1200KM / sigma-rule

Bypass UAC via WSReset.exe — Sigma Rule

Sigma rule d797268e-28a9-49a7-b9a8-2f5039011c5c. Bypass UAC via WSReset.exe — Sigma Rule. Detects use of WSReset.exe to bypass User Account Control (UAC). Adversaries use this technique to execute privileged processes.

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Tony Lambert), oscd.community, Florian Roth. Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2019-10-24 / 2022-05-13.

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

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: e49a693211360549b3322a5ccdcc4c991e34b0e9cafcb6f1501ae167c750db86

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: Bypass UAC via WSReset.exe
id: d797268e-28a9-49a7-b9a8-2f5039011c5c
related:
    - id: bdc8918e-a1d5-49d1-9db7-ea0fd91aa2ae
      type: obsolete
status: test
description: Detects use of WSReset.exe to bypass User Account Control (UAC). Adversaries use this technique to execute privileged processes.
references:
    - https://eqllib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/analytics/532b5ed4-7930-11e9-8f5c-d46d6d62a49e.html
    - https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Wsreset/
    - https://www.activecyber.us/activelabs/windows-uac-bypass
    - https://twitter.com/ReaQta/status/1222548288731217921
author: E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Tony Lambert), oscd.community, Florian Roth
date: 2019-10-24
modified: 2022-05-13
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.t1548.002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\wsreset.exe'
    filter:
        - Image|endswith: '\conhost.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'CONHOST.EXE'
    condition: selection and not filter
falsepositives:
    - Unknown sub processes of Wsreset.exe
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

Unknown sub processes of Wsreset.exe

Source references

Connected ecosystem references

Exact source-tagged techniques

T1548.002 · Bypass User Account Control · Detection rules & anomalies

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.