Elastic Security Detection Rules

Suspicious Print Spooler Point and Print DLL

Last updated 4 months ago on 2025-08-28
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: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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
logs-endpoint.events.registry-*endgame-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*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:
sequence by host.id with maxspan=30s
[registry where host.os.type == "windows" and
   registry.value : "SpoolDirectory" and
   registry.path : "*\\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.value : "Module" and
   registry.path : "*\\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(external, opens in a new tab or window).