Abuse of Service Permissions to Hide Services Via Set-Service — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems). Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2022-10-17 / not supplied.

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

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 20d2609b4339990714325784c9647aa637abb8d5c330ab8e1fee0686d29f8591

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: Abuse of Service Permissions to Hide Services Via Set-Service
id: 514e4c3a-c77d-4cde-a00f-046425e2301e
related:
    - id: a537cfc3-4297-4789-92b5-345bfd845ad0
      type: derived
    - id: 953945c5-22fe-4a92-9f8a-a9edc1e522da
      type: similar
status: test
description: Detects usage of the "Set-Service" powershell cmdlet to configure a new SecurityDescriptor that allows a service to be hidden from other utilities such as "sc.exe", "Get-Service"...etc. (Works only in powershell 7)
references:
    - https://twitter.com/Alh4zr3d/status/1580925761996828672
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/set-service?view=powershell-7.2
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-10-17
tags:
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.execution
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1574.011
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\pwsh.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'pwsh.dll'
    selection_sddl:
        # Example would be: "D:(D;;DCLCWPDTSD;;;IU)(D;;DCLCWPDTSD;;;SU)(D;;DCLCWPDTSD;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;IU)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;SU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)S:(AU;FA;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;WD)"
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'Set-Service '
            - 'DCLCWPDTSD'
    selection_cmdlet:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '-SecurityDescriptorSddl '
            - '-sd '
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Rare intended use of hidden services
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Rare intended use of hidden services

Source references

• https://twitter.com/Alh4zr3d/status/1580925761996828672
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/set-service?view=powershell-7.2