System Services: Service Execution T1569.002
Tactic: Execution
Adversaries may abuse the Windows service control manager to execute malicious commands or payloads. The Windows service control manager (services.exe) is an interface to manage and manipulate services. The service control manager is accessible to users via GUI components as well as system utilities such as sc.exe and Net.
Events covered
17 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 85 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (70 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (546 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (153 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 45 rules
- CobaltStrike Service Installations - Security
- CobaltStrike Service Installations - System
- CosmicDuke Service Installation
- Credential Dumping Tools Service Execution - Security
- Credential Dumping Tools Service Execution - System
- CSExec Service File Creation
- CSExec Service Installation
- DNS Events Related To Mining Pools
- DNS RCE CVE-2020-1350
- HackTool - SharpUp PrivEsc Tool Execution
- HackTool Service Registration or Execution
- Metasploit Or Impacket Service Installation Via SMB PsExec
- MITRE BZAR Indicators for Execution
- PAExec Service Installation
- Potential CobaltStrike Service Installations - Registry
- Potential CVE-2022-26809 Exploitation Attempt
- PowerShell as a Service in Registry
- PowerShell Scripts Installed as Services
- PowerShell Scripts Installed as Services - Security
- ProcessHacker Privilege Elevation
- PSExec and WMI Process Creations Block
- PSexec application execution
- PsExec Default Named Pipe
- PsExec Service File Creation
- PsExec Service Installation
- PsExec Tool Execution From Suspicious Locations - PipeName
- PUA - CSExec Default Named Pipe
- PUA - CsExec Execution
- PUA - NirCmd Execution
- PUA - NirCmd Execution As LOCAL SYSTEM
- PUA - NSudo Execution
- PUA - PAExec Default Named Pipe
- PUA - RemCom Default Named Pipe
- PUA - RunXCmd Execution
- RemCom Service File Creation
- RemCom Service Installation
- Remote Access Tool Services Have Been Installed - Security
- Remote Access Tool Services Have Been Installed - System
- Remote Server Service Abuse for Lateral Movement
- Renamed Procdump tool used for dumping LSASS process
- Rundll32 Execution Without Parameters
- Sliver C2 Default Service Installation
- smbexec.py Service Installation
- Start Windows Service Via Net.EXE
- WFP Filter Added via Registry
Elastic 14 rules
- Execution of an Unsigned Service
- Potential Privilege Escalation via Service ImagePath Modification
- PsExec Network Connection
- Remote Windows Service Installed
- Remotely Started Services via RPC
- Service Command Lateral Movement
- Service Control Spawned via Script Interpreter
- Suspicious Process Execution via Renamed PsExec Executable
- Svchost spawning Cmd
- System Shells via Services
- Systemd Service Started by Unusual Parent Process
- Unsigned DLL Loaded by Svchost
- Unusual Process For a Windows Host
- Unusual Windows Service
Splunk 25 rules
- Detect Renamed PSExec
- Excessive Usage Of SC Service Utility
- First Time Seen Running Windows Service
- Impacket PSexec (Windows Event Log)
- Impacket SMBexec (Windows Event Log)
- Linux Auditd Service Started
- Malicious Powershell Executed As A Service
- PSexec Service Creation (Windows Event Log)
- Remote Admin Tools (EDR)
- Remote Admin Tools (PowerShell)
- Remote Admin Tools (Sysmon)
- Remote Admin Tools (Windows Event Log)
- Service Created containing Command Shell (Windows Event Log)
- SimpleHelp Remote Access Tool Service Installation (Windows Event Log)
- Windows ScManager Security Descriptor Tampering Via Sc.EXE
- Windows Service Create SliverC2
- Windows Service Created (Sysmon)
- Windows Service Created (Windows Event Log)
- Windows Service Created with Suspicious Service Name
- Windows Service Created with Suspicious Service Path
- Windows Service Execution RemCom
- Windows Service Started (PowerShell)
- Windows Service Started (Sysmon)
- Windows Service Started (Windows Event Log)
- Windows Snake Malware Service Create