UAC Bypass via DiskCleanup Scheduled Task Hijack

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UAC Bypass via DiskCleanup Scheduled Task Hijack

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Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via hijacking DiskCleanup Scheduled Task. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*
logs-windows.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Privilege Escalation

Version: 6 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.15.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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process where event.type == "start" and process.args : "/autoclean"
and process.args : "/d" and not process.executable :
("C:\\Windows\\System32\\cleanmgr.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\cleanmgr.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\taskhostw.exe")

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Privilege Escalation
- ID: TA0004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/
Technique:
- Name: Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
- ID: T1548
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/

Rule version history

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Version 6 (7.15.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 5 (7.13.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.args:"/autoclean" and process.args:"/d" and not
process.executable : ("C:\\Windows\\System32\\cleanmgr.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\cleanmgr.exe")

Version 4 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 3 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (7.11.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.args:(/autoclean or /AUTOCLEAN) and
process.parent.name:svchost.exe and not
process.executable:("C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe" or
"C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cleanmgr.exe")

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