Windows Potato Privilege Escalation Tool Execution
Description
Detects execution of known Potato-family privilege escalation tools based on original file name, process name, or binary path. A tool class that has been a dominant post-compromise privilege escalation method for over a decade and remains actively used by ransomware operators, red teams, and nation-state actors alike. The Potato family exploits Windows token impersonation and privilege abuse to escalate from a service account, IIS worker process, or other restricted context to SYSTEM. The core abuse chain across most variants involves tricking a SYSTEM-level process into authenticating to an attacker-controlled endpoint, capturing that authentication, and impersonating the resulting SYSTEM token to spawn an elevated process.
Query · spl
| tstats summariesonly=false allow_old_summaries=true
count min(_time) as firstTime
max(_time) as lastTime
from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where
Processes.original_file_name IN (
"*CertPotato*",
"*CoercedPotato*",
"*GenericPotato*",
"*GhostPotato*",
"*GodPotato*",
"*HotPotato*",
"*JuicyPotato*",
"*LocalPotato*",
"*LonelyPotato*",
"*RoguePotato*",
"*RottenPotato*",
"*SharpPotato*",
"*SweetPotato*"
)
OR Processes.process_path IN (
"*CertPotato*",
"*CoercedPotato*",
"*GenericPotato*",
"*GhostPotato*",
"*GodPotato*",
"*HotPotato*",
"*JuicyPotato*",
"*LocalPotato*",
"*LonelyPotato*",
"*RoguePotato*",
"*RottenPotato*",
"*SharpPotato*",
"*SweetPotato*"
)
by Processes.process Processes.vendor_product Processes.user_id Processes.process_hash
Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.action
Processes.dest Processes.process_current_directory Processes.process_path
Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.original_file_name Processes.parent_process
Processes.parent_process_path Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.parent_process_id
Processes.process_guid Processes.process_id Processes.user Processes.process_name
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `windows_potato_privilege_escalation_tool_execution_filter`
Implementation guide
The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.
Known false positives
- Some legitimate security tools or authorized pentesting software may use potato privilege escalation methods for testing purposes. Filter alerts based on approved security testing activities.
Analyst notes
Known false positives: Some legitimate security tools or authorized pentesting software may use potato privilege escalation methods for testing purposes. Filter alerts based on approved security testing activities.