Detecting UAC bypass - elevated COM interface

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

This query identifies processes spawned with high integrity from dllhost.exe with a command line that contains one of three specific CLSID GUIDs.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Impact	`T1490` Inhibit System Recovery

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: 2d5efc71-2e91-4ca2-8506-857eecb453ec
name: Detecting UAC bypass - elevated COM interface
description: |
  This query identifies processes spawned with high integrity from dllhost.exe with a command line that contains one of three specific CLSID GUIDs.
severity: Medium
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: MicrosoftThreatProtection
    dataTypes:
      - DeviceProcessEvents
queryFrequency: 1h
queryPeriod: 1h
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - Impact
relevantTechniques:
  - T1490
query: |
  DeviceProcessEvents
  | where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "dllhost.exe"
  | where ProcessIntegrityLevel == "High"
  | where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has_any ("E9495B87-D950-4AB5-87A5-FF6D70BF3E90", "3E5FC7F9-9A51-4367-9063-A120244FBEC7", "D2E7041B-2927-42fb-8E9F-7CE93B6DC937")
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 1: `source`

DeviceProcessEvents

Stage 2: `where`

| where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "dllhost.exe"

Stage 3: `where`

| where ProcessIntegrityLevel == "High"

Stage 4: `where`

| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has_any ("E9495B87-D950-4AB5-87A5-FF6D70BF3E90", "3E5FC7F9-9A51-4367-9063-A120244FBEC7", "D2E7041B-2927-42fb-8E9F-7CE93B6DC937")

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
`InitiatingProcessCommandLine`	match	`3E5FC7F9-9A51-4367-9063-A120244FBEC7` `D2E7041B-2927-42fb-8E9F-7CE93B6DC937` `E9495B87-D950-4AB5-87A5-FF6D70BF3E90`
`InitiatingProcessFileName`	eq	`dllhost.exe` corpus 7 (elastic 4, kusto 2, splunk 1)
`ProcessIntegrityLevel`	eq	`High` transforms: `cased` corpus 21 (sigma 17, kusto 3, splunk 1)

`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)

Detecting UAC bypass - elevated COM interface

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `where`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Detecting UAC bypass - elevated COM interface

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: where

Indicators

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `where`