Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential EDR-Freeze via WerFaultSecure Abuse

Last updated 2 months ago on 2026-06-03
Created 2 months ago on 2026-06-03

About

Identifies the Windows Error Reporting Protected Process Light (PPL) binary WerFaultSecure.exe being started by a process other than the Windows Error Reporting service, with command-line arguments used to take a secure memory dump of a target process. Because MiniDumpWriteDump suspends all threads of the target while the dump is produced, an attacker can suspend WerFaultSecure.exe mid-dump to leave the targeted EDR or antivirus suspended ("frozen") without ever terminating it, a defense-evasion technique publicly known as EDR-Freeze.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Microsoft Defender XDRData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Impair Defenses (T1562)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Specialized crash-analysis, debugging, or diagnostics tooling that invokes WerFaultSecure.exe directly to capture a secure process dump. Validate the parent process, its code signature, and the targeted process before adding an exception.
License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

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

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

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

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

m365_defender(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
  process.executable : "?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFaultSecure.exe" and

  /* WerFaultSecure secure dumps are normally initiated by the WER service hosted in svchost.exe */
  process.parent.executable != null and
  not process.parent.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\wermgr.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFault.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFaultSecure.exe") and

  /* arguments used to take a secure memory dump of a target process (e.g. /pid <target> /encfile <handle> /type 268310) */
  process.args : "/pid" and process.args : "/encfile"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential EDR-Freeze via WerFaultSecure Abuse 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).