Sigma rule: Suspicious High IntegrityLevel Conhost Legacy Option

Rule

Title

Suspicious High IntegrityLevel Conhost Legacy Option

Status

test

Level

informational

Author

frack113

Date

2022-12-09

Modified

2024-12-01

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_conhost_legacy_option.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

ForceV1 asks for information directly from the kernel space. Conhost connects to the console application. High IntegrityLevel means the process is running with elevated privileges, such as an Administrator context.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    IntegrityLevel:
        - 'High'
        - 'S-1-16-12288'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'conhost.exe'
        - '0xffffffff'
        - '-ForceV1'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Very Likely, including launching cmd.exe via Run As Administrator

Tags

• attack.stealth
• attack.t1202

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1202

References

• https://cybercryptosec.medium.com/covid-19-cyber-infection-c615ead7c29
• https://thedfirreport.com/2022/04/04/stolen-images-campaign-ends-in-conti-ransomware/
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/secauthz/mandatory-integrity-control

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_conhost_legacy_option.yml