Remotely Started Services via RPC

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 4 years ago on 2020-11-16

About

Identifies remote execution of Windows services over remote procedure call (RPC). This could be indicative of lateral movement, but will be noisy if commonly done by administrators.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Lateral MovementData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(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.process-*logs-endpoint.events.network-*winlogbeat-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence with maxspan=1s
   [network where host.os.type == "windows" and process.name : "services.exe" and
      network.direction : ("incoming", "ingress") and network.transport == "tcp" and
      source.port >= 49152 and destination.port >= 49152 and source.ip != "127.0.0.1" and source.ip != "::1"
   ] by host.id, process.entity_id
   [process where host.os.type == "windows" and 
       event.type == "start" and process.parent.name : "services.exe" and
       not (process.executable : "?:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe" and process.args : "/V") and
       not process.executable : (
                "?:\\Pella Corporation\\OSCToGPAutoService\\OSCToGPAutoSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Pella Corporation\\Pella Order Management\\GPAutoSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Pella Corporation\\Pella Order Management\\GPAutoSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe",
                "?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\ADCR_Agent\\adcrsvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\AdminArsenal\\PDQ*.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\CAInvokerService.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\ccmsetup\\ccmsetup.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\eset-remote-install-service.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\ProPatches\\Scheduler\\STSchedEx.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\PSEXESVC.EXE",
                "?:\\Windows\\RemoteAuditService.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\servicing\\TrustedInstaller.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\certsrv.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\sppsvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\srmhost.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\taskhostex.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\upfc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\vds.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\VSSVC.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\wbem\\WmiApSrv.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\NwxExeSvc\\NwxExeSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\Veeam\\Backup\\VeeamDeploymentSvc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\VeeamLogShipper\\VeeamLogShipper.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\VeeamVssSupport\\VeeamGuestHelper.exe"
       )] by host.id, process.parent.entity_id

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Remotely Started Services via RPC 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).