Sigma rule: Suspicious Service Path Modification

Rule

Title

Suspicious Service Path Modification

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Victor Sergeev, oscd.community, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2019-10-21

Modified

2022-11-18

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_sc_service_path_modification.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects service path modification via the "sc" binary to a suspicious command or path

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    Image|endswith: '\sc.exe'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'config'
        - 'binPath'
    CommandLine|contains:
        # Add more suspicious commands or binaries
        - 'powershell'
        - 'cmd '
        - 'mshta'
        - 'wscript'
        - 'cscript'
        - 'rundll32'
        - 'svchost'
        - 'dllhost'
        - 'cmd.exe /c'
        - 'cmd.exe /k'
        - 'cmd.exe /r'
        - 'cmd /c'
        - 'cmd /k'
        - 'cmd /r'
        # Add more suspicious paths
        - 'C:\Users\Public'
        - '\Downloads\'
        - '\Desktop\'
        - '\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
        - 'C:\Windows\TEMP\'
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.persistence
• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.t1543.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1543.003

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1543.003/T1543.003.md
• https://web.archive.org/web/20180331144337/https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/03/sanny-malware-delivery-method-updated-in-recently-observed-attacks.html

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