Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential privilege escalation via CVE-2022-38028

Last updated 2 months ago on 2026-05-03
Created 2 years ago on 2024-04-23

About

Identifies a potential privilege escalation attempt via CVE-2022-38028 through modification of the protected Print to PDF MPDW constraints script.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: Microsoft Defender XDRData Source: SentinelOneData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: 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)

↳ Hijack Execution Flow (T1574)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Masquerading (T1036)(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.file-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*endgame-*winlogbeat-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*
Related Integrations

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

windows(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:
file where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type != "deletion" and
    file.name : "MPDW-constraints.js" and
    file.path : (
        "?:\\*\\Windows\\system32\\DriverStore\\FileRepository\\*\\MPDW-constraints.js",
        "?:\\*\\Windows\\WinSxS\\amd64_microsoft-windows-printing-printtopdf_*\\MPDW-constraints.js", 
        "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\*\\Windows\\system32\\DriverStore\\FileRepository\\*\\MPDW-constraints.js",
        "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\*\\Windows\\WinSxS\\amd64_microsoft-windows-printing-printtopdf_*\\MPDW-constraints.js"
    ) and
    not process.executable : (
          "?:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\\Sources\\SetupHost.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\taskhostw.exe"
    ) and
    not file.path : (
        "?:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\\NewOS\\Windows\\WinSxS\\*\\MPDW-constraints.js",
        "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\$WINDOWS.~BT\\NewOS\\Windows\\WinSxS\\*\\MPDW-constraints.js"
    )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential privilege escalation via CVE-2022-38028 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).