Commonly abused process launched as a system service

Cortex XDR Analytics Alert Reference by data source

Product
Cortex XDR
Last date published
2024-12-03
Category
Analytics Alert Reference
Order
data source

Synopsis

Activation Period

14 Days

Training Period

30 Days

Test Period

N/A (single event)

Deduplication Period

1 Day

Required Data

  • Requires:
    • XDR Agent

Detection Modules

Detector Tags

ATT&CK Tactic

Execution (TA0002)

ATT&CK Technique

System Services: Service Execution (T1569.002)

Severity

Informational

Description

This commonly abused host process has been launched by a services.exe parent, indicating it has been installed as a system service. This behavior can have legitimate uses, but often used by malware as a persistence mechanism.

Attacker's Goals

Attackers may use services to persist or execute commands on remote hosts.

Investigative actions

  • Check whether additional malicious commands were executed from the same process.
  • Verify if the command-line seems suspicious or contains malicious indicators.