Sigma Rules
809 rules found for "privilege-escalation"
DLL Names Used By SVR For GraphicalProton Backdoor
Hunts known SVR-specific DLL names.
Diamond Sleet APT DLL Sideloading Indicators
Detects DLL sideloading activity seen used by Diamond Sleet APT
Diamond Sleet APT Scheduled Task Creation
Detects registry event related to the creation of a scheduled task used by Diamond Sleet APT during exploitation of Team City CVE-2023-42793 vulnerability
Lazarus APT DLL Sideloading Activity
Detects sideloading of trojanized DLLs used in Lazarus APT campaign in the case of a Spanish aerospace company
Potential CVE-2024-3400 Exploitation - Palo Alto GlobalProtect OS Command Injection
Detects potential exploitation attempts of CVE-2024-3400 - an OS command injection in Palo Alto GlobalProtect. This detection looks for suspicious strings that indicate a potential directory traversal attempt or command injection.
Potential CVE-2024-35250 Exploitation Activity
Detects potentially suspicious loading of "ksproxy.ax", which may indicate an attempt to exploit CVE-2024-35250.
Potential KamiKakaBot Activity - Winlogon Shell Persistence
Detects changes to the "Winlogon" registry key where a process will set the value of the "Shell" to a value that was observed being used by KamiKakaBot samples in order to achieve persistence.
Kapeka Backdoor Persistence Activity
Detects Kapeka backdoor persistence activity. Depending on the process privileges, the Kapeka dropper then sets persistence for the backdoor either as a scheduled task (if admin or SYSTEM) or autorun registry (if not). For the scheduled task, it creates a scheduled task called "Sens Api" via schtasks command, which is set to run upon system startup as SYSTEM. To establish persistence through the autorun utility, it adds an autorun entry called "Sens Api" under HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run via the "reg add" command. Both persistence mechanisms are set to launch the binary by calling rundll32 and passing the backdoor's first export ordinal (#1) without any additional argument.
Kapeka Backdoor Autorun Persistence
Detects the setting of a new value in the Autorun key that is used by the Kapeka backdoor for persistence.
Kapeka Backdoor Scheduled Task Creation
Detects Kapeka backdoor scheduled task creation based on attributes such as paths, commands line flags, etc.
Lummac Stealer Activity - Execution Of More.com And Vbc.exe
Detects the execution of more.com and vbc.exe in the process tree. This behavior was observed by a set of samples related to Lummac Stealer. The Lummac payload is injected into the vbc.exe process.
Potential Raspberry Robin Aclui Dll SideLoading
Detects potential sideloading of malicious "aclui.dll" by OleView.This behavior was observed in Raspberry-Robin variants reported by chekpoint research on Feburary 2024.
Forest Blizzard APT - Custom Protocol Handler Creation
Detects the setting of a custom protocol handler with the name "rogue". Seen being created by Forest Blizzard APT as reported by MSFT.
Forest Blizzard APT - Custom Protocol Handler DLL Registry Set
Detects the setting of the DLL that handles the custom protocol handler. Seen being created by Forest Blizzard APT as reported by MSFT.
Non-Standard Nsswitch.Conf Creation - Potential CVE-2025-32463 Exploitation
Detects the creation of nsswitch.conf files in non-standard directories, which may indicate exploitation of CVE-2025-32463. This vulnerability requires an attacker to create a nsswitch.conf in a directory that will be used during sudo chroot operations. When sudo executes, it loads malicious shared libraries from user-controlled locations within the chroot environment, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.
Potential Notepad++ CVE-2025-49144 Exploitation
Detects potential exploitation of CVE-2025-49144, a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Notepad++ installers (v8.8.1 and prior) where the installer calls regsvr32.exe without specifying the full path. This allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by placing a malicious regsvr32.exe alongside this Legitimate Notepad++ installer. The vulnerability is triggered when the installer attempts to register the NppShell.dll file, which is a component of Notepad++.
Potential Exploitation of CrushFTP RCE Vulnerability (CVE-2025-54309)
Detects suspicious child processes created by CrushFTP. It could be an indication of exploitation of a RCE vulnerability such as CVE-2025-54309.
Commvault QLogin with PublicSharingUser and GUID Password (CVE-2025-57788)
Detects a qlogin.exe command attempting to authenticate as the internal `_+_PublicSharingUser_` using a GUID as the password. This could be an indicator of an attacker exploiting CVE-2025-57788 to gain initial access using leaked credentials.
Potential Exploitation of CVE-2025-5054 or CVE-2025-4598
Detects attempts of an attacker to enable core dumps for set-user-ID (SUID) processes by modifying the system file /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable, typically by setting its value to 1 or 2. Enabling this feature allows memory dumps (core dumps) of SUID processes, which usually run with elevated privileges. These dumps may contain sensitive information such as passwords, cryptographic keys or other secrets. CVE-2025-5054: Information leak via core dumps from SUID binaries using apport. CVE-2025-4598: Information disclosure in systemd-coredump due to insecure handling of SUID process memory dumps.
Atomic MacOS Stealer - Persistence Indicators
Detects creation of persistence artifacts placed by Atomic MacOS Stealer in macOS systems. Recent Atomic MacOS Stealer variants have been observed dropping these to maintain persistent access after compromise.
RedSun - TieringEngineService.exe Staged in RS-Prefixed Temp Dir
Detects the creation of a file named TieringEngineService.exe inside a directory whose path contains the RS- prefix characteristic of RedSun's staging directory (e.g. %TEMP%\RS-{GUID}\TieringEngineService.exe). RedSun registers a Cloud Files sync root under this RS-prefixed path and drops a masqueraded placeholder there as part of its oplock-based AV bypass and privilege escalation chain. The RS-{GUID} directory name is generated by RedSun itself and has no legitimate system usage, making the combination of this path prefix and the TieringEngineService.exe filename a highly specific indicator of RedSun activity.
RedSun - Named Pipe Created
Detects the creation of a named pipe with the hardcoded name "REDSUN". The RedSun exploit tool uses a pipe with this name for synchronisation and command communication between its components during the Cloud Files API + oplock-based AV bypass and privilege escalation chain. RedSun creates the pipe as \\??\pipe\REDSUN. The pipe server listens for the token-duplicated elevated process to connect and respond, completing the privilege escalation from user to SYSTEM. Presence of this pipe name indicates active or recent RedSun execution.
RedSun - Conhost.exe Spawned by TieringEngineService.exe
Detects two stages of the RedSun post-exploitation process chain that deliver a SYSTEM-level shell to the attacker's interactive session. Observed process chain services.exe → TieringEngineService.exe → conhost.exe (SYSTEM, CommandLine: bare path, no arguments) → cmd.exe / shell (SYSTEM, TerminalSessionId = attacker's session) Stage 1 — TieringEngineService.exe spawns argument-less conhost.exe: After winning the oplock + Cloud Files mount point race, the malicious TieringEngineService.exe (RedSun.exe copied to System32, started via CoCreateInstance / services.exe) detects it is NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and calls LaunchConsoleInSessionId(). This opens \\.\pipe\REDSUN, reads the attacker's session ID, duplicates the SYSTEM token, re-stamps it with that session ID via SetTokenInformation(TokenSessionId), then calls CreateProcessAsUser to spawn conhost.exe with no arguments. Stage 2 — Shell spawned from rogue conhost.exe (EDR sources with GrandParentImage): The rogue SYSTEM conhost.exe spawns a shell (cmd.exe, PowerShell, etc.) as SYSTEM in the attacker's interactive session. On EDR sources that expose GrandParentImage, the full three-level chain (TieringEngineService.exe → conhost.exe → shell) can be matched directly. The legitimate TieringEngineService.exe is a headless COM server that is unlikely to spawn conhost.exe under normal conditions.
RedSun - TieringEngineService.exe Detected as EICAR Test File
Detects Windows Defender (EventID 1119 - Remediation Action Failed) flagging TieringEngineService.exe dropped in a characteristic RS-{GUID} temporary directory, or the RedSun.exe process itself being present. This covers the staging pattern used by RedSun, a Cloud Files API and opportunistic lock (oplock) based AV bypass/privilege escalation tool. RedSun works as follows: 1. Registers a Cloud Files sync root and creates a Cloud Files placeholder for TieringEngineService.exe under %TEMP%\RS-{GUID}\ 2. The placeholder file carries EICAR test file content (Virus:DOS/EICAR_Test_File) to reliably trigger a Defender scan and remediation attempt 3. Requests a batch oplock (FSCTL_REQUEST_BATCH_OPLOCK) on the placeholder file 4. When Defender attempts to scan/quarantine the file, the oplock triggers - holding the file open 5. During the oplock break window, RedSun swaps the mount point (junction) to redirect \\?\C:\Windows\System32 to the attacker-controlled temp path 6. This races the AV/OS into executing the malicious TieringEngineService.exe with elevated privileges
TeamPCP LiteLLM Supply Chain Attack Persistence Indicators
Detects the creation of specific persistence files as observed in the LiteLLM PyPI supply chain attack. In March 2026, a supply chain attack was discovered involving the popular open-source LLM framework LiteLLM by Threat Actor TeamPCP. The malicious package harvests every credential on the system, encrypts and exfiltrates them, and installs a persistent C2 backdoor.
LiteLLM / TeamPCP Supply Chain Attack Indicators
Detects process executions related to the backdoored versions of LiteLLM (v1.82.7 or v1.82.8). In March 2026, a supply chain attack was discovered involving the popular open-source LLM framework LiteLLM by Threat Actor TeamPCP. The malicious package harvests every credential on the system, encrypts and exfiltrates them, and installs a persistent C2 backdoor.
Potential Remote WMI ActiveScriptEventConsumers Activity
Detect potential adversaries leveraging WMI ActiveScriptEventConsumers remotely to move laterally in a network. This event is best correlated and used as an enrichment to determine the potential lateral movement activity.
Scheduled Task Deletion
Detects scheduled task deletion events. Scheduled tasks are likely to be deleted if not used for persistence. Malicious Software often creates tasks directly under the root node e.g. \TASKNAME
CreateRemoteThread API and LoadLibrary
Detects potential use of CreateRemoteThread api and LoadLibrary function to inject DLL into a process
Remote Thread Created In Shell Application
Detects remote thread creation in command shell applications, such as "Cmd.EXE" and "PowerShell.EXE". It is a common technique used by malware, such as IcedID, to inject malicious code and execute it within legitimate processes.
Scheduled Task Created - FileCreation
Detects the creation of a scheduled task via file creation.
Task Scheduler DLL Loaded By Application Located In Potentially Suspicious Location
Detects the loading of the "taskschd.dll" module from a process that located in a potentially suspicious or uncommon directory. The loading of this DLL might indicate that the application have the capability to create a scheduled task via the "Schedule.Service" COM object. Investigation of the loading application and its behavior is required to determining if its malicious.
Potential Shellcode Injection
Detects potential shellcode injection as seen used by tools such as Metasploit's migrate and Empire's psinject.
Potential Password Reconnaissance Via Findstr.EXE
Detects command line usage of "findstr" to search for the "passwords" keyword in a variety of different languages
Net.EXE Execution
Detects execution of "Net.EXE".
Scheduled Task Creation From Potential Suspicious Parent Location
Detects the execution of "schtasks.exe" from a parent that is located in a potentially suspicious location. Multiple malware strains were seen exhibiting a similar behavior in order to achieve persistence.
Elevated System Shell Spawned
Detects when a shell program such as the Windows command prompt or PowerShell is launched with system privileges. Use this rule to hunt for potential suspicious processes.
Potential Executable Run Itself As Sacrificial Process
Detects when an executable launches an identical instance of itself, a behavior often used to create a suspended “sacrificial” process for code injection or evasion. Investigate for indicators such as the process being started in suspended mode, rapid parent termination, memory manipulation (e.g., WriteProcessMemory, CreateRemoteThread), or unsigned binaries. Review command-line arguments, process ancestry, and network activity to confirm if this is legitimate behavior or process injection activity.
Scheduled Task Created - Registry
Detects the creation of a scheduled task via Registry keys.
Registry Set With Crypto-Classes From The "Cryptography" PowerShell Namespace
Detects the setting of a registry inside the "\Shell\Open\Command" value with PowerShell classes from the "System.Security.Cryptography" namespace. The PowerShell namespace "System.Security.Cryptography" provides classes for on-the-fly encryption and decryption. These can be used for example in decrypting malicious payload for defense evasion.
Service Binary in User Controlled Folder
Detects the setting of the "ImagePath" value of a service registry key to a path controlled by a non-administrator user such as "\AppData\" or "\ProgramData\". Attackers often use such directories for staging purposes. This rule might also trigger on badly written software, where if an attacker controls an auto starting service, they might achieve persistence or privilege escalation. Note that while ProgramData is a user controlled folder, software might apply strict ACLs which makes them only accessible to admin users. Remove such folders via filters if you experience a lot of noise.