Explorer Process Tree Break

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About the rule

Rule Type

Standard

Rule Description

Detects a command line process that uses explorer.exe to launch arbitrary commands or binaries, which is similar to cmd.exe /c, only it breaks the process tree and makes its parent a new instance of explorer spawning from "svchost"

Severity

Trouble

Rule Requirement

Criteria

Action1: actionname = "Process started" AND COMMANDLINE contains "/factory,{75dff2b7-6936-4c06-a8bb-676a7b00b24b}" OR (COMMANDLINE contains "explorer.exe" AND COMMANDLINE contains " -root,, /root,, –root,, —root,, ―root,") select Action1.HOSTNAME,Action1.MESSAGE,Action1.COMMANDLINE,Action1.FILE_NAME,Action1.PROCESSNAME,Action1.USERNAME,Action1.PARENTPROCESSNAME

Detection

Execution Mode

realtime

Log Sources

Windows

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), @gott_cyber