Elastic Security Detection Rules

Command Execution via SolarWinds Process

Last updated 9 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-12-14

About

A suspicious SolarWinds child process (Cmd.exe or Powershell.exe) was detected.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionTactic: Initial AccessData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Execution (TA0002)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Initial Access (TA0001)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Supply Chain Compromise (T1195)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Trusted SolarWinds child processes. Verify process details such as network connections and file writes.
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
endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

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

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

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

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

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

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

Query
text code block:
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name: ("cmd.exe", "powershell.exe") and
process.parent.name: (
     "ConfigurationWizard*.exe",
     "NetflowDatabaseMaintenance*.exe",
     "NetFlowService*.exe",
     "SolarWinds.Administration*.exe",
     "SolarWinds.Collector.Service*.exe",
     "SolarwindsDiagnostics*.exe"
     )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Command Execution via SolarWinds Process 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).