Sigma rule: Always Install Elevated Parent Child Correlated

Rule

Title

Always Install Elevated Parent Child Correlated

Status

unsupported

Level

high

Author

Teymur Kheirkhabarov (idea), Mangatas Tondang (rule), oscd.community

Date

2020/10/13

File

unsupported/windows/sysmon_always_install_elevated_parent_child_correlated.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

This rule will looks any process with low privilege launching Windows Installer service (msiexec.exe) that tries to install MSI packages with SYSTEM privilege

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

system_integrity:
    IntegrityLevel: 'System'
system_user:
    User: 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM'
image_1:
    Image|contains|all:
        - '\Windows\Installer\'
        - 'msi'
    Image|endswith:
        - 'tmp'
image_2:
    Image|endswith: '\msiexec.exe'
child_of_suspicious_guid:
    ParentProcessGuid: '%suspicious_guid%'
condition: write ProcessGuid from (event_id and image_2 and not system_user) to %suspicious_guid%; then if (child_of_suspicious_guid and event_id and image_1 and system_user) or (suspicious_guid and event_id and image_2 and system_user and integrity_level) -> alert

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• System administrator usage

Tags

• attack.privilege_escalation
• attack.t1548.002

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1548.002

References

• https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kheirkhabarovoffzonefinal-181117201458/95/hunting-for-privilege-escalation-in-windows-environment-48-638.jpg

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/unsupported/windows/sysmon_always_install_elevated_parent_child_correlated.yml