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Taskkill Symantec Endpoint Protection — Sigma Rule

Sigma rule 4a6713f6-3331-11ed-a261-0242ac120002. Taskkill Symantec Endpoint Protection — Sigma Rule. Detects one of the possible scenarios for disabling Symantec Endpoint Protection. Symantec Endpoint Protection antivirus software services incorrectly implement the protected service mechanism. As a result, the NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM user can execute the taskkill /im command several times ccSvcHst.exe /f, thereby killing the process belonging to the service, and thus shutting down the service.

Rule metadata and linked tags

testhighprocess_creationwindowsattack.defense-impairmentattack.t1685

Author: Ilya Krestinichev, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems). Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2022-09-13 / not supplied.

{
  "category": "process_creation",
  "product": "windows"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: f63f3ec74052dd4823a9974380be47d8f5ca68cfffc77732a87508c35eb466a4

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Taskkill Symantec Endpoint Protection
id: 4a6713f6-3331-11ed-a261-0242ac120002
status: test
description: |
    Detects one of the possible scenarios for disabling Symantec Endpoint Protection.
    Symantec Endpoint Protection antivirus software services incorrectly implement the protected service mechanism.
    As a result, the NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM user can execute the taskkill /im command several times ccSvcHst.exe /f, thereby killing the process belonging to the service, and thus shutting down the service.
references:
    - https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/37525
    - https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2195015-batch-script-to-uninstall-symantec-endpoint-protection
    - https://community.broadcom.com/symantecenterprise/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=6ce94b67-74e1-4333-b16f-000b7fd874f0&CommunityKey=1ecf5f55-9545-44d6-b0f4-4e4a7f5f5e68&tab=digestviewer
author: Ilya Krestinichev, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-09-13
tags:
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1685
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'taskkill'
            - ' /F '
            - ' /IM '
            - 'ccSvcHst.exe'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

  • Unknown

Source references

Connected ecosystem references

Exact source-tagged techniques

Telemetry review

Read the original logsource above, then inspect the linked detection workspaces for technique-level sensor context. No per-rule telemetry equivalence is inferred.

Pinned research references. No browser attack runner, live simulation result or validated detector is asserted. Source mappings and validation limits are preserved. ATT&CK / Atomic provenance · Detection provenance.