Possible Interesting Service Enumeration Through Sc.EXE (via process_creation)

title: Possible Interesting Service Enumeration Through Sc.EXE (via process_creation)
id: b71130ff-c9b5-5b1e-8df2-88ebafbfc03c
status: stable
description: This rule detects the enumeration and query of interesting and in some cases sensitive services on the system via "sc.exe". Attackers frequently try to enumerate the services currently running on a system to find different attack vectors.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/
    - https://www.n00py.io/2021/05/dumping-plaintext-rdp-credentials-from-svchost-exe/
    - https://pentestlab.blog/tag/svchost/
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-07-06
tags:
    - attack.t1003
    - attack.credential-access
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\sc.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'sc.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains: 'query'
    selection_cmd:
        CommandLine|contains: 'termservice'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: low