Detection rules › Elastic
Bitsadmin Activity
Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is a low-bandwidth, asynchronous file transfer mechanism. Adversaries may abuse BITS to persist, download, execute, and even clean up after running malicious code.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Persistence | T1197 BITS Jobs |
| Stealth | T1197 BITS Jobs |
| Command & Control | T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body elastic
[metadata]
creation_date = "2023/08/21"
integration = ["endpoint", "windows", "system"]
maturity = "production"
updated_date = "2025/03/20"
[rule]
author = ["Elastic"]
building_block_type = "default"
description = """
Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is a low-bandwidth, asynchronous file transfer mechanism.
Adversaries may abuse BITS to persist, download, execute, and even clean up after running malicious code.
"""
from = "now-119m"
index = [
"endgame-*",
"logs-endpoint.events.process-*",
"logs-system.security*",
"logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*",
"winlogbeat-*",
]
interval = "60m"
language = "eql"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "Bitsadmin Activity"
risk_score = 21
rule_id = "8eec4df1-4b4b-4502-b6c3-c788714604c9"
severity = "low"
tags = [
"Domain: Endpoint",
"OS: Windows",
"Use Case: Threat Detection",
"Tactic: Command and Control",
"Data Source: Elastic Defend",
"Rule Type: BBR",
"Data Source: Sysmon",
"Data Source: Elastic Endgame",
"Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs",
]
timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
type = "eql"
query = '''
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
(
(process.name : "bitsadmin.exe" and process.args : (
"*Transfer*", "*Create*", "AddFile", "*SetNotifyFlags*", "*SetNotifyCmdLine*",
"*SetMinRetryDelay*", "*SetCustomHeaders*", "*Resume*")
) or
(process.name : "powershell.exe" and process.args : (
"*Start-BitsTransfer*", "*Add-BitsFile*",
"*Resume-BitsTransfer*", "*Set-BitsTransfer*", "*BITS.Manager*")
)
)
'''
[[rule.threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1105"
name = "Ingress Tool Transfer"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1105/"
[rule.threat.tactic]
id = "TA0011"
name = "Command and Control"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/"
[[rule.threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1197"
name = "BITS Jobs"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1197/"
[rule.threat.tactic]
id = "TA0005"
name = "Defense Evasion"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"
[[rule.threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1197"
name = "BITS Jobs"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1197/"
[rule.threat.tactic]
id = "TA0003"
name = "Persistence"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/"
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: process
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
(
(process.name : "bitsadmin.exe" and process.args : (
"*Transfer*", "*Create*", "AddFile", "*SetNotifyFlags*", "*SetNotifyCmdLine*",
"*SetMinRetryDelay*", "*SetCustomHeaders*", "*Resume*")
) or
(process.name : "powershell.exe" and process.args : (
"*Start-BitsTransfer*", "*Add-BitsFile*",
"*Resume-BitsTransfer*", "*Set-BitsTransfer*", "*BITS.Manager*")
)
)
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
event.type | eq |
|
process.args | wildcard |
|
process.name | wildcard |
|