Sigma rule: Start Windows Service Via Net.EXE

Rule

Title

Start Windows Service Via Net.EXE

Status

test

Level

low

Author

Timur Zinniatullin, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community

Date

2019-10-21

Modified

2023-03-05

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_net_start_service.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the usage of the "net.exe" command to start a service using the "start" flag

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\net.exe'
          - '\net1.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - 'net.exe'
          - 'net1.exe'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains: ' start '     # space character after the 'start' keyword indicates that a service name follows, in contrast to `net start` discovery expression
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administrator or user executes a service for legitimate reasons.

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.t1569.002

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1569.002

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1569.002/T1569.002.md

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_net_start_service.yml