Malicious Print Spooler Child Process Execution via PrintNightmare (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1068Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the Windows print spooler service spawning command shells or scripting interpreters, a behavior consistent with exploitation of the PrintNightmare vulnerability CVE-2021-34527. Observed in Elastic Security Labs GOAD lab telemetry where spoolsv.exe launching unusual child processes indicates remote code execution as SYSTEM for privilege escalation.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Print Spooler Child Process Execution via PrintNightmare (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1068 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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