Remote Desktop Protocol - SharpRDP

Status: available
Severity: medium
Time window: 1h
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

This detection monitors for the behavior that SharpRDP exhibits on the target system. The most relevant is leveraging taskmgr.exe to gain elevated execution, which means that taskmgr.exe is creating unexpected child processes.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Lateral Movement	`T1021.001` Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol

Event coverage

Provider	Event/ActionType	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688	A new process has been created.
Defender-DeviceProcessEvents	any	Process activity (any)

Rule body kusto

id: cc46e76c-0d04-40b0-9c8b-929aa40513e7
name: Remote Desktop Protocol - SharpRDP
description: |
  This detection monitors for the behavior that SharpRDP exhibits on the target system. The most relevant is leveraging taskmgr.exe to gain elevated execution, which means that taskmgr.exe is creating unexpected child processes.
severity: Medium
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: MicrosoftThreatProtection
    dataTypes:
      - DeviceProcessEvents
      - DeviceLogonEvents
queryFrequency: 1h
queryPeriod: 1h
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - LateralMovement
relevantTechniques:
  - T1021.001
query: |
  let executions = DeviceProcessEvents
  | where InitiatingProcessFileName contains "taskmgr" and AccountName !contains "_ladm" // Include your LAPS /RID500 admin naming convention here. 
  // Add the below filter to look for stock SharpRDP behavior. However, with minorchanges to the stock version of SharpRDP the filter below can be bypassed.
  //| where not(InitiatingProcessCommandLine has_any ("/1","/2","/3","/4"))
  | where not(FolderPath =~ @"c:\Windows\system32\WerFault.exe" and ProcessCommandLine contains "-u -p")
  | where not(FolderPath =~ @"c:\windows\system32\mmc.exe" and ProcessCommandLine contains @"C:\WINDOWS\System32\services.msc")
  | where not(FolderPath =~ @"c:\windows\system32\resmon.exe");
  executions
  | join kind=leftsemi  (DeviceLogonEvents
  | where LogonType in ('Unlock', 'RemoteInteractive') and not (LogonType == 'Unlock' and RemoteIP == '127.0.0.1') and RemoteIP != "" and ActionType == "LogonSuccess") on DeviceId, LogonId
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Host
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: DeviceName
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Sid
        columnName: AccountSid 
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: AccountName
      - identifier: NTDomain
        columnName: AccountDomain
  - entityType: Process
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: CommandLine
        columnName: ProcessCommandLine
version: 1.0.0
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `let`

let executions = DeviceProcessEvents <inlined as stages below>;

The stages below define let executions (the rule's main pipeline source).

Stage 1: `source`

DeviceProcessEvents

Stage 2: `where`

| where InitiatingProcessFileName contains "taskmgr" and AccountName !contains "_ladm"

Stage 3: `where`

| where not(FolderPath =~ @"c:\Windows\system32\WerFault.exe" and ProcessCommandLine contains "-u -p")

Stage 4: `where`

| where not(FolderPath =~ @"c:\windows\system32\mmc.exe" and ProcessCommandLine contains @"C:\WINDOWS\System32\services.msc")

Stage 5: `where`

| where not(FolderPath =~ @"c:\windows\system32\resmon.exe")

The stages below run on executions (the outer pipeline).

Stage 6: `join`

executions
| join kind=leftsemi  (DeviceLogonEvents
| where LogonType in ('Unlock', 'RemoteInteractive') and not (LogonType == 'Unlock' and RemoteIP == '127.0.0.1') and RemoteIP != "" and ActionType == "LogonSuccess") on DeviceId, LogonId

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

Field	Kind	Excluded values
`AccountName`	contains	`_ladm`
`FolderPath`	eq	`c:\Windows\system32\WerFault.exe`
`ProcessCommandLine`	contains	`-u -p`
`FolderPath`	eq	`c:\windows\system32\mmc.exe`
`ProcessCommandLine`	contains	`C:\WINDOWS\System32\services.msc`
`FolderPath`	eq	`c:\windows\system32\resmon.exe`
`LogonType`	eq	`Unlock`
`RemoteIP`	eq	`127.0.0.1`

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
`ActionType`	eq	`LogonSuccess` transforms: `cased` corpus 5 (kusto 5)
`InitiatingProcessFileName`	contains	`taskmgr`
`LogonType`	in	`RemoteInteractive` transforms: `cased` corpus 8 (kusto 4, sigma 3, splunk 1) `Unlock` transforms: `cased`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Remote Desktop Protocol - SharpRDP

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `let`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `join`

Exclusions

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Remote Desktop Protocol - SharpRDP

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: let

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: where

Stage 5: where

Stage 6: join

Exclusions

Indicators

Stage 0: `let`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `join`