Best Detection of 2026 Series: SMB Admin-Share Lateral Movement Spike with Remote Service Creation
This rule detects potential lateral movement by identifying a system that initiates SMB connections (port 445) to 5 or more unique destinations, correlated with a Windows Service installation event (Event ID 7045) on the host. This behavior is indicative of an adversary or automated tool using SMB to copy and execute binaries as a service on multiple remote systems.
Cortex XDR
