Meterpreter or Cobalt Strike Getsystem Service Installation - System

Severity: high
Author: Teymur Kheirkhabarov, Ecco, Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
Source: upstream

Detects the use of getsystem Meterpreter/Cobalt Strike command by detecting a specific service installation

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1134.001` Access Token Manipulation: Token Impersonation/Theft, `T1134.002` Access Token Manipulation: Create Process with Token
Defense Evasion	`T1134.001` Access Token Manipulation: Token Impersonation/Theft, `T1134.002` Access Token Manipulation: Create Process with Token

Event coverage

Provider	Event ID	Title
Service-Control-Manager	7045

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `selection_id`

Provider_Name: 'Service Control Manager'

Stage 2: `1 of selection_cli_cmd`

or:
ImagePath|contains: '%COMSPEC%'
ImagePath|contains: cmd
ImagePath|contains: '/c'
ImagePath|contains: '\pipe\'
ImagePath|contains: echo

Stage 3: `1 of selection_cli_rundll`

ImagePath|contains: '.dll,a'
ImagePath|contains: '/p:'
ImagePath|contains: rundll32

Stage 4: `1 of selection_cli_share`

ImagePath|startswith: '\\\\127.0.0.1\\ADMIN$\'

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.

Field	Kind	Values
`ImagePath`	match	`%COMSPEC%` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `.dll,a` `/c` corpus 4 (sigma 4) `/p:` `\pipe\` `cmd` corpus 5 (sigma 5) `echo` `rundll32` corpus 3 (sigma 3)
`ImagePath`	starts_with	`\\\\127.0.0.1\\ADMIN$\`
`Provider_Name`	eq	`Service Control Manager` corpus 43 (sigma 43)

Neighbors

Stricter alternatives (narrower than this rule)

The rules below may be useful if you find the current rule is too noisy / lacks specificity.

Invoke-Obfuscation Via Use Rundll32 - System [sigma] (adds 5 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation VAR++ LAUNCHER OBFUSCATION - System [sigma] (adds 5 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation VAR+ Launcher - System [sigma] (adds 4 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation COMPRESS OBFUSCATION - System [sigma] (adds 4 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation RUNDLL LAUNCHER - System [sigma] (adds 4 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation CLIP+ Launcher - System [sigma] (adds 3 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation STDIN+ Launcher - System [sigma] (adds 3 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation Via Stdin - System [sigma] (adds 3 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation Via Use MSHTA - System [sigma] (adds 2 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
ProcessHacker Privilege Elevation [sigma] (adds 2 filters) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Invoke-Obfuscation Via Use Clip - System [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Credential Dumping Tools Service Execution - System [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Moriya Rootkit - System [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
PowerShell Scripts Installed as Services [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Service Installed By Unusual Client - System [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Suspicious Service Installation [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Tap Driver Installation [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
RTCore Suspicious Service Installation [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)
Service Installation in Suspicious Folder [sigma] (adds 1 filter) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)

Broader alternatives (more inclusive than this rule)

These rules match a superset of what this rule catches. They cover the same events plus more. Use them if you want wider coverage and can absorb more false positives.

Invoke-Obfuscation Obfuscated IEX Invocation - System [sigma] (drops 1 filter this rule applies) (first-stage match only; downstream stages may differ)