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Detection rules › Sigma

Start Windows Service Via Net.EXE

Status
test
Severity
low
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Timur Zinniatullin, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the usage of the "net.exe" command to start a service using the "start" flag

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
ExecutionT1569.002 System Services: Service Execution

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 1Process creation

Rule body yaml

title: Start Windows Service Via Net.EXE
id: 2a072a96-a086-49fa-bcb5-15cc5a619093
status: test
description: Detects the usage of the "net.exe" command to start a service using the "start" flag
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1569.002/T1569.002.md
author: Timur Zinniatullin, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community
date: 2019-10-21
modified: 2023-03-05
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1569.002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\net.exe'
              - '\net1.exe'
        - OriginalFileName:
              - 'net.exe'
              - 'net1.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains: ' start '     # space character after the 'start' keyword indicates that a service name follows, in contrast to `net start` discovery expression
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate administrator or user executes a service for legitimate reasons.
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

all of selection_*

Stage 1: selection_img

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\net.exe'
          - '\net1.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - 'net.exe'
          - 'net1.exe'

Stage 2: selection_cli

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains: ' start '

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.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • start corpus 2 (sigma 2)
Imageends_with
  • \net.exe corpus 49 (sigma 49)
  • \net1.exe corpus 47 (sigma 47)
OriginalFileNameeq
  • net.exe corpus 28 (sigma 19, elastic 7, splunk 2)
  • net1.exe corpus 44 (sigma 19, splunk 19, elastic 6)