Detection rules › Sigma

Potential Privilege Escalation Using Symlink Between Osk and Cmd

Severity
high
Author
frack113
Source
upstream

Detects the creation of a symbolic link between "cmd.exe" and the accessibility on-screen keyboard binary (osk.exe) using "mklink". This technique provides an elevated command prompt to the user from the login screen without the need to log in.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
PersistenceT1546.008 Event Triggered Execution: Accessibility Features
Privilege EscalationT1546.008 Event Triggered Execution: Accessibility Features

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: all of selection_img

or:
Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
OriginalFileName: Cmd.Exe

Stage 2: all of selection_cli

CommandLine|contains: '\cmd.exe'
CommandLine|contains: '\osk.exe'
CommandLine|contains: mklink

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
CommandLinematch
  • \cmd.exe
  • \osk.exe
  • mklink corpus 2 (sigma 2)
Imageends_with
  • \cmd.exe corpus 92 (sigma 92)
OriginalFileNameeq
  • Cmd.Exe corpus 32 (sigma 30, splunk 2)