---
title: UAC Bypass via Windows Firewall Snap-In Hijack
description: Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/security/prebuilt-rules/rules/windows/privilege_escalation_uac_bypass_winfw_mmc_hijack
products:
  - Elastic Security
---

# UAC Bypass via Windows Firewall Snap-In Hijack
Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows
Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
**Rule type**: eql
**Rule indices**:
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-endpoint.events.process-*
- logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
- endgame-*
- logs-m365_defender.event-*
- logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*

**Rule Severity**: medium
**Risk Score**: 47
**Runs every**: 
**Searches indices from**: `now-9m`
**Maximum alerts per execution**: 100
**References**:
- [[https://github.com/AzAgarampur/byeintegrity-uac](https://github.com/AzAgarampur/byeintegrity-uac)](https://github.com/AzAgarampur/byeintegrity-uac)

**Tags**:
- Domain: Endpoint
- OS: Windows
- Use Case: Threat Detection
- Tactic: Privilege Escalation
- Tactic: Defense Evasion
- Resources: Investigation Guide
- Data Source: Elastic Endgame
- Data Source: Elastic Defend
- Data Source: Sysmon
- Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR
- Data Source: SentinelOne
- Noise: Medium
- Performance: Normal
- Profile: Recommended
- Threat: Living off the Land
- Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL)
- Platform: Windows
- Resources: Osquery

**Version**: 319
**Rule authors**:
- Elastic

**Rule license**: Elastic License v2

## Setup

This rule is designed for data generated by [Elastic Defend](https://www.elastic.co/security/endpoint-security), which provides native endpoint detection and response, along with event enrichments designed to work with our detection rules.
Setup instructions: [https://ela.st/install-elastic-defend](https://ela.st/install-elastic-defend)

### Additional data sources

This rule also supports the following third-party data sources. For setup instructions, refer to the links below:
- [Microsoft Defender XDR](https://ela.st/m365-defender)
- [SentinelOne Cloud Funnel](https://ela.st/sentinel-one-cloud-funnel)
- [Sysmon Event ID 1 - Process Creation](https://ela.st/sysmon-event-1-setup)


## Investigation guide


## Triage and analysis


### Investigating UAC Bypass via Windows Firewall Snap-In Hijack

Windows User Account Control (UAC) allows a program to elevate its privileges (tracked as low to high integrity levels) to perform a task under administrator-level permissions, possibly by prompting the user for confirmation. UAC can deny an operation under high-integrity enforcement, or allow the user to perform the action if they are in the local administrators group and enter an administrator password when prompted.
For more information about the UAC and how it works, check the [official Microsoft docs page](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/user-account-control/how-user-account-control-works).
This rule identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.> **Note**:
This investigation guide uses the [Osquery Markdown Plugin](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/invest-guide-run-osquery.html) introduced in Elastic Stack version 8.5.0. Older Elastic Stack versions will display unrendered Markdown in this guide.

#### Possible investigation steps

- Investigate the process execution chain (parent process tree) for unknown processes. Examine their executable files for prevalence, whether they are located in expected locations, and if they are signed with valid digital signatures.
- Investigate other alerts associated with the user/host during the past 48 hours.
- Inspect the host for suspicious or abnormal behavior in the alert timeframe.
- Investigate any abnormal behavior by the subject process such as network connections, registry or file modifications, and any spawned child processes.
- Examine the host for derived artifacts that indicate suspicious activities:
  - Analyze any suspicious spawned processes using a private sandboxed analysis system.
  - Observe and collect information about the following activities in both the sandbox and the alert subject host:
    - Attempts to contact external domains and addresses.
      - Use the Elastic Defend network events to determine domains and addresses contacted by the subject process by filtering by the process' `process.entity_id`.
      - Examine the DNS cache for suspicious or anomalous entries.
        - $osquery_0
    - Use the Elastic Defend registry events to examine registry keys accessed, modified, or created by the related processes in the process tree.
    - Examine the host services for suspicious or anomalous entries.
      - $osquery_1
      - $osquery_2
      - $osquery_3
  - Retrieve the files' SHA-256 hash values using the PowerShell `Get-FileHash` cmdlet and search for the existence and reputation of the hashes in resources like VirusTotal, Hybrid-Analysis, CISCO Talos, Any.run, etc.
- Investigate potentially compromised accounts. Analysts can do this by searching for login events (for example, 4624) to the target host after the registry modification.


### False positive analysis

- This activity is unlikely to happen legitimately. Benign true positives (B-TPs) can be added as exceptions if necessary.


### Response and remediation

- Initiate the incident response process based on the outcome of the triage.
- Isolate the involved host to prevent further post-compromise behavior.
- If the triage identified malware, search the environment for additional compromised hosts.
  - Implement temporary network rules, procedures, and segmentation to contain the malware.
  - Stop suspicious processes.
  - Immediately block the identified indicators of compromise (IoCs).
  - Inspect the affected systems for additional malware backdoors like reverse shells, reverse proxies, or droppers that attackers could use to reinfect the system.
- Remove and block malicious artifacts identified during triage.
- Run a full antimalware scan. This may reveal additional artifacts left in the system, persistence mechanisms, and malware components.
- Investigate credential exposure on systems compromised or used by the attacker to ensure all compromised accounts are identified. Reset passwords for these accounts and other potentially compromised credentials, such as email, business systems, and web services.
- Determine the initial vector abused by the attacker and take action to prevent reinfection through the same vector.
- Using the incident response data, update logging and audit policies to improve the mean time to detect (MTTD) and the mean time to respond (MTTR).


## Rule Query

```eql
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
 process.parent.name == "mmc.exe" and
 /* process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "high" can be added in future for tuning */
 /* args of the Windows Firewall SnapIn */
  process.parent.args == "WF.msc" and process.name != "WerFault.exe"
```

**Framework:** MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic:
  - Name: Privilege Escalation
  - Id: TA0004
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/)](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/)
- Technique:
  - Name: Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
  - Id: T1548
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/)](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/)
- Sub Technique:
  - Name: Bypass User Account Control
  - Id: T1548.002
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/002/](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/002/)](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/002/)

**Framework:** MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic:
  - Name: Defense Evasion
  - Id: TA0005
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/)](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/)
- Technique:
  - Name: System Binary Proxy Execution
  - Id: T1218
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/)](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/)
- Sub Technique:
  - Name: MMC
  - Id: T1218.014
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/014/](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/014/)](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/014/)