How to tell which service or task caused a certain 4624 logon event?

12,237

The first event is documented by Microsoft in the article 4624(S): An account was successfully logged on.

The Logon Type is 5, which means "A service was started by the Service Control Manager". As recorded, the event was generated by C:\Windows\System32\services.exe which is the Services Control Manager, that is responsible for running, ending, and interacting with system services.

The subject system service is started with the SYSTEM account, which gives it basically unlimited powers, which causes the issuing of 4672(S): Special privileges assigned to new logon.

The logon process is marked as "advapi", which means that the logon was a Web-based logon through the IIS web server and the advapi process.

If you are not hosting IIS websites, this might mean that the computer is infected. See in this case How can I remove malicious spyware, malware, adware, viruses, trojans or rootkits from my PC. I counsel to at least do a deep scan using Malwarebytes.

If you do host IIS websites, you will need to find why some module is "impersonating", that means taking on the persona and permissions, of the SYSTEM account. This is highly suspicious and negates the isolation rules of websites from the host.

Share:
12,237
Qin Heyang
Author by

Qin Heyang

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • Qin Heyang
    Qin Heyang over 1 year

    I found a series of Windows logon events 4624 like this:

    An account was successfully logged on.
    
    Subject:
        Security ID:        SYSTEM
        Account Name:       mycomputername$
        Account Domain:     WORKGROUP
        Logon ID:       0x3E7
    
    Logon Information:
        Logon Type:     5
        Restricted Admin Mode:  -
        Virtual Account:        No
        Elevated Token:     Yes
    
    Impersonation Level:        Impersonation
    
    New Logon:
        Security ID:        SYSTEM
        Account Name:       SYSTEM
        Account Domain:     NT AUTHORITY
        Logon ID:       0x3E7
        Linked Logon ID:        0x0
        Network Account Name:   -
        Network Account Domain: -
        Logon GUID:     {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
    
    Process Information:
        Process ID:     0x3cc
        Process Name:       C:\Windows\System32\services.exe
    
    Network Information:
        Workstation Name:   -
        Source Network Address: -
        Source Port:        -
    
    Detailed Authentication Information:
        Logon Process:      Advapi  
        Authentication Package: Negotiate
        Transited Services: -
        Package Name (NTLM only):   -
        Key Length:     0
    
    

    Each of them is followed by another 4672 event

    Special privileges assigned to new logon.
    
    Subject:
        Security ID:        SYSTEM
        Account Name:       SYSTEM
        Account Domain:     NT AUTHORITY
        Logon ID:       0x3E7
    
    Privileges:     SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege
                SeTcbPrivilege
                SeSecurityPrivilege
                SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege
                SeLoadDriverPrivilege
                SeBackupPrivilege
                SeRestorePrivilege
                SeDebugPrivilege
                SeAuditPrivilege
                SeSystemEnvironmentPrivilege
                SeImpersonatePrivilege
                SeDelegateSessionUserImpersonatePrivilege
    

    From the looks of this, it seems that certain service or scheduled task is causing these logons. I tried to look into Windows Logs\Application and Windows Logs\System but found no event that happened at the same time of these logons. I am confused as to how to locate the service or task that is causing these logons. Any suggestions or hints are welcome. Thanks in advance!

  • duct_tape_coder
    duct_tape_coder about 2 years
    I think it my case it ended up being SSRS which doesn't directly use IIS but has similar OS/http.sys ties.