Malicious Security Service Tampering via wmic PathName Query (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Impact

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
- T1489Service Stop

What it detects

This rule detects the use of wmic to enumerate services by their executable path and delete or stop those belonging to Sophos endpoint protection, a technique used by Terminator and its variants to disable security tooling before deploying ransomware or a cryptominer. The command selects services whose PathName matches a security vendor string and invokes delete or stopservice.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Massive Services Deletion Burst (via process_creation)

Malicious Massive Services Termination Burst (via process_creation)

Windows Defender Tampering via Set-MpPreference and Exclusions

Suspicious Windows Defender Real-Time Protection Disabled via Policy Registry by Cephalus Ransomware

Suspicious Microsoft Defender Path Exclusion of User Directories (via process_creation)

Malicious Windows Defender Tampering via Set-MpPreference (via process_creation)

Malicious Container Runtime Tampering via chmod on runc (via process_creation)

Malicious Security Service Tampering via wmic PathName Query (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1685 · 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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