Uncommon Print Spooler Exploitation Spawning a Child Process (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-05-04
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the print spooler service (spoolsv.exe) spawning a command shell, script interpreter or a process from a user-writable path, behavior consistent with PrintNightmare-style spooler exploitation for code execution or privilege escalation. Print spooler abuse is a privilege-escalation technique noted in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report. Detecting anomalous spooler children surfaces exploitation of the service.

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Pivot detection · T1068 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.