Elastic Security Detection Rules

Svchost spawning Cmd

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-07-02
Created 6 years ago on 2020-02-18

About

Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from svchost.exe
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: kuery
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

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

License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
New Terms Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-endpoint.events.process-*winlogbeat-*logs-windows.forwarded*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*endgame-*logs-system.security*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

system(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
host.os.type:windows and event.category:process and event.type:start and process.parent.name:"svchost.exe" and
process.name:("cmd.exe" or "Cmd.exe" or "CMD.EXE") and

  not process.command_line : "\"cmd.exe\" /C sc control hptpsmarthealthservice 211"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Svchost spawning Cmd 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).