Masquerading Cobalt Strike GetSystem Named-Pipe Impersonation Pattern (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1134.001Token Impersonation/Theft
Defense Evasion
- T1134.001Token Impersonation/Theft
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the command shell pattern used by Cobalt Strike's getsystem, in which cmd.exe echoes data into a named pipe to trigger SYSTEM token impersonation via a briefly created service. Cobalt Strike is among the most prevalent adversary tools in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report, and this privilege-escalation primitive is a high-fidelity signal of an active beacon. Detecting the echo-to-pipe command surfaces hands-on escalation.

Reporting behind it

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Windows Security 4624 LogonType 9 Impersonation via Negotiate (Advapi) Token Abuse Indicator

Windows: Detect Named Pipe Creation with Koh Default Names

Windows getsystem via Meterpreter/Cobalt Strike when services.exe starts a likely privilege escalation command

Masquerading Cobalt Strike GetSystem Named-Pipe Impersonation Pattern (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1134.001 · 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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