Suspicious Command Prompt Spawned by Winlogon

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.003Windows Command Shell
Persistence
- T1547.004Winlogon Helper DLL
Priv Esc
- T1547.004Winlogon Helper DLL
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects winlogon.exe spawning cmd.exe, an anomalous parent-child relationship used by Backdoor.Stupig to run a SYSTEM command prompt on the secure logon desktop. Winlogon rarely launches an interactive shell.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Command Prompt Spawned by Winlogon

Pivot detection · T1059.003 · 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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