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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

Related detections9 linkedT1548.002 — drag to rearrange
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Malicious Cloud Atlas UAC Bypass via fodhelper (via process_creation)
Suspicious computerdefaults.exe Spawning Child Process
Suspicious UAC Bypass via control.exe App Paths or Shell Open Command Hijack
Malicious UAC Bypass via COMAutoApprovalList Registry Modification (via registry_set)
Suspicious UAC Bypass via COMAutoApprovalList Registry Modification (via registry_set)
Malicious UAC Bypass via explorer.exe NOUACCHECK Argument
Suspicious UAC Bypass via ms-settings Shell Command Hijack (via registry_set)
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.