Techniques
Sample rules
Excessive Usage Of SC Service Utility
- source: splunk
- technicques:
- T1569.002
Description
The following analytic detects excessive usage of the sc.exe service utility on a host machine. It leverages Sysmon EventCode 1 logs to identify instances where sc.exe is executed more frequently than normal within a 15-minute window. This behavior is significant as it is commonly associated with ransomware, cryptocurrency miners, and other malware attempting to create, modify, delete, or disable services, potentially related to security applications or for privilege escalation. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow attackers to manipulate critical services, leading to system compromise or disruption of security defenses.
Detection logic
| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count as numScExe min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(Processes.action) as action values(Processes.original_file_name) as original_file_name values(Processes.parent_process_exec) as parent_process_exec values(Processes.parent_process_guid) as parent_process_guid values(Processes.parent_process_name) as parent_process_name values(Processes.parent_process_path) as parent_process_path values(Processes.process) as process values(Processes.process_exec) as process_exec values(Processes.process_guid) as process_guid values(Processes.process_hash) as process_hash values(Processes.process_id) as process_id values(Processes.process_integrity_level) as process_integrity_level values(Processes.process_path) as process_path values(Processes.user_id) as user_id values(Processes.vendor_product) as vendor_product values(Processes.parent_process) as parent_process values(Processes.process_name) as process_name values(Processes.parent_process_id) as parent_process_id values(Processes.user) as user from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name = "sc.exe" by Processes.dest _time span=15m
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
| eventstats avg(numScExe) as avgScExe, stdev(numScExe) as stdScExe, count as numSlots by dest
| eval upperThreshold=(avgScExe + stdScExe *3)
| eval isOutlier=if(avgScExe > 5 and avgScExe >= upperThreshold, 1, 0)
| search isOutlier=1
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `excessive_usage_of_sc_service_utility_filter`