Potential Exploitation of CVE-2022-21919 or CVE-2021-34484 for LPE

Status: test
Severity: low
Log source: product windows, service application
Author: Cybex
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects potential exploitation attempts of CVE-2022-21919 or CVE-2021-34484 leading to local privilege escalation via the User Profile Service. During exploitation of this vulnerability, two logs (Provider_Name: Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service) with EventID 1511 and 1515 are created (EventID 1515 may generate many false positives). Additionally, the directory \Users\TEMP may be created during exploitation. This behavior was observed on Windows Server 2008.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Execution	No specific technique

Rule body yaml

title: Potential Exploitation of CVE-2022-21919 or CVE-2021-34484 for LPE
id: 52a85084-6989-40c3-8f32-091e12e17692
status: test
description: |
    Detects potential exploitation attempts of CVE-2022-21919 or CVE-2021-34484 leading to local privilege escalation via the User Profile Service.
    During exploitation of this vulnerability, two logs (Provider_Name: Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service) with EventID 1511 and 1515 are created (EventID 1515 may generate many false positives).
    Additionally, the directory \Users\TEMP may be created during exploitation. This behavior was observed on Windows Server 2008.
references:
    - https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166692/Windows-User-Profile-Service-Privlege-Escalation.html
author: Cybex
date: 2022-08-16
modified: 2025-11-03
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - detection.emerging-threats
    - cve.2022-21919
    - cve.2021-34484
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: application
detection:
    selection:
        EventID: 1511
        Provider_Name: 'Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Corrupted user profiles - https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/3571.windows-user-profiles-service-event-1511-windows-cannot-find-the-local-profile-and-is-logging-you-on-with-a-temporary-profile.aspx
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    EventID: 1511
    Provider_Name: 'Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service'

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
`Provider_Name`	eq	`Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service`

`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)

Potential Exploitation of CVE-2022-21919 or CVE-2021-34484 for LPE

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Potential Exploitation of CVE-2022-21919 or CVE-2021-34484 for LPE

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`