Sigma rule: Uncommon Child Process Of Setres.EXE

Rule

Title

Uncommon Child Process Of Setres.EXE

Status

test

Level

high

Author

@gott_cyber, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-12-11

Modified

2024-06-26

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_setres_uncommon_child_process.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects uncommon child process of Setres.EXE.
Setres.EXE is a Windows server only process and tool that can be used to set the screen resolution.
It can potentially be abused in order to launch any arbitrary file with a name containing the word "choice" from the current execution path.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\setres.exe'
    Image|contains: '\choice'
filter_main_legit_location:
    Image|endswith:
        - 'C:\Windows\System32\choice.exe'
        - 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\choice.exe'
condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.stealth
• attack.t1218
• attack.t1202

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1202
• T1218

References

• https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Setres/
• https://twitter.com/0gtweet/status/1583356502340870144
• https://strontic.github.io/xcyclopedia/library/setres.exe-0E30E4C09637D7A128A37B59A3BC4D09.html
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/cc731033(v=ws.11)

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_setres_uncommon_child_process.yml