Potential Masquerading as Svchost

Last updated a month ago on 2025-12-09
Created 2 months ago on 2025-11-12

About

Identifies attempts to masquerade as the Service Host process `svchost.exe` to evade detection and blend in with normal system activity.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: SysmonLanguage: esql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

windows(external, opens in a new tab or window)

system(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
FROM logs-endpoint.events.process-*, logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*, logs-system.security-*, logs-windows.*, winlogbeat-* metadata _id, _version, _index | where event.category == "process" and event.type == "start" and match(process.name, "svchost.exe", { "fuzziness": 1, "max_expansions": 10 }) and not to_lower(process.executable) in ("c:\\windows\\syswow64\\svchost.exe", "c:\\windows\\system32\\svchost.exe") and not to_lower(process.executable) like """\\device\\harddiskvolume*\\windows\\system32\\svchost.exe""" and not to_lower(process.executable) like """\\device\\harddiskvolume*\\windows\\syswow64\\svchost.exe""" | keep event.dataset, host.name, host.id, user.id, user.name, process.executable, process.parent.executable, process.command_line, _id, _version, _index

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Masquerading as Svchost 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(external, opens in a new tab or window).