Suspicious Service ACL Hardening via sc.exe sdset (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

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

What it detects

This rule detects use of sc.exe with the sdset argument to rewrite a service security descriptor, a defense-evasion step used by MirrorFace to harden the ACL of its NOOPDOOR service against inspection and removal. Restricting service access via SDDL is used to protect malicious persistence from defenders.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Service ACL Hardening via sc.exe sdset (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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