Detection rules › Sigma
Potential CobaltStrike Service Installations - Registry
Detects known malicious service installs that appear in cases in which a Cobalt Strike beacon elevates privileges or lateral movement.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Execution | T1569.002 System Services: Service Execution |
| Persistence | T1543.003 Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service |
| Privilege Escalation | T1543.003 Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service |
| Lateral Movement | T1021.002 Remote Services: SMB/Windows Admin Shares |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 13 | RegistryEvent (Value Set) |
Rule body yaml
title: Potential CobaltStrike Service Installations - Registry
id: 61a7697c-cb79-42a8-a2ff-5f0cdfae0130
status: test
description: |
Detects known malicious service installs that appear in cases in which a Cobalt Strike beacon elevates privileges or lateral movement.
references:
- https://www.sans.org/webcasts/tech-tuesday-workshop-cobalt-strike-detection-log-analysis-119395
author: Wojciech Lesicki
date: 2021-06-29
modified: 2024-03-25
tags:
- attack.persistence
- attack.execution
- attack.privilege-escalation
- attack.lateral-movement
- attack.t1021.002
- attack.t1543.003
- attack.t1569.002
logsource:
category: registry_set
product: windows
detection:
selection_key:
- TargetObject|contains: '\System\CurrentControlSet\Services'
- TargetObject|contains|all:
- '\System\ControlSet'
- '\Services'
selection_details:
- Details|contains|all:
- 'ADMIN$'
- '.exe'
- Details|contains|all:
- '%COMSPEC%'
- 'start'
- 'powershell'
condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
- Unlikely
level: high
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
all of selection_*Stage 1: selection_key
selection_key:
- TargetObject|contains: '\System\CurrentControlSet\Services'
- TargetObject|contains|all:
- '\System\ControlSet'
- '\Services'
Stage 2: selection_details
selection_details:
- Details|contains|all:
- 'ADMIN$'
- '.exe'
- Details|contains|all:
- '%COMSPEC%'
- 'start'
- 'powershell'
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 |
|---|---|---|
Details | match |
|
TargetObject | match |
|