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Windows Process Creation: WSReset.exe Used with Non-CONHOST Child Process

Alerts when wsreset.exe spawns a process other than conhost.exe, a potential UAC-bypass precursor.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Tony Lambert), oscd.community, Florian Roth (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-10-24
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule flags process creation events where the parent process is wsreset.exe and the child process is not conhost.exe. Using wsreset.exe as a parent can indicate an attempt to trigger execution paths that lead to elevated actions, which matters because it may enable privilege escalation. It relies on Windows process creation telemetry, specifically the parent executable path and the spawned child executable identity (including OriginalFileName and conhost filtering).

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious dllhost.exe Spawned with CLSID and Anomalous Parent (via process_creation)
Malicious ms-settings DelegateExecute UAC Bypass Registry Change
Malicious User Account Control Bypass via Auto-Elevating Binary Hijack (via process_creation)
Suspicious Mock Trusted Directory with Trailing Space (via process_creation)
Windows Process Creation: WSReset.exe Used with Non-CONHOST Child Process
Pivot detection · T1548.002 · 9 related

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