Detection rules › Kusto Query Language

Stopping multiple processes using taskkill

Source
upstream

This query checks for attempts to stop at least 10 separate processes using the taskkill.exe utility. This is a common technique used by ransomware to stop security products and other processes.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Defense EvasionT1562 Impair Defenses

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Security-Auditing4688A new process has been created.
Defender-DeviceProcessEvents9001000Process activity (any)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: source

DeviceProcessEvents

Stage 2: where

FileName eq "taskkill.exe"

Stage 3: summarize

Stage 4: where

taskKillCount gt "10"

Stage 5: extend

Stage 6: extend

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
FileNameeq
  • taskkill.exe
taskKillCountgt
  • 10