Suspicious W32TIME Named Pipe Activity Linked to RPC Privilege Escalation (via pipe_created)

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 creation of the W32TIME named pipe, an observable associated with the PhantomRPC Windows RPC privilege escalation technique that coerces service actions to run at high privilege. The pipe activity accompanies impersonation of a privileged token through the Terminal Services RPC interface. Detecting this pipe alongside unexpected service triggers can surface RPC based escalation attempts.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious W32TIME Named Pipe Activity Linked to RPC Privilege Escalation (via pipe_created)

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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