Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential WSUS Abuse for Lateral Movement

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created a year ago on 2024-07-19

About

Identifies a potential Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) abuse to execute psexec to enable for lateral movement. WSUS is limited to executing Microsoft signed binaries, which limits the executables that can be used to tools published by Microsoft.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Lateral MovementData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Exploitation of Remote Services (T1210)(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-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

system(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.parent.name : "wuauclt.exe" and
process.executable : (
    "?:\\Windows\\SoftwareDistribution\\Download\\Install\\*",
    "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume?\\Windows\\SoftwareDistribution\\Download\\Install\\*"
) and
(process.name : "psexec64.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name : "psexec.c")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential WSUS Abuse for Lateral Movement 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).