Detect Process Doppelganging in Microsoft Sentinel
Adversaries may inject malicious code into process via process doppelganging in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Process doppelganging abuses Windows Transactional NTFS (TxF) to perform a fileless variation of process injection. The technique involves four steps: Transact (create a TxF transaction and overwrite a legitimate executable with malicious code), Load (create a shared section from the modified file), Rollback (undo the file changes, removing malicious code from disk), and Animate (create a process from the tainted memory section). This evades detection because the malicious code never exists on disk in its final form and the technique avoids highly-monitored API functions like NtUnmapViewOfSection.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Technique
- T1055 Process Injection
- Sub-technique
- T1055.013 Process Doppelgänging
- Canonical reference
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1055/013/
KQL Detection Query
// Detect Process Doppelganging via NTFS Transaction API usage
// Key APIs: CreateFileTransacted, NtCreateSection, RollbackTransaction, NtCreateProcessEx
DeviceProcessEvents
| where Timestamp > ago(24h)
| where ProcessCommandLine has_any ("CreateFileTransacted", "NtCreateSection", "RollbackTransaction", "NtCreateProcessEx")
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, AccountName, FileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName
| sort by Timestamp desc
| union (
// Detect suspicious process creation where the image file doesn't match expected
DeviceProcessEvents
| where Timestamp > ago(24h)
| where FileName in~ ("svchost.exe", "explorer.exe", "notepad.exe", "cmd.exe")
| where InitiatingProcessFileName !in~ ("services.exe", "svchost.exe", "explorer.exe", "winlogon.exe", "userinit.exe", "System")
| where ProcessVersionInfoProductName == "" or isempty(ProcessVersionInfoProductName)
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, AccountName, FileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, ProcessVersionInfoProductName
)
| sort by Timestamp descDetects Process Doppelganging through two methods: (1) monitoring for NTFS Transaction API function names in command lines and loaded modules, and (2) identifying processes that appear as legitimate system binaries but have missing or mismatched version information (indicating the process image was replaced via TxF transaction). Process Doppelganging is difficult to detect because it abuses legitimate NTFS transaction APIs and rolls back file changes before creation completes.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Legitimate applications using NTFS Transactions for atomic file operations (rare in modern software)
- Windows Update and installer processes using transactional file operations
- Database applications using TxF for data integrity
- Enterprise backup software using NTFS transactions for consistent snapshots
Other platforms for T1055.013
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1NTFS Transaction API Check
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: PowerShell execution. The API check itself generates no injection telemetry — it only verifies API availability.
- Test 2Kernel Transaction Manager Log Verification
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: PowerShell querying event log configuration. No security event generated — this is a configuration check.
- Test 3Process Doppelganging Detection via Hollowing Artifacts
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: notepad.exe spawned by PowerShell. The parent-child anomaly (notepad from PowerShell) triggers Process Hollowing detections that also cover Doppelganging.
References (5)
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1055/013/
- https://www.blackhat.com/docs/eu-17/materials/eu-17-Liberman-Lost-In-Transaction-Process-Doppelganging.pdf
- https://hshrzd.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/process-doppelganging-a-new-way-to-impersonate-a-process/
- https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/bb968806.aspx
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1055.013/T1055.013.md
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