SC.EXE Query Execution

Status: test
Severity: low
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: frack113
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects execution of "sc.exe" to query information about registered services on the system

Known false positives

Legitimate query of a service by an administrator to get more information such as the state or PID
Keybase process "kbfsdokan.exe" query the dokan1 service with the following commandline "sc query dokan1"

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1007` System Service Discovery

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: SC.EXE Query Execution
id: 57712d7a-679c-4a41-a913-87e7175ae429
status: test
description: Detects execution of "sc.exe" to query information about registered services on the system
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1007/T1007.md#atomic-test-1---system-service-discovery
author: frack113
date: 2021-12-06
modified: 2024-02-08
tags:
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1007
    - detection.threat-hunting
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        Image|endswith: '\sc.exe'
        OriginalFileName: 'sc.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains: ' query'
    filter_optional_keybase:
        CommandLine: 'sc query dokan1'
    condition: all of selection_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate query of a service by an administrator to get more information such as the state or PID
    - Keybase process "kbfsdokan.exe" query the dokan1 service with the following commandline "sc query dokan1"
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    Image|endswith: '\sc.exe'
    OriginalFileName: 'sc.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains: ' query'

Stage 3: `not filter_optional_keybase`

filter_optional_keybase:
    CommandLine: 'sc query dokan1'

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`CommandLine`	eq	`sc query dokan1`	`excludes:CommandLine` `field:"CommandLine" value:"sc query dokan1"`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`query`	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match value:" query"`
`Image`	ends_with	`\sc.exe` corpus 30 (sigma 30)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\sc.exe"`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`sc.exe` corpus 30 (sigma 12, splunk 10, elastic 8)	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"sc.exe"`

SC.EXE Query Execution

Known false positives

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_img

Stage 2: selection_cli

Stage 3: not filter_optional_keybase

Exclusions

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_img`

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

Stage 3: `not filter_optional_keybase`