RedSun - Conhost.exe Spawned by TieringEngineService.exe

Detects two stages of the RedSun post-exploitation process chain that deliver a SYSTEM-level shell to the attacker's interactive session. Observed process chain services.exe → TieringEngineService.exe → conhost.exe (SYSTEM, CommandLine: bare path, no arguments) → cmd.exe / shell (SYSTEM, TerminalSessionId = attacker's session) Stage 1 — TieringEngineService.exe spawns argument-less conhost.exe: After winning the oplock + Cloud Files mount point race, the malicious TieringEngineService.exe (RedSun.exe copied to System32, started via CoCreateInstance / services.exe) detects it is NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and calls LaunchConsoleInSessionId(). This opens \\.\pipe\REDSUN, reads the attacker's session ID, duplicates the SYSTEM token, re-stamps it with that session ID via SetTokenInformation(TokenSessionId), then calls CreateProcessAsUser to spawn conhost.exe with no arguments. Stage 2 — Shell spawned from rogue conhost.exe (EDR sources with GrandParentImage): The rogue SYSTEM conhost.exe spawns a shell (cmd.exe, PowerShell, etc.) as SYSTEM in the attacker's interactive session. On EDR sources that expose GrandParentImage, the full three-level chain (TieringEngineService.exe → conhost.exe → shell) can be matched directly. The legitimate TieringEngineService.exe is a headless COM server that is unlikely to spawn conhost.exe under normal conditions.

title: RedSun - Conhost.exe Spawned by TieringEngineService.exe
id: 2ad78473-6978-40f5-b8f1-89c7e1c27a1a
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects two stages of the RedSun post-exploitation process chain that deliver a SYSTEM-level shell to the attacker's interactive session.
    Observed process chain
      services.exe
        → TieringEngineService.exe
          → conhost.exe             (SYSTEM, CommandLine: bare path, no arguments)
            → cmd.exe / shell       (SYSTEM, TerminalSessionId = attacker's session)

    Stage 1 — TieringEngineService.exe spawns argument-less conhost.exe:
      After winning the oplock + Cloud Files mount point race, the malicious TieringEngineService.exe (RedSun.exe copied to System32, started via CoCreateInstance
      / services.exe) detects it is NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and calls LaunchConsoleInSessionId().
      This opens \\.\pipe\REDSUN, reads the attacker's session ID, duplicates the SYSTEM token, re-stamps it with that session ID via SetTokenInformation(TokenSessionId), then
      calls CreateProcessAsUser to spawn conhost.exe with no arguments.

    Stage 2 — Shell spawned from rogue conhost.exe (EDR sources with GrandParentImage):
      The rogue SYSTEM conhost.exe spawns a shell (cmd.exe, PowerShell, etc.) as SYSTEM in the attacker's interactive session.
      On EDR sources that expose GrandParentImage, the full three-level chain (TieringEngineService.exe → conhost.exe → shell) can be matched directly.
      The legitimate TieringEngineService.exe is a headless COM server that is unlikely to spawn conhost.exe under normal conditions.
references:
    - https://github.com/Nightmare-Eclipse/RedSun
author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems), @unresolvedhost
date: 2026-04-17
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1134.002
    - attack.t1036.005
    - detection.emerging-threats
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
    definition: 'Requirements: By default the process_creation type event might not contain the GrandParentImage. Make sure you collect such fields in order to use this rule'
detection:
    # Stage 1: TieringEngineService.exe (malicious) spawns conhost.exe with no arguments
    selection_tiering_to_conhost:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\TieringEngineService.exe'
        Image|endswith: '\conhost.exe'
        CommandLine|endswith: 'conhost.exe"'
        User|contains:
            - 'AUTHORI'
            - 'AUTORI'
            - '$'
    # Stage 2: full three-level chain for EDR sources that expose GrandParentImage
    # GrandParent=TieringEngineService.exe, Parent=conhost.exe, Image=shell process
    selection_shell_full_chain:
        GrandParentImage|endswith: '\TieringEngineService.exe'
        ParentImage|endswith: '\conhost.exe'
        Image|endswith:
            - '\cmd.exe'
            - '\powershell_ise.exe'
            - '\powershell.exe'
            - '\pwsh.exe'
        User|contains:
            - 'AUTHORI'
            - 'AUTORI'
            - '$'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

• T1036.005Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location
• T1134.002Create Process with Token

• https://github.com/Nightmare-Eclipse/RedSun↗