Elastic Security Detection Rules

Suspicious Print Spooler Point and Print DLL

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-11-26

About

Detects attempts to exploit a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2020-1030) related to the print spooler service. Exploitation involves chaining multiple primitives to load an arbitrary DLL into the print spooler process running as SYSTEM.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationData Source: Elastic EndgameUse Case: VulnerabilityData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068)(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.registry-*endgame-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by host.id with maxspan=30s
[registry where host.os.type == "windows" and
 registry.path : (
    "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Print\\Printers\\*\\SpoolDirectory",
    "\\REGISTRY\\MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Print\\Printers\\*\\SpoolDirectory"
    ) and
 registry.data.strings : "C:\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\drivers\\x64\\4"]
[registry where host.os.type == "windows" and
 registry.path : (
    "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Print\\Printers\\*\\CopyFiles\\Payload\\Module",
    "\\REGISTRY\\MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Print\\Printers\\*\\CopyFiles\\Payload\\Module"
    ) and
 registry.data.strings : "C:\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\drivers\\x64\\4\\*"]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Suspicious Print Spooler Point and Print DLL 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).