potential credential access attempt via the trusted developer utility MSBuild by detecting instances where it loads DLLs associated with Windows credential management, specifically vaultcli.dll or SAMLib.DLL, which is often used for credential dumping.

Adversaries may use the `netsh.exe` utility to enable inbound Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections in the Windows Firewall, potentially allowing unauthorized remote access to compromised systems.

Adversaries may leverage the `net.exe` utility to mount WebDav or hidden remote shares, potentially indicating lateral movement, data exfiltration preparation, or initial access via discovery of accessible shares.

The rule detects attempts to modify the WDigest security provider in the registry to force the user's password to be stored in clear text in memory, which could lead to credential dumping.

Attackers masquerade malicious executables as legitimate business application installers to trick users into downloading and executing malware, leveraging defense evasion and initial access techniques.

This rule identifies the creation of LSASS memory dump files, often indicative of credential access attempts using tools like Task Manager, SQLDumper, Dumpert, or AndrewSpecial, by monitoring for specific filenames and excluding legitimate dump locations.

A high number of process terminations (stop, delete, or suspend) from the same Windows host within a short time period may indicate malicious activity such as an attacker attempting to disable security measures or prepare for ransomware deployment.

This rule detects 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 on Windows systems.

Attackers may disable User Account Control (UAC) by modifying specific registry values, allowing them to execute code with elevated privileges, bypass security restrictions, and potentially escalate privileges on Windows systems.

Adversaries may attempt to install or use Kali Linux via Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to avoid detection, potentially enabling them to perform malicious activities within a Windows environment while blending in with legitimate WSL usage.

Adversaries may execute malicious code from Alternate Data Streams (ADS) on Windows to evade defenses by hiding malware within legitimate files, which this detection identifies by monitoring process execution paths and arguments.

Detection of creation or modification of Domain Backup private keys, which adversaries may extract from a Domain Controller (DC) to decrypt domain user master key files.

The execution of AdFind.exe, an Active Directory query tool, is often used by threat actors for post-exploitation Active Directory reconnaissance, as observed in campaigns involving Trickbot, Ryuk, Maze, and FIN6.

Detection of suspicious child processes spawned by Microsoft Outlook, indicative of spear phishing and malicious file execution leading to potential initial access and further exploitation.

Detects copy operations of Active Directory Domain Database (ntds.dit) or Security Account Manager (SAM) files, potentially exposing sensitive hashed credentials on Windows systems.