Tanium

Overview

Tanium solutions manage and protect networks and endpoints.

Vendor: Tanium
Supported environment: On Premise
Version compatibility:7.5.6
Detection based on: Telemetry
Supported application or feature: File, Network, Process, Registry

Configure

Tanium logs can be collected under the rsyslog format and then forward to Sekoia.io. Refer to the official documentation of Tanium to forward your logs under rsyslog format and consult the Rsyslog Transport documentation to forward these logs to Sekoia.io.

Raw Events Samples

In this section, you will find examples of raw logs as generated natively by the source. These examples are provided to help integrators understand the data format before ingestion into Sekoia.io. It is crucial for setting up the correct parsing stages and ensuring that all relevant information is captured.

tanium_file_opentanium_network_connecttanium_process_start

{
    "event": "file_open",
    "hostname": "2256269043",
    "host": "172.16.2.1",
    "fields": {
        "tanium_process_id": "-6966335309415971179",
        "read_flag": true,
        "full_path": "/var/lib/rrdcached/db/pve2-vm/115",
        "process__login__user_id": 4294967295,
        "process__login__user_name": null,
        "process__pid": 1685,
        "process__user__group": "root",
        "process__file__full_path": "/usr/bin/rrdcached",
        "process__user__name": "root"
    }
}

{
    "event": "network_connect",
    "hostname": "2421864415",
    "host": "172.16.2.1",
    "fields": {
        "remote_port": 80,
        "process__login__user_name": null,
        "process__pid": 2540,
        "process__user__group": "NT AUTHORITY",
        "local_ip": "172.16.4.1",
        "local_port": 53671,
        "process__file__full_path": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe",
        "tanium_process_id": "-4314545011392247632",
        "process__login__user_id": 0,
        "remote_ip": "184.25.50.65",
        "process__user__name": "NETWORK SERVICE"
    }
}

{
    "event": "process_start",
    "hostname": "1345671024",
    "host": "172.16.2.1",
    "fields": {
        "file__md5": "8ed54b7dcf043252441bca716b8c461f",
        "tanium_parent_process_id": "-6966498655612172786",
        "create_time": "2021-07-15T13:47:13.084000+00:00",
        "parent__command_line": "pve-firewall",
        "file__full_path": "/usr/sbin/ipset",
        "tanium_process_id": "-6166594163916654264",
        "pid": 14664,
        "login__user_name": null,
        "command_line": "ipset save",
        "login__user_id": 4294967295,
        "parent__file__full_path": "/usr/bin/perl",
        "user__name": "root",
        "parent_pid": 1550,
        "user__group": "root"
    }
}

Detection section

The following section provides information for those who wish to learn more about the detection capabilities enabled by collecting this intake. It includes details about the built-in rule catalog, event categories, and ECS fields extracted from raw events. This is essential for users aiming to create custom detection rules, perform hunting activities, or pivot in the events page.

The following Sekoia.io built-in rules match the intake Tanium. This documentation is updated automatically and is based solely on the fields used by the intake which are checked against our rules. This means that some rules will be listed but might not be relevant with the intake.

SEKOIA.IO x Tanium on ATT&CK Navigator

AMSI Deactivation Using Registry Key

The rule detects attempts to deactivate/disable the AMSI provider by deleting the associated registry key.

Effort: master

AccCheckConsole Executing Dll

Detects suspicious LOLBIN AccCheckConsole execution with parameters as used to load an arbitrary DLL.

Effort: advanced

Active Directory Data Export Using Csvde

Detects the use of Csvde, a command-line tool from Windows Server that can be used to export Active Directory data to CSV files. This export doesn't include password hashes, but can be used as a discovery tool to enumerate users, machines and group memberships.

Effort: elementary

AdFind Usage

Detects the usage of the AdFind tool. AdFind.exe is a free tool that extracts information from Active Directory. Wizard Spider (Bazar, TrickBot, Ryuk), FIN6 and MAZE operators have used AdFind.exe to collect information about Active Directory organizational units and trust objects

Effort: elementary

Add User to Privileged Group

Add user in a potential privileged group which can be used to elevate privileges on the system.

Effort: advanced

Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) Alteration

ASLR is a security feature used by the Operating System to mitigate memory exploit, attacker might want to disable it

Effort: intermediate

Adexplorer Usage

Detects the usage of Adexplorer, a legitimate tool from the Sysinternals suite that could be abused by attackers as it can saves snapshots of the Active Directory Database.

Effort: advanced

Adidnsdump Enumeration

Detects use of the tool adidnsdump for enumeration and discovering DNS records.

Effort: advanced

Advanced IP Scanner

Detects the use of Advanced IP Scanner. Seems to be a popular tool for ransomware groups.

Effort: master

Aspnet Compiler

Detects the starts of aspnet compiler.

Effort: advanced

Audio Capture via PowerShell

Detects audio capture via PowerShell Cmdlet

Effort: intermediate

AutoIt3 Execution From Suspicious Folder

Detects AutoIt3 execution from an unusual/suspicious folder. Legitimate folders are "Program Files" and "AppData\Local". AutoIt3.exe is a legitimate process used to execute AutoIt program files, which are used by legitimate software, custom scripts, but also malware. Finding AutoIt3 execution from unusual/suspicious folder can help detect malware activities, such as DarkGate execution. The detection rule can be tailored to your environment and your use of AutoIt3 by filtering out folder's execution of legitimate applications or scripts.

Effort: advanced

Autorun Keys Modification

Detects modification of autostart extensibility point (ASEP) in registry. Prerequisites are Logging for Registry events in the Sysmon configuration (events 12 and 13).

Effort: master

AzureEdge in Command Line

Detects use of azureedge in the command line.

Effort: advanced

BITSAdmin Download

Detects command to download file using BITSAdmin, a built-in tool in Windows. This technique is used by several threat actors to download scripts or payloads on infected system.

Effort: advanced

Bazar Loader DGA (Domain Generation Algorithm)

Detects Bazar Loader domains based on the Bazar Loader DGA

Effort: elementary

BazarLoader Persistence Using Schtasks

Detects possible BazarLoader persistence using schtasks. BazarLoader will create a Scheduled Task using a specific command line to establish its persistence.

Effort: intermediate

Bloodhound and Sharphound Tools Usage

Detects default process names and default command line parameters used by Bloodhound and Sharphound tools.

Effort: intermediate

Blue Mockingbird Malware

Attempts to detect system changes made by Blue Mockingbird

Effort: elementary

CMSTP Execution

Detects various indicators of Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer execution

Effort: intermediate

CMSTP UAC Bypass via COM Object Access

Detects UAC Bypass Attempt Using Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer Autoelevate-capable COM Objects

Effort: intermediate

CVE 2022-1292

The c_rehash script does not properly sanitise shell metacharacters to prevent command injection. This script is distributed by some operating systems in a manner where it is automatically executed. On such operating systems, an attacker could execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the script.

Effort: advanced

CVE-2017-11882 Microsoft Office Equation Editor Vulnerability

Detects the exploitation of CVE-2017-11882 vulnerability. The Microsoft Office Equation Editor has no reason to do a network request or drop an executable file. This requires a sysmon configuration with file and network events.

Effort: master

CVE-2021-34527 PrintNightmare Suspicious Actions From Spoolsv

Detects suspicious image loads and file creations from the spoolsv process which could be a sign of an attacker trying to exploit the PrintNightmare vulnerability, CVE-2021-34527. A remote code execution vulnerability exists when the Windows Print Spooler service improperly performs privileged file operations. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges. This works as well as a Local Privilege escalation vulnerability. To fully work the rule requires to log for Loaded DLLs and File Creations, which can be done respectively using the Sysmon's event IDs 7 and 11.

Effort: master

Capture a network trace with netsh.exe

Detects capture a network trace via netsh.exe trace functionality

Effort: intermediate

CertOC Loading Dll

Detects when a user installs certificates by using CertOC.exe to loads the target DLL file.

Effort: intermediate

Certificate Authority Modification

Installation of new certificate(s) in the Certificate Authority can be used to trick user when spoofing website or to add trusted destinations.

Effort: master

Certify Or Certipy

Detects the use of certify and certipy which are two different tools used to enumerate and abuse Active Directory Certificate Services.

Effort: advanced

Change Default File Association

When a file is opened, the default program used to open the file (also called the file association or handler) is checked. File association selections are stored in the Windows Registry and can be edited by users, administrators, or programs that have Registry access or by administrators using the built-in assoc utility. Applications can modify the file association for a given file extension to call an arbitrary program when a file with the given extension is opened.

Effort: advanced

Clear EventLogs Through CommandLine

Detects a command that clears event logs which could indicate an attempt from an attacker to erase its previous traces.

Effort: intermediate

Cmd.exe Used To Run Reconnaissance Commands

Detects command lines with suspicious args

Effort: advanced

Cmdkey Cached Credentials Recon

Detects usage of cmdkey to look for cached credentials.

Effort: intermediate

Cobalt Strike Default Beacons Names

Detects the default names of Cobalt Strike beacons / payloads.

Effort: intermediate

Commonly Used Commands To Stop Services And Remove Backups

Detects specific commands used regularly by ransomwares to stop services or remove backups

Effort: intermediate

Component Object Model Hijacking

Detects component object model hijacking. An attacker can establish persistence with COM objects.

Effort: advanced

Compress Data for Exfiltration via Archiver

Detects data compressed by specific tools.

Effort: master

Compression Followed By Suppression

Detects when a file is compressed and deleted.

Effort: advanced

Container Credential Access

Adversaries could abuse containers tools to obtain credential like Kubernetes secret or Kubernetes service account access token

Effort: intermediate

Control Panel Items

Detects the malicious use of a control panel item

Effort: advanced

Copy Of Legitimate System32 Executable

A script has copied a System32 executable.

Effort: intermediate

Copying Browser Files With Credentials

Detects copy of sensitive data (passwords, cookies, credit cards) included in web browsers files.

Effort: elementary

Copying Sensitive Files With Credential Data

Detects copy of files with well-known filenames (sensitive files with credential data) using esentutl. This requires Windows Security event log with the Detailed File Share logging policy enabled.

Effort: elementary

Correlation Potential DNS Tunnel

Detects domain name which is longer than 95 characters. Long domain names are distinctive of DNS tunnels.

Effort: advanced

Credential Dump Tools Related Files

Detects processes or file names related to credential dumping tools and the dropped files they generate by default.

Effort: advanced

Credential Harvesting Via Vaultcmd.exe

Detects when the process vaultcmd is used for credential harvesting.

Effort: advanced

Cron Files Alteration

Cron Files and Cron Directory alteration used by attacker for persistency or privilege escalation. To ensure full performance on this rule, auditbeat intake must be configure with the module file_integrity containing path mentionned in the pattern.

Effort: advanced

Cryptomining

Detection of domain names potentially related to cryptomining activities.

Effort: master

Csrss Child Found

The csrss.exe process (csrss stands for Client / Server Runtime Subsystem) is a generic Windows process used to manage windows and Windows graphics. This process should not create a child process or it is very rare.

Effort: intermediate

Csrss Wrong Parent

The csrss.exe process (csrss stands for Client / Server Runtime Subsystem) is a generic Windows process used to manage windows and Windows graphics. This rule analyse if the parent of this process is a legitimate one or not.

Effort: master

DHCP Callout DLL Installation

Detects the installation of a Callout DLL via CalloutDlls and CalloutEnabled parameter in Registry, which can be used to execute code in context of the DHCP server (restart required).

Effort: intermediate

DLL Load via LSASS Registry Key

Detects a method to load DLL via LSASS process using an undocumented Registry key. Prerequisites are logging for Registry events. This can be done with Sysmon events 12, 13 and 14 and monitor SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services.

Effort: intermediate

DNS Exfiltration and Tunneling Tools Execution

Well-known DNS exfiltration tools execution

Effort: intermediate

DNS Query For Iplookup

Detects dns query of observables tagged as iplookup.

Effort: master

DNS ServerLevelPluginDll Installation

Detects the installation of a plugin DLL via ServerLevelPluginDll parameter in Windows Registry or in command line, which can be used to execute code in context of the DNS server (restart required). To fully use this rule, prerequesites are logging for Registry events in the Sysmon configuration (events 12, 13 and 14).

Effort: master

DNS Tunnel Technique From MuddyWater

Detecting DNS Tunnel Activity For Muddywater intrusion set. This is the loading of a specific DLL from an Excel macro which is detected.

Effort: elementary

Data Compressed With Rar

An adversary may compress data in order to make it portable and minimize the amount of data sent over the network, this could be done the popular rar command line program.

Effort: master

Data Compressed With Rar With Password

An adversary may compress data in order to make it portable and minimize the amount of data sent over the network, this could be done the popular rar command line program. This is a more specific one for rar where the arguments allow to encrypt both file data and headers with a given password.

Effort: intermediate

Debugging Software Deactivation

Deactivation of some debugging softwares using taskkill command. It was observed being used by Ransomware operators.

Effort: elementary

Default Encoding To UTF-8 PowerShell

Detects PowerShell encoding to UTF-8, which is used by Sliver implants. The command line just sets the default encoding to UTF-8 in PowerShell.

Effort: advanced

Disable .NET ETW Through COMPlus_ETWEnabled

Detects potential adversaries stopping ETW providers recording loaded .NET assemblies. Prerequisites are logging for Registry events or logging command line parameters (both is better). Careful for registry events, if SwiftOnSecurity's SYSMON default configuration is used, you will need to update the configuration to include the .NETFramework registry key path. Same issue with Windows 4657 EventID logging, the registry path must be specified.

Effort: intermediate

Disable Task Manager Through Registry Key

Detects commands used to disable the Windows Task Manager by modifying the proper registry key in order to impair security tools. This technique is used by the Agent Tesla RAT, among others.

Effort: elementary

Disable Windows Defender Credential Guard

Detects registry keys being changed to disable Windows Defender Credential Guard. The rule requires to log Registry Keys modifications or creations, which can be done using Sysmon Event IDs 12,13 and 14.

Effort: intermediate

Disabled IE Security Features

Detects from the command lines or the registry, changes that indicate unwanted modifications to registry keys that disable important Internet Explorer security features. This has been used by attackers during Operation Ke3chang.

Effort: advanced

Dism Disabling Windows Defender

Detects windows defender disabled by dism.

Effort: advanced

Dllhost Wrong Parent

Dllhost.exe is a process belonging to Microsoft Windows Operating System. The dllhost.exe file manages DLL based applications. This rule analyse if the parent of this process is a legitimate one or not.

Effort: master

Docker Escape Bind Mount

Catch Docker escape via mount escape followed by chroot

Effort: intermediate

Domain Group And Permission Enumeration

Detects adversaries attempts to find domain-level groups and permission settings. Commands such as net group /domain of the Net utility can list domain-level groups The knowledge of domain-level permission groups can help adversaries determine which groups exist and which users belong to a particular group. Adversaries may use this information to determine which users have elevated permissions, such as domain administrators. Wizard Spider, FIN6, and other groups used net in their campaigns.

Effort: advanced

Domain Trust Discovery Through LDAP

Detects attempts to gather information on domain trust relationships that may be used to identify lateral movement opportunities. "trustedDomain" which is detected here is a Microsoft Active Directory ObjectClass Type that represents a domain that is trusted by, or trusting, the local AD DOMAIN. Several tools are using LDAP queries in the end to get the information (DSQuery, sometimes ADFind as well, etc.)

Effort: elementary

Dynamic DNS Contacted

Detect communication with dynamic dns domain. This kind of domain is often used by attackers. This rule can trigger false positive in non-controlled environment because dynamic dns is not always malicious.

Effort: master

Dynamic Linker Hijacking From Environment Variable

LD_PRELOAD and LD_LIBRARY_PATH are environment variables used by the Operating System at the runtime to load shared objects (library.ies) when executing a new process, attacker can overwrite this variable to attempts a privileges escalation.

Effort: master

ETW Tampering

Detects a command that clears or disables any ETW Trace log which could indicate a logging evasion

Effort: intermediate

Elise Backdoor

Detects Elise backdoor activity as used by Lotus Blossom

Effort: elementary

Empire Monkey Activity

Detects EmpireMonkey APT reported Activity

Effort: elementary

Enabling Restricted Admin Mode

Detects when the restricted admin mode is enabled.

Effort: elementary

Equation Group DLL_U Load

Detects a specific tool and export used by EquationGroup

Effort: elementary

Erase Shell History

Malware and attacker try to reduce their fingerprints on compromised host by deleting shell history.

Effort: advanced

EvilProxy Phishing Domain

Detects subdomains potentially generated by the EvilProxy adversary-in-the-middle phishing platform. Inspect the other subdomains of the domain to identify the landing page, and determine if the user submitted credentials. This rule has a small percentage of false positives on legitimate domains.

Effort: intermediate

Exchange Mailbox Export

Detection of a standard Exchange Mailbox export, which stores all mails from a user in a pst file, from command line or PowerShell script.

Effort: intermediate

Exchange Server Spawning Suspicious Processes

Look for Microsoft Exchange Server’s Unified Messaging service spawning suspicious sub-processes, suggesting exploitation of CVE-2021-26857 vulnerability.

Effort: intermediate

Exfiltration And Tunneling Tools Execution

Execution of well known tools for data exfiltration and tunneling

Effort: advanced

Exfiltration Domain

Detects traffic toward a domain flagged as a possible exfiltration vector.

Effort: master

Exfiltration Domain In Command Line

Detects commands containing a domain linked to http exfiltration.

Effort: intermediate

Exfiltration Via Pscp

Detects the use of pscp which is a file sharing services.

Effort: advanced

Exploit For CVE-2015-1641

Detects Winword process starting uncommon sub process MicroScMgmt.exe as used in exploits for CVE-2015-1641

Effort: elementary

Exploit For CVE-2017-0261 Or CVE-2017-0262

Detects Winword starting uncommon sub process FLTLDR.exe as used in exploits for CVE-2017-0261 and CVE-2017-0262 through command line or PowerShell script. This is a very basic detection method relying on the rare usage of EPS files from Winword.

Effort: advanced

Exploited CVE-2020-10189 Zoho ManageEngine

Detects the exploitation of Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central Java Deserialization vulnerability reported as CVE-2020-10189.

Effort: elementary

Exploiting SetupComplete.cmd CVE-2019-1378

Detects exploitation attempts of privilege escalation vulnerability via SetupComplete.cmd and PartnerSetupComplete.cmd described in CVE-2019-1378.

Effort: intermediate

Explorer Process Executing HTA File

Detects a suspicious execution of an HTA file by the explorer.exe process. This unusual activity was observed when running IcedID malspam.

Effort: intermediate

FLTMC command usage

Detects the use of fltmc to list and load/unload a filter driver.

Effort: advanced

Fail2ban Unban IP

An IP was ubaned by Fail2ban. It could be use to allow malicous traffic.

Effort: advanced

File Or Folder Permissions Modifications

Adversaries may modify file or directory permissions/attributes to evade access control lists (ACLs) and access protected files.

Effort: master

Formbook File Creation DB1

Detects specific file creation (Users*\AppData\Local\Temp\DB1) to store data to exfiltrate (Formbook behavior). Logging for Sysmon event 11 is usually used for this detection.

Effort: intermediate

Formbook Hijacked Process Command

Detects process hijacked by Formbook malware which executes specific commands to delete the dropper or copy browser credentials to the database before sending them to the C2.

Effort: intermediate

FromBase64String Command Line

Detects suspicious FromBase64String expressions in command line arguments.

Effort: master

Generic-reverse-shell-oneliner

To bypass some security equipement or for a sack of simplicity attackers can open raw reverse shell using shell commands

Effort: intermediate

Gpresult Usage

Detects when an account uses gpresult to get information on gpo.

Effort: advanced

Gpscript Suspicious Parent

Gpscript defines GPO scripts for users and applies them to login / logout sessions. This rule checks if the parent of this process is the supposed one (svchost) or not.

Effort: intermediate

Grabbing Sensitive Hives Via Reg Utility

Detects dump of SAM, System or Security hives using reg.exe utility. Adversaries may attempt to dump these Windows Registry to retrieve password hashes and access credentials.

Effort: intermediate

HackTools Suspicious Names

Quick-win rule to detect the default process names or file names of several HackTools.

Effort: elementary

HackTools Suspicious Process Names In Command Line

Detects the default process name of several HackTools and also check in command line. This rule is here for quickwins as it obviously has many blind spots.

Effort: intermediate

Hiding Files With Attrib.exe

Detects usage of attrib.exe to hide files from users.

Effort: advanced

High Privileges Network Share Removal

Detects high privileges shares being deleted with the net share command.

Effort: intermediate

Hijack Legit RDP Session To Move Laterally

Identifies suspicious file creations in the startup folder of a remote system. An adversary could abuse this to move laterally by dropping a malicious script or executable that will be executed after a reboot or user logon.

Effort: intermediate

ICacls Granting Access To All

Detects suspicious icacls command granting access to all, used by the ransomware Ryuk to delete every access-based restrictions on files and directories. ICacls is a built-in Windows command to interact with the Discretionary Access Control Lists (DACLs) which can grand adversaries higher permissions on specific files and folders.

Effort: elementary

IcedID Execution Using Excel

Detects Excel spawning a process (rundll32 or wmic) running suspicious command-line. This behaviour could correspond to IcedID activity.

Effort: elementary

Impacket Wmiexec Module

Detection of impacket's wmiexec example, used by attackers to execute commands remotely.

Effort: elementary

Inhibit System Recovery Deleting Backups

Detects adversaries attempts to delete backups or inhibit system recovery. This rule relies on differents known techniques using Windows events logs from Sysmon (ID 1), and PowerShell (ID 4103, 4104).

Effort: intermediate

Interactive Terminal Spawned via Python

Identifies when a terminal (tty) is spawned via Python. Attackers may upgrade a simple reverse shell to a fully interactive tty after obtaining initial access to a host.

Effort: advanced

Invoke-TheHash Commandlets

Detects suspicious Invoke-TheHash PowerShell commandlet used for performing pass the hash WMI and SMB tasks.

Effort: elementary

KeePass Config XML In Command-Line

Detects a command-line interaction with the KeePass Config XML file. It could be used to retrieve informations or to be abused for persistence.

Effort: intermediate

Kernel Module Alteration

Kernel module installation can be used to configure system settings to automatically execute a program during system boot or logon to maintain persistence or gain higher-level privileges on compromised systems. The prerequisites are to enable monitoring of the finit_module, init_module, delete_module syscalls using Auditbeat.

Effort: advanced

Lazarus Loaders

Detects different loaders used by the Lazarus Group APT

Effort: elementary

Legitimate Process Execution From Unusual Folder

Detects the execution of a legitimate, windows built-in process name from an unusual / suspicious folder. Legitimate folders are c:\windows\system32\, \SystemRoot\system32\, c:\windows\syswow64\ and c:\windows\winsxs. Many malwares/attackers use legitimate names to masquerade but if they are not Administrator yet, they often can't write file into these legitimate folders.

Effort: advanced

Leviathan Registry Key Activity

Detects registry key used by Leviathan APT in Malaysian focused campaign.

Effort: elementary

Linux Bash Reverse Shell

To bypass some security equipement or for a sack of simplicity attackers can open raw reverse shell using shell commands

Effort: intermediate

Linux Remove Immutable Attribute

Adversaries may used chattr utility to alter file and folder attributes to control sudden operations like the deletion and modification of files.

Effort: intermediate

Linux Shared Lib Injection Via Ldso Preload

Detect ld.so.preload modification for shared lib injection, technique used by attackers to load arbitrary code into process

Effort: intermediate

Linux Suspicious Nohup Exec

Detects suspicious usage of nohup which could be leveraged by an attacker to keep a process running or break out from restricted environments

Effort: intermediate

Linux Suspicious Search

Adversaries may search for private key on compromised systems

Effort: intermediate

Listing Systemd Environment

Detects a listing of systemd environment variables. This command could be used to do reconnaissance on a compromised host.

Effort: advanced

Logon Scripts (UserInitMprLogonScript)

Detects creation or execution of UserInitMprLogonScript persistence method. The rule requires to log for process command lines and registry creations or update, which can be done using Sysmon Event IDs 1, 12, 13 and 14.

Effort: advanced

Logonui Wrong Parent

Logonui.exe is a file associated with the Logon user interface. The login user interface is an essential part of the Windows operating system. It doesn't only make it easy for the user to log in to the PC but also determines whether the user has logged in and logged out correctly and makes it easy to switch between users. This rule checks if the parent of this process is a legitimate one or not.

Effort: master

Lsass Wrong Parent

Lsass ensures the identification of users (domain users or local users). Domain users are identified based on information in the Active Directory. Local users are identified based on information from the Security Account Manager (SAM) local database. This rule checks if the parent of this process is a legitimate one or not.

Effort: master

MMC Spawning Windows Shell

Detects a Windows command line executable started from MMC process

Effort: intermediate

MMC20 Lateral Movement

Detects MMC20.Application Lateral Movement; specifically looks for the spawning of the parent MMC.exe with a command line of "-Embedding" as a child of svchost.exe.

Effort: intermediate

MOFComp Execution

Detects rare usage of the Managed Object Format (MOF) compiler on Microsoft Windows. This could be abused by some attackers to load WMI classes.

Effort: intermediate

MS Office Product Spawning Exe in User Dir

Detects an executable in the users directory started from Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher or Visio. This is a common technique used by attackers with documents embedding macros. It requires Windows command line logging events.

Effort: master

MSBuild Abuse

Detection of MSBuild uses by attackers to infect an host. Focuses on XML compilation which is a Metasploit payload, and on connections made by this process which is unusual.

Effort: intermediate

Malicious Browser Extensions

Detects browser extensions being loaded with the --load-extension and -base-url options, which works on Chromium-based browsers. We are looking for potentially malicious browser extensions. These extensions can get access to informations.

Effort: advanced

Malspam Execution Registering Malicious DLL

Detects the creation of a file in the C:\Datop folder, or DLL registering a file in the C:\Datop folder. Files located in the Datop folder are very characteristic of malspam execution related to Qakbot or SquirrelWaffle. Prerequisites are Logging for File Creation events, which can be done in the Sysmon configuration (events 11), for the first part of the pattern (TargetFilename).

Effort: elementary

Malware Persistence Registry Key

Detects registry key used by several malware, especially Formbook spyware in two ways, either the Sysmon registry events, or the commands line.

Effort: master

MalwareBytes Uninstallation

Detects command line being used by attackers to uninstall Malwarebytes.

Effort: intermediate

MavInject Process Injection

Detects process injection using the signed Windows tool Mavinject32.exe (which is a LOLBAS)

Effort: intermediate

Meterpreter or Cobalt Strike Getsystem Service Installation

Detects the use of getsystem Meterpreter/Cobalt Strike command by detecting some of the techniques being used (technique 1,2 and 5).

Effort: elementary

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Disable Scheduled Tasks

The rule detects attempts to deactivate/disable Windows Defender scheduled tasks via command line or PowerShell scripts.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Disable SecurityHealth

The rule detects attempts to deactivate/disable Windows Defender SecurityHealth through command line, PowerShell scripts, and registry. To fully use this rule Windows Registry logging is recommended.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Disable Services

The rule detects attempts to deactivate/disable Windows Defender through command line and registry.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Disable Using Registry

The rule detects attempts to deactivate/disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus using registry modification via command line or PowerShell scripts.

Effort: master

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Disabled Base64 Encoded

Detects attempts to deactivate/disable Windows Defender through base64 encoded PowerShell command line or scripts.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Defender Antivirus History Directory Deleted

Windows Defender history directory has been deleted. This could be an attempt by an attacker to remove its traces.

Effort: elementary

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Restoration Abuse

The rule detects attempts to abuse Windows Defender file restoration tool. The Windows Defender process is allowed to write files in its own protected directory. This functionality can be used by a threat actor to overwrite Windows Defender files in order to prevent it from running correctly or use Windows Defender to execute a malicious DLL.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Set-MpPreference Base64 Encoded

Detects changes of preferences for Windows Defender through command line or PowerShell scripts. Configure Windows Defender using base64-encoded commands is suspicious and could be related to malicious activities.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Signatures Removed With MpCmdRun

Detects attempts to remove Windows Defender Signatures using MpCmdRun legitimate Windows Defender executable. No signatures mean Windows Defender will be less effective (or completely useless depending on the option used).

Effort: elementary

Microsoft Exchange PowerShell Snap-Ins To Export Exchange Mailbox Data

Detects PowerShell SnapIn command line or PowerShell script, often used with Get-Mailbox to export Exchange mailbox data.

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft Exchange Server Creating Unusual Files

Look for Microsoft Exchange Server’s Unified Messaging service creating non-standard content on disk, which could indicate web shells or other malicious content, suggesting exploitation of CVE-2021-26858 vulnerability

Effort: intermediate

Microsoft IIS Module Installation

Detects the installation of a new IIS module from the command line. It can used used to backdoor an IIS/OWA/Sharepoint server.

Effort: advanced

Microsoft Office Creating Suspicious File

Detects Microsoft Office process (word, excel, powerpoint) creating a suspicious file which corresponds to a script or an executable. This behavior highly corresponds to an executed macro which loads an installation script or a malware payload. The rule requires to log for File Creations to work properly, which can be done through Sysmon Event ID 11.

Effort: master

Microsoft Office Product Spawning Windows Shell

Detects a Windows command or scripting interpreter executable started from Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher and Visio. This typically indicates the parent process launched a malicious macro, or run an exploit. This infection vector is very common and could lead to the deployment of harmful malware.

Effort: master

Microsoft Office Spawning Script

Detects Microsoft Office process (word, excel, powerpoint) spawning wscript.exe or cscript.exe. This typically indicates the parent process launched a malicious macro, or run an exploit. This infection vector is very common and could lead to the deployment of harmful malware.

Effort: intermediate

Mimikatz Basic Commands

Detects Mimikatz most popular commands.

Effort: elementary

Msdt (Follina) File Browse Process Execution

Detects various Follina vulnerability exploitation techniques. This is based on the Compatability Troubleshooter which is abused to do code execution.

Effort: elementary

Mshta JavaScript Execution

Identifies suspicious mshta.exe commands that execute JavaScript supplied as a command line argument.

Effort: elementary

Mshta Suspicious Child Process

Detects the use of various web request methods executed remotely via Windows PowerShell

Effort: intermediate

Mustang Panda Dropper

Detects specific process parameters as used by Mustang Panda droppers

Effort: elementary

NTDS.dit File In Suspicious Directory

The file NTDS.dit is supposed to be located mainly in C:\Windows\NTDS. The rule checks whether the file is in a legitimate directory or not (through file creation events). This is usually really suspicious and could indicate an attacker trying copy the file to then look for users password hashes.

Effort: advanced

NTDS.dit File Interaction Through Command Line

Detects interaction with the file NTDS.dit through command line. This is usually really suspicious and could indicate an attacker trying copy the file to then look for users password hashes.

Effort: intermediate

Net.exe User Account Creation

Identifies creation of local users via the net.exe command

Effort: master

NetSh Used To Disable Windows Firewall

Detects NetSh commands used to disable the Windows Firewall

Effort: intermediate

Netsh Allow Command

Netsh command line to allow a program to pass through firewall.

Effort: advanced

Netsh Allowed Python Program

Detects netsh command that performs modification on Firewall rules to allow the program python.exe. This activity is most likely related to the deployment of a Python server or an application that needs to communicate over a network. Threat actors could use it for data extraction, hosting a webshell or else.

Effort: intermediate

Netsh Port Forwarding

Detects netsh commands that enable a port forwarding between to hosts. This can be used by attackers to tunnel RDP or SMB shares for example.

Effort: intermediate

Netsh Port Opening

Detects netsh commands that opens a specific port. Can be used by malware or attackers for lateralisation/exfiltration (e.g. SMB/RDP opening).

Effort: master

Netsh Program Allowed With Suspicious Location

Detects Netsh commands that allow a suspcious application location on Windows Firewall, seen on kasidet worm. Last part of the existing rule (commandline startwith) was not added to this rule because it is not relevant.

Effort: advanced

Netsh RDP Port Forwarding

Detects netsh commands that configure a port forwarding of port 3389 used for RDP. This is commonly used by attackers during lateralization on windows environments.

Effort: elementary

Netsh RDP Port Opening

Detects netsh commands that opens the port 3389 used for RDP, used in Sarwent Malware.

Effort: intermediate

Network Scanning and Discovery

Tools and command lines used for network discovery from current system

Effort: advanced

Network Share Discovery

Adversaries may look for folders and drives shared on remote systems as a means of identifying sources of information to gather as a precursor for Collection and to identify potential systems of interest for Lateral Movement. Networks often contain shared network drives and folders that enable users to access file directories on various systems across a network. File sharing over a Windows network occurs over the SMB protocol. This technique is frequently leveraged by threat actors such as APT32, APT41, Wizard Spider. But also, through the use of some malware such as Cobalt Strike, Empire, PlugX and Ramsay.

Effort: master

Network Sniffing

List of common tools used for network packages sniffing

Effort: advanced

Network Sniffing Windows

Network sniffing refers to using the network interface on a system to monitor or capture information sent over a wired or wireless connection. An adversary may place a network interface into promiscuous mode to passively access data in transit over the network, or use span ports to capture a larger amount of data.

Effort: intermediate

New DLL Added To AppCertDlls Registry Key

Dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that are specified in the AppCertDLLs value in the Registry key can be abused to obtain persistence and privilege escalation by causing a malicious DLL to be loaded and run in the context of separate processes on the computer. Logging for Registry events is needed in the Sysmon configuration (events 12 and 13).

Effort: intermediate

New Service Creation

Detects creation of a new service from command line

Effort: advanced

Ngrok Process Execution

Detects possible Ngrok execution, which can be used by attacker for RDP tunneling.

Effort: intermediate

NjRat Registry Changes

Detects changes for the RUN registry key which happen when a victim is infected by NjRAT. Please note that even if NjRat is well-known for the behavior the rule catches, the rule is a bit larger and could catch other malwares.

Effort: master

Njrat Registry Values

Detects specifis registry values that are related to njRat usage.

Effort: intermediate

NlTest Usage

Detects attempts to gather information on domain trust relationships that may be used to identify lateral movement opportunities. These command lines were observed in numerous attacks, but also sometimes from legitimate administrators for debugging purposes. The rule does not cover very basics commands but rather the ones that are interesting for attackers to gather information on a domain.

Effort: advanced

Non-Legitimate Executable Using AcceptEula Parameter

Detects accepteula in command line with non-legitimate executable name. Some attackers are masquerading SysInternals tools with decoy names to prevent detection.

Effort: advanced

Office Application Startup Office Test

Detects the addition of office test registry that allows a user to specify an arbitrary DLL that will be executed everytime an Office application is started. An adversaries may abuse the Microsoft Office "Office Test" Registry key to obtain persistence on a compromised system.

Effort: elementary

OneNote Embedded File

Detects creation or uses of OneNote embedded files with unusual extensions.

Effort: intermediate

OneNote Suspicious Children Process

In January 2023, a peak of attacks using .one files was observed in the wild. This rule tries to detect the effect of such attempts using this technique.

Effort: advanced

Openfiles Usage

Detects when the command openfiles, to get information on files opened remotely, is used.

Effort: advanced

Opening Of a Password File

Command line detection of common office software opening some password related file. It could be a security breach if an unauthorized user access it.

Effort: master

Outlook Registry Access

Detection of accesses to Microsoft Outlook registry hive, which might contain sensitive information.

Effort: master

Package Manager Alteration

Package manager (eg: apt, yum) can be altered to install malicious software. To ensure full performance on this rule, auditbeat intake must be configure with the module file_integrity containing path mentionned in the pattern.

Effort: advanced

Pandemic Windows Implant

Detects Pandemic Windows Implant through registry keys or specific command lines. Prerequisites: Logging for Registry events is needed, which can be done in the Sysmon configuration (events 12 and 13).

Effort: intermediate

PasswordDump SecurityXploded Tool

Detects the execution of the PasswordDump SecurityXploded Tool

Effort: elementary

Permission Discovery Via Wmic

Detects discovery of permission on local groups via the tool wmic.

Effort: advanced

Phorpiex DriveMgr Command

Detects specific command used by the Phorpiex botnet to execute a copy of the loader during its self-spreading stage. As described by Microsoft, this behavior is unique and easily identifiable due to the use of folders named with underscores "__" and the PE name "DriveMgr.exe".

Effort: elementary

Phorpiex Process Masquerading

Detects specific process executable path used by the Phorpiex botnet to masquerade its system process network activity. It looks for a pattern of a system process executable name that is not legitimate and running from a folder that is created via a random algorithm 13-15 numbers long.

Effort: elementary

Potential DNS Tunnel

Detects domain name which is longer than 95 characters. Long domain names are distinctive of DNS tunnels.

Effort: advanced

PowerCat Function Loading

Detect a basic execution of PowerCat. PowerCat is a PowerShell function allowing to do basic connections, file transfer, shells, relays, generate payloads.

Effort: intermediate

PowerShell AMSI Deactivation Bypass Using .NET Reflection

Detects Request to amsiInitFailed that can be used to disable AMSI (Antimalware Scan Interface) Scanning. More information about Antimalware Scan Interface https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/amsi/antimalware-scan-interface-portal.

Effort: advanced

PowerShell Commands Invocation

Detects the execution to invoke a powershell command. This was used in an intrusion using Gootloader to access Mimikatz.

Effort: advanced

PowerShell Data Compressed

Detects data compression through a PowerShell command (could be used by an adversary for exfiltration).

Effort: advanced

PowerShell Downgrade Attack

Detects PowerShell downgrade attack by comparing the host versions with the actually used engine version 2.0

Effort: elementary

PowerShell Download From URL

Detects a Powershell process that contains download commands in its command line string.

Effort: advanced

PowerShell EncodedCommand

Detects popular file extensions in commands obfuscated in base64 run through the EncodedCommand option.

Effort: advanced

PowerShell Execution Via Rundll32

Detects PowerShell Strings applied to rundll as seen in PowerShdll.dll Rule modified

Effort: intermediate

PowerShell Invoke Expression With Registry

Detects keywords from well-known PowerShell techniques to get registry key values

Effort: advanced

PowerShell Malicious Nishang PowerShell Commandlets

Detects Commandlet names and arguments from the Nishang exploitation framework.

Effort: advanced

PowerView commandlets 1

Detects PowerView commandlets which perform network and Windows domain enumeration and exploitation. It provides replaces for almost all Windows net commands, letting you query users, machines, domain controllers, user descriptions, share, sessions, and more.

Effort: advanced

PowerView commandlets 2

Detects PowerView commandlets which perform network and Windows domain enumeration and exploitation. It provides replaces for almost all Windows net commands, letting you query users, machines, domain controllers, user descriptions, share, sessions, and more.

Effort: advanced

Powershell AMSI Bypass

This rule aims to detect attempts to bypass AMSI in powershell using specific techniques.

Effort: advanced

Powershell UploadString Function

Powershell's uploadXXX functions are a category of methods which can be used to exfiltrate data through native means on a Windows host.

Effort: intermediate

Powershell Web Request

Detects the use of various web request methods executed remotely via Windows PowerShell.

Effort: advanced

Powershell Winlogon Helper DLL

Detects modifications to the Winlogon Registry keys, which may cause Winlogon to load and execute malicious DLLs and/or executables.

Effort: intermediate

Privilege Escalation Awesome Scripts (PEAS)

Detect PEAS privileges escalation scripts and binaries

Effort: elementary

Process Memory Dump Using Comsvcs

Detects the use of comsvcs in command line to dump a specific process memory. This technique is used by attackers for privilege escalation and pivot.

Effort: intermediate

Process Memory Dump Using Createdump

Detects the use of createdump.exe in command line to dump the memory of a process. This technique is used by attackers for privilege escalation and pivot.

Effort: elementary

Process Memory Dump Using Rdrleakdiag

Detects the use of rdrleakdiag.exe in command line to dump the memory of a process. This technique is used by attackers for privilege escalation and pivot.

Effort: elementary

Process Trace Alteration

PTrace syscall provides a means by which one process ("tracer") may observe and control the execution of another process ("tracee") and examine and change the tracee's memory and registers. Attacker might want to abuse ptrace functionnality to analyse memory process. It requires to be admin or set ptrace_scope to 0 to allow all user to trace any process.

Effort: advanced

PsExec Process

Detects PsExec execution, command line which contains pstools or installation of the PsExec service. PsExec is a SysInternals which can be used to execute a program on another computer. The tool is as much used by attackers as by administrators.

Effort: advanced

Putty Sessions Listing

Detects attempts to list Putty sessions through registry. To fully work, this rule requires to log registry accesses, which can be done with the Windows Event ID 4656 or 4663 but for that specific configuration is needed.

Effort: master

Python Exfiltration Tools

Python has some built-in modules or library that could be installed and later be used as exflitration tool by an attacker

Effort: advanced

Python HTTP Server

Detects command used to start a Simple HTTP server in Python. Threat actors could use it for data extraction, hosting a webshell or else.

Effort: intermediate

Python Offensive Tools and Packages

Track installation and usage of offensive python packages and project that are used for lateral movement

Effort: master

QakBot Process Creation

Detects QakBot like process executions

Effort: intermediate

Qakbot Persistence Using Schtasks

Detects possible Qakbot persistence using schtasks.

Effort: intermediate

RDP Configuration File From Mail Process

Detects RDP configuration file being created or executed by a Mail-related process like Outlook. RDP configuration file will allow, when opened, an user to connect to the configured server easily. Attackers use this to trick victims in order to get a shared drive and potentially retrieve the data from that drive, but also drop a malicious file on the drive to establish persistence. Using RDP can also expose the victim's credential and clipboard data on some cases.

Effort: advanced

RDP Sensitive Settings Changed

Detects changes to RDP terminal service sensitive settings. Logging for registry events is needed in the Sysmon configuration (events 12 and 13).

Effort: advanced

RDP Session Discovery

Detects use of RDP session discovery via qwinsta or quser. Used by some threat actors to know if someone is working via RDP on a server.

Effort: advanced

RTLO Character

Detects RTLO (Right-To-Left character) in file and process names.

Effort: elementary

Raccine Uninstall

Detects commands that indicate a Raccine removal from an end system. Raccine is a free ransomware protection tool.

Effort: elementary

Rare Logonui Child Found

Logonui.exe is a file associated with the Logon user interface. The login user interface is an essential part of the Windows operating system. It not only makes it easy for the user to log in to the PC but also determines whether the user has logged in and logged out correctly and makes it easy to switch between users. This process could create a child process but it is very rare and could be a signal of some process injection.

Effort: advanced

Rare Lsass Child Found

Lsass ensures the identification of users (domain users or local users). Domain users are identified based on information in the Active Directory. Local users are identified based on information from the Security Account Manager (SAM) local database. This process should not create a child process or it is very rare.

Effort: intermediate

Rclone Process

Detects Rclone executable or Rclone execution by using the process name, the execution through a command obfuscated or not.

Effort: advanced

RedMimicry Winnti Playbook Registry Manipulation

Detects actions caused by the RedMimicry Winnti playbook. Logging for Registry events is needed in the Sysmon configuration (events 12 and 13).

Effort: elementary

Remote Access Tool Domain

Detects traffic toward a domain flagged as a Remote Administration Tool (RAT).

Effort: master

Remote Monitoring and Management Software - AnyDesk

Detect artifacts related to the installation or execution of the Remote Monitoring and Management tool AnyDesk.

Effort: master

Remote Monitoring and Management Software - Atera

Detect artifacts related to the installation or execution of the Remote Monitoring and Management tool Atera.

Effort: master

Rubeus Tool Command-line

Detects command line parameters used by Rubeus, a toolset to interact with Kerberos and abuse it.

Effort: advanced

SEKOIA.IO Intelligence Feed

Detect threats based on indicators of compromise (IOCs) collected by SEKOIA's Threat and Detection Research team.

Effort: elementary

SOCKS Tunneling Tool

Detects the usage of a SOCKS tunneling tool, often used by threat actors. These tools often use the socks5 commandline argument, however socks4 can sometimes be used as well. Unfortunately, socks alone (without any number) triggered too many false positives.

Effort: intermediate

SSH Authorized Key Alteration

The file authorized_keys is used by SSH server to identify SSH keys that are authorized to connect to the host, alteration of one of those files might indicate a user compromision.

Effort: advanced

STRRAT Scheduled Task

Detect STRRAT when it achieves persistence by creating a scheduled task. STRRAT is a Java-based stealer and remote backdoor, it establishes persistence using this specific command line: 'cmd /c schtasks /create /sc minute /mo 30 /tn Skype /tr "C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\SAMPLENAME.jar"'

Effort: intermediate

Schtasks Persistence With High Privileges

Detection of scheduled task with high privileges used by attacker for persistence.

Effort: elementary

Schtasks Suspicious Parent

Detects schtasks started from suspicious and/or unusual processes.

Effort: intermediate

Screenconnect Remote Execution

Detect cmd or powershell remote execution cmdline via ScreenConnect

Effort: intermediate

Searchindexer Wrong Parent

Detects if the Search Indexer was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Search Indexer is the Windows service that handles indexing of your files for Windows Search.

Effort: master

Searchprotocolhost Child Found

SearchProtocolHost.exe is part of the Windows Indexing Service, an application that indexes files from the local drive making them easier to search. This is a crucial part of the Windows operating system. This process should not create a child process or it is very rare.

Effort: intermediate

Searchprotocolhost Wrong Parent

Detects if the Search Protocol Host process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Search Protocol Host is part of the Windows Indexing Service, a service indexing files on the local drive making them easier to search.

Effort: master

Sekoia.io EICAR Detection

Detects observables in Sekoia.io CTI tagged as EICAR, which are fake samples meant to test detection.

Effort: master

Shadow Copies

Detects command line used to create and list shadow copies. An adversary may attempt to get information on shadow volumes to perform deletion or extract password hashes from the ntds.dit file. This rule requires command line logging or Windows PowerShell events (4104).

Effort: master

Sliver DNS Beaconing

Detects suspicious DNS queries known from Sliver beaconing

Effort: intermediate

Smss Wrong Parent

Detects if the Smss process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Session Manager Subsystem (smss) process is a component of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems.

Effort: master

Socat Relaying Socket

Socat is a linux tool used to relay local socket or internal network connection, this technics is often used by attacker to bypass security equipment such as firewall

Effort: advanced

Socat Reverse Shell Detection

Socat is a linux tool used to relay or open reverse shell that is often used by attacker to bypass security equipment.

Effort: intermediate

SolarWinds Suspicious File Creation

Detects SolarWinds process creating a file with a suspicious extension. The process solarwinds.businesslayerhost.exe created an unexpected file whose extension is ".exe", ".ps1", ".jpg", ".png" or ".dll".

Effort: intermediate

SolarWinds Wrong Child Process

Detects SolarWinds process starting an unusual child process. Process solarwinds.businesslayerhost.exe and solarwinds.businesslayerhostx64.exe created an unexepected child process which doesn't correspond to the legitimate ones.

Effort: intermediate

Spoolsv Wrong Parent

Detects if the Spoolsv process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Printer Spooler Service (Spoolsv) process is responsible for managing spooled print/fax jobs.

Effort: master

Spyware Persistence Using Schtasks

Detects possible Agent Tesla or Formbook persistence using schtasks. The name of the scheduled task used by these malware is very specific (Updates/randomstring).

Effort: intermediate

SquirrelWaffle Malspam Execution Loading DLL

Detects cscript running suspicious command to load a DLL. This behavior has been detected in SquirrelWaffle campaign.

Effort: intermediate

Stop Backup Services

Detects adversaries attempts to stop backups services or disable Windows previous files versions feature. This could be related to ransomware operators or legit administrators. This rule relies Windows command line logging and registry logging, and PowerShell (ID 4103, 4104).

Effort: master

Suncrypt Parameters

Detects SunCrypt ransomware's parameters, most of which are unique.

Effort: elementary

Suspicious ADSI-Cache Usage By Unknown Tool

Detects the usage of ADSI (LDAP) operations by tools. This may also detect tools like LDAPFragger. It needs file monitoring capabilities (Sysmon Event ID 11 with .sch file creation logging).

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Cmd File Copy Command To Network Share

Copy suspicious files through Windows cmd prompt to network share

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Cmd.exe Command Line

Detection on suspicious cmd.exe command line seen being used by some attackers (e.g. Lazarus with Word macros). This requires Windows process command line logging.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious CodePage Switch with CHCP

Detects a code page switch in command line

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious CommandLine Lsassy Pattern

Detects the characteristic lsassy loop used to identify lsass PIDs

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Commands From MS SQL Server Shell

Detection of some shell commmands run from a cmd executed by Microsoft MS SQL Server. It could be a sign of xp_cmdshell allowed on the MS-SQL server.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Control Process

Detects suspicious execution of control.exe process when used to execute a DLL file.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious DLL Loading By Ordinal

Detects suspicious DLL Loading by ordinal number in a non legitimate or rare folders. For example, Sofacy (APT28) used this technique to load their Trojan in a campaign of 2018.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious DNS Child Process

Detects suspicious processes spawned by the dns.exe process. It could be a great indication of the exploitation of the DNS RCE bug reported in CVE-2020-1350 (SIGRED).

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Desktopimgdownldr Execution

Detects a suspicious Desktopimgdownldr execution. Desktopimgdownldr.exe is a Windows binary used to configure lockscreen/desktop image and can be abused to download malicious file.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Double Extension

Detects suspicious use of an .exe extension after a non-executable file extension like .pdf.exe, a set of spaces or underlines to cloak the executable file in spearphishing campaigns

Effort: advanced

Suspicious File Name

Detects suspicious file name possibly linked to malicious tool.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Finger Usage

Detects suspicious aged finger.exe tool execution often used in malware attacks nowadays. An attacker can use finger to silently retrieve a command, a script or a payload from a remote server. For example, the tool Darkfinger-C2 uses this technique to download files from the C2 channel.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Hangul Word Processor Child Process

Detects suspicious Hangul Word Processor (HWP) child process that could indicate an exploitation as used by the Lazarus APT during the Operation Ghost Puppet (2018). This activity could correspond to a maldoc execution related to a .hwp file. Hangul is a proprietary word processing application that supports the Korean written language.

Effort: elementary

Suspicious Headless Web Browser Execution To Download File

Detects a suspicious command used to execute a Chromium-based web browser (Chrome or Edge) using the headless mode, meaning that the browser window wouldn't be visible, and the dump mode to download a file. This technique can be used to fingerprint the compromised host, in particular by the Ducktail infostealer.

Effort: elementary

Suspicious Microsoft Defender Antivirus Exclusion Command

Detects PowerShell commands aiming to exclude path, process, IP address, or extension from scheduled and real-time scanning. These commands can be used by attackers or malware to avoid being detected by Windows Defender. Depending on the environment and the installed software, this detection rule could raise false positives. We recommend customizing this rule by filtering legitimate processes that use Windows Defender exclusion command in your environment.

Effort: master

Suspicious Mshta Execution

Detects suspicious mshta.exe execution patterns, either involving file polyglotism, remote file (http, ftp or ldap) or suspicious location. This technique is often used by threat actors.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Mshta Execution From Wmi

Detects mshta executed by wmiprvse as parent. It has been used by TA505 with some malicious documents.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Netsh DLL Persistence

Detects persitence via netsh helper. Netsh interacts with other operating system components using dynamic-link library (DLL) files. Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by Netsh Helper DLLs.

Effort: elementary

Suspicious Network Args In Command Line

Detection on some commonly observed suspicious processes command lines using HTTP schema with port 443.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious New Printer Ports In Registry

Detects a suspicious printer port creation in Registry that could be an attempt to exploit CVE-2020-1048. The CVE-2020-1048 consists in gaining persistence, privilege by abusing a flaw in the Print Spooler service to execute a payload whose path is stored in the registry key. To fully use this rule, prerequesites are logging for Registry events in the Sysmon configuration (events 12, 13 and 14).

Effort: master

Suspicious Outlook Child Process

Detects suspicious child processes of Microsoft Outlook. These child processes are often associated with spearphishing activity.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious PROCEXP152.sys File Created In Tmp

Detects the creation of the PROCEXP152.sys file in the application-data local temporary folder. This driver is used by Sysinternals Process Explorer but also by KDU (https://github.com/hfiref0x/KDU) or Ghost-In-The-Logs (https://github.com/bats3c/Ghost-In-The-Logs), which uses KDU. Note - Clever attackers may easily bypass this detection by just renaming the driver filename. Therefore just Medium-level and don't rely on it.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious PowerShell Invocations - Generic

Detects suspicious PowerShell invocation command parameters through command line logging or ScriptBlock Logging.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious PowerShell Invocations - Specific

Detects suspicious PowerShell invocation command parameters.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious PowerShell Keywords

Detects keywords that could indicate the use of some PowerShell exploitation framework.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious PrinterPorts Creation (CVE-2020-1048)

Detects new commands that add new printer port which point to suspicious file

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Process Requiring DLL Starts Without DLL

Detects potential process injection and hollowing on processes that usually require a DLL to be launched, but are launched without any argument.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Regasm Regsvcs Usage

catch abuse of regsvcs and regasm lolbin by attacker

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Regsvr32 Execution

Detects suspicious regsvr32.exe executions, either regsvr32 registering a DLL in an unusual repository (temp/, appdata/ or public/), or regsvr32 executed by an unusual parent process, or regsvr32 executing an unusual process, or regsvr32 registering a media file and not a DLL (as seen in IcedID campaigns), or regsvr32 registering a ocx file in appdata/.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Rundll32.exe Execution

The process rundll32.exe executes a newly dropped DLL with update /i in the command line. This specific technic was observed at least being used by the IcedID loading mechanism dubbed Gziploader.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation

Detects suspicious scheduled task creation, either executed by a non-system user or a user who is not administrator (the user ID is not S-1-5-18 or S-1-5-18-*). This detection rule doesn't match Sysmon EventID 1 because the user SID is always set to S-1-5-18.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious TOR Gateway

Detects suspicious TOR gateways. Gateways are often used by the victim to pay and decrypt the encrypted files without installing TOR. Tor intercepts the network traffic from one or more apps on user’s computer, usually the user web browser, and shuffles it through a number of randomly-chosen computers before passing it on to its destination. This disguises user location, and makes it harder for servers to pick him/her out on repeat visits, or to tie together separate visits to different sites, this making tracking and surveillance more difficult. Before a network packet starts its journey, user’s computer chooses a random list of relays and repeatedly encrypts the data in multiple layers, like an onion. Each relay knows only enough to strip off the outermost layer of encryption, before passing what’s left on to the next relay in the list.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Taskkill Command

Detects rare taskkill command being used. It could be related to Baby Shark malware.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious VBS Execution Parameter

Detects suspicious VBS file execution with a specific parameter by cscript. It was observed in the Operation CloudHopper.

Effort: elementary

Suspicious Windows DNS Queries

Detects a suspicious Windows command-line process making a DNS query via known abuse text paste web services. This is based on Microsoft Windows Sysmon events (Event ID 22).

Effort: advanced

Suspicious Windows Installer Execution

Detects suspicious execution of the Windows Installer service (msiexec.exe) which could be used to install a malicious MSI package hosted on a remote server.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious Windows Script Execution

Detects wscript.exe or cscript.exe executing a script in user directories (C:\ProgramData or C:\Users) with a .txt extension, which is very suspicious. It could strongly correspond to a malware dropper, as seen during SquirrelWaffle maldoc campaign.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious XOR Encoded PowerShell Command Line

Detects suspicious powershell process which includes bxor command, alternative obfuscation method to b64 encoded commands.

Effort: advanced

Suspicious certutil command

Detects suspicious certutil command which can be used by threat actors to download and/or decode payload.

Effort: intermediate

Suspicious desktop.ini Action

Detects unusual processes accessing desktop.ini, which can be leveraged to alter how Explorer displays a folder's content (i.e. renaming files) without changing them on disk.

Effort: advanced

Svchost Modification

Detects the modification of svchost in the registry.

Effort: advanced

Svchost Wrong Parent

Detects if the svchost.exe process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Svchost (Service Host Process) is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs).

Effort: master

Sysprep On AppData Folder

Detects suspicious Sysprep process start with AppData folder as target (as used by Trojan Syndicasec in Thrip report by Symantec). Sysprep is a Windows tool used to change Windows images from a generalized state to a specialized state, and then back to a generalized state. It can be used to remove all system-specific information and reset the computer.

Effort: intermediate

System Info Discovery

System info discovery, attempt to detects basic command use to fingerprint a host.

Effort: master

TOR Usage Generic Rule

Detects TOR usage globally, whether the IP is a destination or source. TOR is short for The Onion Router, and it gets its name from how it works. TOR intercepts the network traffic from one or more apps on user’s computer, usually the user web browser, and shuffles it through a number of randomly-chosen computers before passing it on to its destination. This disguises user location, and makes it harder for servers to pick him/her out on repeat visits, or to tie together separate visits to different sites, this making tracking and surveillance more difficult. Before a network packet starts its journey, user’s computer chooses a random list of relays and repeatedly encrypts the data in multiple layers, like an onion. Each relay knows only enough to strip off the outermost layer of encryption, before passing what’s left on to the next relay in the list.

Effort: master

Taskhost Wrong Parent

Detects if the Taskhost process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Taskhost is the process of the Windows Task Manager which lists the processes that are currently running on the computer system.

Effort: master

Taskhost or Taskhostw Suspicious Child Found

Task Host manages pop-up windows when users try to close them in a Windows environment. Taskhost.exe triggers the host process for the task. Task Host is a Windows process designed to alert users when dialog boxes close. It is usually launched when restarting and shutting down a PC, and checks if all programs have been properly closed. This process should not create a child process or it is very rare.

Effort: master

Taskhostw Wrong Parent

Detects if the Taskhostw process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. Taskhostw is a software component of Windows service start manager, it starts DLL-based Windows services when the computer boots up.

Effort: master

Telegram Bot API Request

Detects suspicious DNS queries to api.telegram.org used by Telegram Bots of any kind

Effort: advanced

Trickbot Malware Activity

Detects Trickbot malware process tree pattern in which rundll32.exe is parent of wermgr.exe.

Effort: intermediate

UAC Bypass Via Sdclt

Detects changes to HKCU\Software\Classes\exefile\shell\runas\command\isolatedCommand by an attacker in order to bypass User Account Control (UAC)

Effort: elementary

Usage Of Procdump With Common Arguments

Detects the usage of Procdump sysinternals tool with some common arguments and followed by common patterns.

Effort: intermediate

Usage Of Sysinternals Tools

Detects the usage of Sysinternals Tools due to accepteula key being added to Registry. The rule detects it either from the command line usage or from the regsitry events. For the later prerequisite is logging for registry events in the Sysmon configuration (events 12 and 13).

Effort: master

Venom Multi-hop Proxy agent detection

Detects Venom Multi-hop Proxy agent.

Effort: intermediate

WCE wceaux.dll Creation

Detects wceaux.dll creation while Windows Credentials Editor (WCE) is executed.

Effort: intermediate

WMI Install Of Binary

Detection of WMI used to install a binary on the host. It is often used by attackers as a signed binary to infect an host.

Effort: elementary

WMI Persistence Script Event Consumer File Write

Detects file writes through WMI script event consumer.

Effort: advanced

WMIC Command To Determine The Antivirus

Detects WMIC command to determine the antivirus on a system, characteristic of the ZLoader malware (and possibly others)

Effort: advanced

WMIC Uninstall Product

Detects products being uninstalled using WMIC command.

Effort: intermediate

WMImplant Hack Tool

WMImplant is a powershell framework used by attacker for reconnaissance and exfiltration, this rule attempts to detect WMimplant arguments and invokes commands.

Effort: intermediate

Wdigest Enable UseLogonCredential

Detects modification of the Windows Registry value of HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\WDigest\UseLogonCredential. This technique is used to extract passwords in clear-text using WDigest. The rule requires to log for Registry Events, which can be done using Sysmon Event IDs 12, 13 and 14.

Effort: elementary

Web Application Launching Shell

Detects when a web application launches a shell.

Effort: master

Webshell Creation

Detects possible webshell file creation. It requires File Creation monitoring, which can be done using Sysmon's Event ID 11. However the recommended SwiftOnSecurity configuration does not fully cover the needs for this rule, it needs to be updated with the proper file names extensions.

Effort: master

WiFi Credentials Harvesting Using Netsh

Detects the harvesting of WiFi credentials using netsh.exe.

Effort: advanced

Windows Firewall Changes

Detects changes on Windows Firewall configuration

Effort: master

Windows Registry Persistence COM Key Linking

Detects COM object hijacking via TreatAs subkey. Logging for Registry events is needed in the Sysmon configuration with this kind of rule <TargetObject name="testr12" condition="end with">\TreatAs\(Default)</TargetObject>.

Effort: master

Windows Update LolBins

This rule try to detect a suspicious behavior of wuauclt.exe (windows update client) that could be a lolbins. Wuauctl.exe could be used to execute a malicious program.

Effort: elementary

Winlogon wrong parent

Winlogon.exe is a process that performs the Windows login management function, handling user login and logout in Windows. You see this process in action whenever the operating system asks you for your username and password. It is also responsible for loading user profiles after login, this supports automated login (when relevant) and keyboard and mouse inactivity monitoring to decide when to invoke the screen saver. This rule analyse if the parent of this process is a legitimate one or not.

Effort: master

Winword Document Droppers

Detects specific process characteristics of word document droppers. This techniques has been used by Maze ransomware operators.

Effort: elementary

Wmic Process Call Creation

The WMI command-line (WMIC) utility provides a command-line interface for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). WMIC is compatible with existing shells and utility commands. Although WMI is supposed to be an administration tool, it is wildy abused by threat actors. One of the reasons is WMI is quite stealthy. This rule detects the wmic command line launching a process on a remote or local host.

Effort: intermediate

Wmic Service Call

Detects either remote or local code execution using wmic tool.

Effort: intermediate

Wsmprovhost Wrong Parent

Detects if the Wsmprovhost process was executed by a non-legitimate parent process. The PowerShell host wsmprovhost.exe is a proxy process executed remotely through PowerShell when using Windows Remote Management (WinRM).

Effort: master

XCopy Suspicious Usage

Detects the usage of xcopy with suspicious command line options (used by Judgment Panda APT in the past). The rule is based on command line only in case xcopy is renamed.

Effort: advanced

XSL Script Processing And SquiblyTwo Attack

Detection of an attack where adversaries may bypass application control and obscure execution of code by embedding scripts inside XSL files. Another variation of this technique, dubbed "Squiblytwo", involves to invoke JScript or VBScript within an XSL file.

Effort: intermediate

xWizard Execution

Detects the execution of Xwizard tool with specific arguments which utilized to run custom class properties.

Effort: master

Event Categories

The following table lists the data source offered by this integration.

Data Source	Description
`Binary file metadata`	to be defined
`Disk forensics`	to be defined
`File monitoring`	to be defined
`Host network interface`	to be defined
`Kernel drivers`	to be defined
`Loaded DLLs`	to be defined
`Named Pipes`	to be defined
`PowerShell logs`	to be defined
`Process command-line parameters`	to be defined
`Process monitoring`	to be defined
`Process use of network`	to be defined
`Services`	to be defined
`Windows event logs`	to be defined
`Windows Registry`	registry auditing events are examined in detail
`WMI Objects`	Windows WMI Activity events are analyzed, and events related to WMI process too

In details, the following table denotes the type of events produced by this integration.

Name	Values
Kind	`event`
Category	`file`, `network`, `process`, `registry`
Type	`allowed`, `change`, `creation`, `deletion`, `end`, `info`, `start`

Transformed Events Samples after Ingestion

This section demonstrates how the raw logs will be transformed by our parsers. It shows the extracted fields that will be available for use in the built-in detection rules and hunting activities in the events page. Understanding these transformations is essential for analysts to create effective detection mechanisms with custom detection rules and to leverage the full potential of the collected data.

tanium_file_open.jsontanium_network_connect.jsontanium_process_start.json

{
    "message": "{\"event\":\"file_open\",\"hostname\":\"2256269043\",\"host\":\"172.16.2.1\",\"fields\":{\"tanium_process_id\":\"-6966335309415971179\",\"read_flag\":true,\"full_path\":\"/var/lib/rrdcached/db/pve2-vm/115\",\"process__login__user_id\":4294967295,\"process__login__user_name\":null,\"process__pid\":1685,\"process__user__group\":\"root\",\"process__file__full_path\":\"/usr/bin/rrdcached\",\"process__user__name\":\"root\"}}",
    "event": {
        "action": "file-open",
        "category": [
            "file"
        ],
        "kind": "event",
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "file": {
        "directory": "/var/lib/rrdcached/db/pve2-vm",
        "name": "115",
        "path": "/var/lib/rrdcached/db/pve2-vm/115"
    },
    "group": {
        "name": "root"
    },
    "host": {
        "hostname": "2256269043",
        "ip": [
            "172.16.2.1"
        ],
        "name": "2256269043"
    },
    "observer": {
        "name": "2256269043",
        "product": "XEM",
        "type": "sensor",
        "vendor": "Tanium"
    },
    "process": {
        "executable": "/usr/bin/rrdcached",
        "name": "rrdcached",
        "pid": 1685
    },
    "related": {
        "hosts": [
            "2256269043"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "172.16.2.1"
        ]
    },
    "user": {
        "id": "4294967295"
    }
}

{
    "message": "{\"event\":\"network_connect\",\"hostname\":\"2421864415\",\"host\":\"172.16.2.1\",\"fields\":{\"remote_port\":80,\"process__login__user_name\":null,\"process__pid\":2540,\"process__user__group\":\"NT AUTHORITY\",\"local_ip\":\"172.16.4.1\",\"local_port\":53671,\"process__file__full_path\":\"C:\\\\Windows\\\\System32\\\\svchost.exe\",\"tanium_process_id\":\"-4314545011392247632\",\"process__login__user_id\":0,\"remote_ip\":\"184.25.50.65\",\"process__user__name\":\"NETWORK SERVICE\"}}",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "kind": "event",
        "type": [
            "start"
        ]
    },
    "destination": {
        "address": "184.25.50.65",
        "ip": "184.25.50.65",
        "port": 80
    },
    "group": {
        "name": "NT AUTHORITY"
    },
    "host": {
        "hostname": "2421864415",
        "ip": [
            "172.16.2.1"
        ],
        "name": "2421864415"
    },
    "observer": {
        "name": "2421864415",
        "product": "XEM",
        "type": "sensor",
        "vendor": "Tanium"
    },
    "process": {
        "executable": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe",
        "name": "svchost.exe",
        "pid": 2540
    },
    "related": {
        "hosts": [
            "2421864415"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "172.16.2.1",
            "172.16.4.1",
            "184.25.50.65"
        ]
    },
    "source": {
        "address": "172.16.4.1",
        "ip": "172.16.4.1",
        "port": 53671
    },
    "user": {
        "id": "0"
    }
}

{
    "message": "{\"event\":\"process_start\",\"hostname\":\"1345671024\",\"host\":\"172.16.2.1\",\"fields\":{\"file__md5\":\"8ed54b7dcf043252441bca716b8c461f\",\"tanium_parent_process_id\":\"-6966498655612172786\",\"create_time\":\"2021-07-15T13:47:13.084000+00:00\",\"parent__command_line\":\"pve-firewall\",\"file__full_path\":\"/usr/sbin/ipset\",\"tanium_process_id\":\"-6166594163916654264\",\"pid\":14664,\"login__user_name\":null,\"command_line\":\"ipset save\",\"login__user_id\":4294967295,\"parent__file__full_path\":\"/usr/bin/perl\",\"user__name\":\"root\",\"parent_pid\":1550,\"user__group\":\"root\"}}",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "process"
        ],
        "kind": "event",
        "type": [
            "start"
        ]
    },
    "file": {
        "directory": "/usr/sbin",
        "name": "ipset",
        "path": "/usr/sbin/ipset"
    },
    "host": {
        "hostname": "1345671024",
        "ip": [
            "172.16.2.1"
        ],
        "name": "1345671024"
    },
    "observer": {
        "name": "1345671024",
        "product": "XEM",
        "type": "sensor",
        "vendor": "Tanium"
    },
    "process": {
        "command_line": "ipset save",
        "executable": "/usr/sbin/ipset",
        "hash": {
            "md5": "8ed54b7dcf043252441bca716b8c461f"
        },
        "parent": {
            "command_line": "pve-firewall",
            "executable": "/usr/bin/perl",
            "name": "perl",
            "pid": 1550
        },
        "start": "2021-07-15T13:47:13.084000Z"
    },
    "related": {
        "hash": [
            "8ed54b7dcf043252441bca716b8c461f"
        ],
        "hosts": [
            "1345671024"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "172.16.2.1"
        ]
    }
}

Extracted Fields

The following table lists the fields that are extracted, normalized under the ECS format, analyzed and indexed by the parser. It should be noted that infered fields are not listed.

Name	Type	Description
`destination.ip`	`ip`	IP address of the destination.
`destination.port`	`long`	Port of the destination.
`dns.answers`	`object`	Array of DNS answers.
`dns.question.name`	`keyword`	The name being queried.
`event.action`	`keyword`	The action captured by the event.
`event.category`	`keyword`	Event category. The second categorization field in the hierarchy.
`event.kind`	`keyword`	The kind of the event. The highest categorization field in the hierarchy.
`event.type`	`keyword`	Event type. The third categorization field in the hierarchy.
`file.directory`	`keyword`	Directory where the file is located.
`file.name`	`keyword`	Name of the file including the extension, without the directory.
`file.path`	`keyword`	Full path to the file, including the file name.
`group.name`	`keyword`	Name of the group.
`host.hostname`	`keyword`	Hostname of the host.
`host.ip`	`ip`	Host ip addresses.
`observer.name`	`keyword`	Custom name of the observer.
`observer.product`	`keyword`	The product name of the observer.
`observer.type`	`keyword`	The type of the observer the data is coming from.
`observer.vendor`	`keyword`	Vendor name of the observer.
`process.command_line`	`wildcard`	Full command line that started the process.
`process.executable`	`keyword`	Absolute path to the process executable.
`process.hash.md5`	`keyword`	MD5 hash.
`process.name`	`keyword`	Process name.
`process.parent.command_line`	`wildcard`	Full command line that started the process.
`process.parent.executable`	`keyword`	Absolute path to the process executable.
`process.parent.name`	`keyword`	Process name.
`process.parent.pid`	`long`	Process id.
`process.pid`	`long`	Process id.
`process.start`	`date`	The time the process started.
`registry.path`	`keyword`	Full path, including hive, key and value
`registry.value`	`keyword`	Name of the value written.
`source.ip`	`ip`	IP address of the source.
`source.port`	`long`	Port of the source.
`user.id`	`keyword`	Unique identifier of the user.
`user.name`	`keyword`	Short name or login of the user.

For more information on the Intake Format, please find the code of the Parser, Smart Descriptions, and Supported Events here.