Persistence via Update Orchestrator Service Hijack

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-08-17

About

Identifies potential hijacking of the Microsoft Update Orchestrator Service to establish persistence with an integrity level of SYSTEM.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceTactic: Privilege EscalationUse Case: VulnerabilityData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(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
endgame-*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
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)

system(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
  process.parent.executable : "C:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe" and
  process.parent.args : "UsoSvc" and
  not process.executable :
          ("?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\UUS\\Packages\\*\\amd64\\MoUsoCoreWorker.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\UsoClient.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\MusNotification.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\MusNotificationUx.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\MusNotifyIcon.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFault.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerMgr.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\UUS\\amd64\\MoUsoCoreWorker.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\MoUsoCoreWorker.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\UUS\\amd64\\UsoCoreWorker.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\UsoCoreWorker.exe",
          "?:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\microsoft shared\\ClickToRun\\OfficeC2RClient.exe") and
  not process.name : ("MoUsoCoreWorker.exe", "OfficeC2RClient.exe")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Persistence via Update Orchestrator Service Hijack 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).