Sigma rule: Important Windows Service Terminated Unexpectedly

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-f76a95a42103, updated 2023-04-14T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Important Windows Service Terminated Unexpectedly
Status
test
Level
high
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Date
2023-04-14
File
rules/windows/builtin/system/service_control_manager/win_system_service_terminated_unexpectedly.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects important or interesting Windows services that got terminated unexpectedly.

Log source

product
windows
service
system

Detection

selection_eid:
    Provider_Name: 'Service Control Manager'
    EventID: 7034 # The X service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this Y time(s).
selection_name:
    # Note that these names contained in "param1" are "Display Names" and are language specific. If you're using a non-english system these can and will be different
    - param1|contains: 'Message Queuing'
    # Use this If you collect the binary value provided from this event, which is the wide hex encoded value of the service name.
    - Binary|contains:
          - '4d0053004d005100' # MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing). Encoded in upper case just in case
          - '6d0073006d007100' # msmq
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Rare false positives could occur since service termination could happen due to multiple reasons

Tags

  • attack.stealth

References

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/builtin/system/service_control_manager/win_system_service_terminated_unexpectedly.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Important Windows Service Terminated Unexpectedly" by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/builtin/system/service_control_manager/win_system_service_terminated_unexpectedly.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Important Windows Service Terminated Unexpectedly",
entity page, dataset version ref-f76a95a42103, updated 2023-04-14T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/56abae0c-6212-4b97-adc0-0b559bb950c3 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 56abae0c-6212-4b97-adc0-0b559bb950c3, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.