Sigma rule: Suspicious Process Parents

Rule

Title

Suspicious Process Parents

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-03-21

Modified

2022-09-08

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_parents.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious parent processes that should not have any children or should only have a single possible child program

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    ParentImage|endswith:
        - '\minesweeper.exe'
        - '\winver.exe'
        - '\bitsadmin.exe'
selection_special:
    ParentImage|endswith:
        - '\csrss.exe'
        - '\certutil.exe'
     # - '\schtasks.exe'
        - '\eventvwr.exe'
        - '\calc.exe'
        - '\notepad.exe'
filter_special:
    Image|endswith:
        - '\WerFault.exe'
        - '\wermgr.exe'
        - '\conhost.exe' # csrss.exe, certutil.exe
        - '\mmc.exe'     # eventvwr.exe
        - '\win32calc.exe' # calc.exe
        - '\notepad.exe'
filter_null:
    Image: null
condition: selection or ( selection_special and not 1 of filter_* )

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.stealth
• attack.t1036

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1036

References

• https://twitter.com/x86matthew/status/1505476263464607744?s=12
• https://svch0st.medium.com/stats-from-hunting-cobalt-strike-beacons-c17e56255f9b

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_susp_parents.yml