sigmainformationalHunting

Suspicious High IntegrityLevel Conhost Legacy Option

ForceV1 asks for information directly from the kernel space. Conhost connects to the console application. High IntegrityLevel means the process is running with elevated privileges, such as an Administrator context.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1202

defense-evasion

Detection Query

selection:
  IntegrityLevel:
    - High
    - S-1-16-12288
  CommandLine|contains|all:
    - conhost.exe
    - "0xffffffff"
    - -ForceV1
condition: selection

Author

frack113

Created

2022-12-09

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.t1202

Raw Content

title: Suspicious High IntegrityLevel Conhost Legacy Option
id: 3037d961-21e9-4732-b27a-637bcc7bf539
status: test
description: ForceV1 asks for information directly from the kernel space. Conhost connects to the console application. High IntegrityLevel means the process is running with elevated privileges, such as an Administrator context.
references:
    - https://cybercryptosec.medium.com/covid-19-cyber-infection-c615ead7c29
    - https://thedfirreport.com/2022/04/04/stolen-images-campaign-ends-in-conti-ransomware/
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/secauthz/mandatory-integrity-control
author: frack113
date: 2022-12-09
modified: 2024-12-01
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1202
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection:
        IntegrityLevel:
            - 'High'
            - 'S-1-16-12288'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'conhost.exe'
            - '0xffffffff'
            - '-ForceV1'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Very Likely, including launching cmd.exe via Run As Administrator
level: informational