Elastic Security Detection Rules

Lateral Movement via Startup Folder

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-10-19

About

Identifies suspicious file creations in the startup folder of a remote system. An adversary could abuse this to move laterally by dropping a malicious script or executable that will be executed after a reboot or user logon.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Lateral MovementData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Remote Services (T1021)(opens in a new tab or window)

Persistence (TA0003)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Boot or Logon Autostart Execution (T1547)(opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-endpoint.events.file-*winlogbeat-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*endgame-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
file where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type in ("creation", "change") and

 /* via RDP TSClient mounted share or SMB */
  (process.name : "mstsc.exe" or process.pid == 4) and

   file.path : ("?:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\*",
                "?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\*")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Lateral Movement via Startup Folder in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).